Legendary teacher found calling in ballet

By Andy Morgan

Little girls — nearly all in pink leotards — and the occasional little boy ricochet through the after-school crowds at the Harry Stone Recreation Center. They’re all headed to the center’s dance room to take their ballet class, one that’s been taught on most Tuesdays and Thursdays for more than 40 years by the same teacher.

“Where are your ballet slips?” asks Miss Jon Fewell, between chatting with parents and welcoming her students. “And your water should be in your ballet bag. Just remind your mom to put it in there for you next time.”

Miss Jon — as she is known by her students, their parents and the center’s staff — began teaching ballet and tap to children and adults in 1983. In East Dallas, she is legendary, a marvel among the hundreds of students who’ve taken her classes.

“When I first started taking from Miss Jon, I immediately thought, ‘She is a great ballet teacher,’” said Amy Seo, a ballet parent and adult student. “She’s a great among greats.”

On a recent Tuesday, Miss Jon wears black leggings and a black top. Her hair is pulled back tight and she moves her thin arms and fingers in graceful sweeps. An observer could imagine her instructing her students with the same zeal today as when she began.

During this class, it’s the parents’ turn to participate, a technique Miss Jon adopted long ago. The mothers, no fathers, line up as told with their children. Miss Jon moves effortlessly across the shiny wooden floors. Sometimes, she holds hands with the children. Sometimes, she holds her chin and watches.

Miss Jon did not grow up dancing. She was a grown-up before she ever stepped into her first ballet slipper. She also was an executive assistant at a local engineering firm and a divorced mother caring for six children.

From that original family, there are now 16 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. And possibly more on the way.

A stopover in Dallas

She didn’t arrive in Dallas until 1968, traveling cross country with her then-husband, a U.S. Airman, and their five children. Their destination was California, and then on to northern Af rica, where he was to be stationed.

“We stopped here to see my sister and she was sick,” Miss Jon recalled. “She had a little girl. And when it was time to go, I couldn’t leave her. So the children and I stayed. And we never left.”

Her husband went on to Africa and, in that interim, Miss Jon’s sister died of leukemia at just 22. Miss Jon helped with the care and raising of her niece.

Miss Jon grew up in North Cambridge, Mass. She and her brothers learned piano. And while she was fascinated with ballet and dance, it was a dream delayed. She had hoped to be an attorney, but after high school, she married and began having children. 

“Every other year, there was a baby,” she said. “I didn’t wear clothes for years, let alone shoes. I was pregnant. What can I say? A good Catholic. He said to go forth and multiply.”

She found work as a clerk through a temporary agency at a local engineering firm and was accepted into a management degree program at Dallas College. 

“I did that for three years,” she said. “Took care of my children. I would leave work and go to school. Leave work and go to school. I used to play softball and football. I played the games that they played. Whatever they did, I did.”

A new brain for ballet

And then one night at Eastfield College, she took a wrong turn and ended up in the gym. “There were young women dancing,” she said. “They were taking class. And I said, ‘I can do that.’ So I watched the rest of the class and after it was over, I talked to the teacher and she told me just how to sign up to take ballet.”

Miss Jon continued to work full-time and take ballet classes off and on. “Little did I know this is what I was supposed to do,” she said. “It was like a calling.”

Miss Jon and a coworker began taking tap lessons twice a week at Richland College. From there, she took ballet and tap classes regularly at different local dance schools, sometimes even learning with 10- and 11-year-old children.

“It expanded my mind,” she said. “I had a new brain. You have to think of it that way, if you ever step into anything you’ve always loved, but never thought you’d be a part of it.”

When one dance teacher told her she was offering adult tap classes, Miss Jon called anyone she knew who liked to dance. They formed their own adult class. 

“So there were six people in our tap class and we tapped,” she laughed. “We tapped and tapped and tapped and tapped. I love it. I love it.”

One evening, the instructor asked Miss Jon to take over the tap class so she could attend an event with her daughter. “I said, ‘You want me to do it?’ ” Miss Jon recalled. “She said that and I thought I was going to die.”

Not long after that, Miss Jon earned her teaching certification from the Texas Association of Teachers of Dance and began her extended stay at Harry Stone.

A high standard of teaching

When she’s not teaching, she volunteers at the Dallas Zoo and other nonprofits. She works out at a local gym and also takes yoga classes. But her passion is for teaching.

“I love it,” she admits. “Whatever you do, if you don’t love it and enjoy what you do, don’t do it.”

Her students and their parents seem to love it, too. 

Laura Perkins, the mother of Ira, the only boy in class, said she brought her sons to the rec center to sign up for classes. When Ira, who is 4, heard about the ballet class, he asked to join.

“Miss Jon holds the kids to a high standard,” Perkins said. “She gives them really high-quality instruction.” Her two older sons have now asked if they can take ballet, she said.

At the start of the class, Miss Jon comforts a little girl worried about falling. 

“You’re not going to get hurt,” she says in a calming voice. “Nobody’s going to cry. You don’t cry in ballet. You know why? Because we don’t run in ballet. That’s why we just do the ballet walk.”

And that’s when the children line up along a mirrored wall, stand very straight and tall, and walk along the perimeter of the dance room. 

“Good job!” Miss Jon says. “Keep going!”

Miss Jon said that how long a student stays with her classes is up to the child and the parents. “They can go as far as they want to go,” she said. “They have to want to come in here and learn ballet and learn to tap. And I make it learnable for them and make it fun for them.” 

She added that two of her grandchildren have taken her classes. One of them, a grandson, later made the varsity basketball team at his school. 

“That’s because he came here and he learned how to jump,” she said.

  Featured