By Diane Urbani de la Paz
For Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Mary Marcial, a slim, dark-tressed dancer from Chicago, came to Port Angeles to, as she puts it, “jump into the unknown.”
What she didn’t know was that other dancers would flock to her — by the score — for classes in ballet, jazz dance and musical theater. They rehearsed together in snug spaces: the basement of the Elks Naval Lodge, the loft above the old Bonnie’s Bakery on Lincoln Street.
Today, some 27 years later, Marcial is beloved as the woman who founded the Port Angeles Dance Center, and the teacher who shepherded dancers age 4 through 18 through their childhoods.
And now, as she prepares to stage the spring showcase, Marcial is leaping again into the mystic.
She’s “retiring,” though she uses her hands to draw large air quotes around the word.
“I’m exploring, seeing what’s out there,” Marcial said in an interview last week at the center after a full day of teaching.
“My choices have been driven by this,” she added, motioning toward the well-traveled dance floor, flanked by mirrors and a ballet barre.
Marcial’s life has revolved around her classes, her choreography and her students. At her peak, she was teaching 12 to 15 classes per week, Mondays through Fridays, for preschoolers on up to high school seniors.
With her husband, Narciso Marcial, she raised two daughters, Catalina and Adriana, now both in their 20s. They grew up dancing at the center, and these days, Adriana’s daughter, Amara, 10, is a student here.
Marcial has one more big show to do: “Gotta Dance,” the multi-genre production in the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., on Saturday.
Curtain time is 7 p.m. in the theater, which is much smaller than the annual show’s previous venue, the Port Angeles High School auditorium.
Dancers and audience members will be much better able to see one another, said Marcial, smiling. She can scarcely wait for that.
Ticket availability
Tickets to the show, which has her dancers performing to hip-hop, Latin pop, Broadway, classical and beyond, are $12 for adults, $8 for students and seniors, and free for children 6 and younger.
The Port Angeles Dance Center’s ballet, jazz and musical theater students will appear — along with two illustrious alumnae: Cami Ortloff, 18, and Elizabeth Helwick, 22.
Ortloff has just completed two years at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet in New York City. She took her first dance classes with Marcial. Helwick graduated this spring with a Bachelor of Science in dance from the University of Idaho.
At the end of June, the Port Angeles Dance Center will close.
“I still love to dance,” Marcial said. “I still love to teach,” but she is so ready to liberate herself from the daily schedule.
Dancing is about freedom, after all: freedom from gravity and doubt, if only for a moment. As Macklemore sings in the finale of Saturday’s show, “the ceiling can’t hold us.”
Marcial revels in the choreographic process, so she can see herself bringing a bunch of dancers together sometime, somewhere.
“Come up with ideas and just dance: That’s what I’d like to do. Just rent a space” to perform.
If you must use an “R” word to describe what Marcial is about to do, reinventing is “where I’m at,” she said.
Which hearkens to another song in the spring show: Shakira’s “Try Everything.”
Yes, Marcial looks forward to having time to play with her grandchildren. She can also imagine volunteering at a school. But right now, it’s all up in the air.
As soon as Marcial announced her decision on the Port Angeles Dance Center’s Facebook page in late May, dozens of friends posted comments. Some told her she had taught them not just about dancing but about life. Others simply said, “Love you, Mary.”
Adriana read these comments to her mother, admitting she wondered if they might sway her resolve.
To this, Marcial said it felt great knowing she made a difference to her students, yet “I’m still happy with my decision.”
Is there anything else she’d like her dancers to know?
“It’s just been great,” Marcial said.
“I couldn’t have asked for more.”
________
Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Angeles.
Mary Marcial, right, and her daughter Catalina Gonzalez have worked together at the Port Angeles Dance Center for two decades. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/for Peninsula Daily News)
Mary Marcial helps out her granddaughter, Amara Gonzalez. (Jessie Young)
