Ballet in the Countryside

Pirouette through the Tulips

By Dominique Agnew

Originally Published in the Monocacy Monocle, VolumeIII, Number 14, October 20, 2006

Fran Ichijo has a dream. In her dream, young children and aspiring ballet dancers do not have to go to the big cities to further their training to reach their dreams and goals. Instead of driving to Frederick or Baltimore or Washington, D.C. or New York, students of ballet will drive to Poolesville, become accomplished dancers, and dance for major ballet companies. Fran has this dream, and she plans on making it a reality—something she has done before.

Fran Drayton Ichijo grew up dancing ballet in Pennsylvania. She eventually made her way to New York where she studied with the now-defunct American Ballet Theater School with Patricia Wilde. She had already completed her four-year degree in dance and art at Hamilton College. Then the adventure began. A woman came to New York “looking for brave souls”—Fran says laughing—who could not only dance, but who could teach ballet. The two skills would be necessary to start a ballet company. Brave Fran left New York for Seoul, Korea where she helped found the Universal Ballet Company. While there for eight years, she danced, she taught, and she established this company which is not only still in existence but is known throughout the ballet world. Many of her pupils went on to become professional dancers—soloists and principals—for such companies as the Ohio Ballet, the Atlanta Ballet, the Universal Ballet Company, and Stuttgart. “That’s my hope again,” she says.

Since her years in Seoul, Fran has married, raised a family (and some horses), all the while teaching ballet for local dance studios. Eight years ago, Fran opened the doors of Hope Garden Ballet, naming it after the farm she and her husband owned in Dickerson until a few years ago. She had wondered why ballet always had to be in the city, and she wanted ballet in the country. “The beauty of the country lends itself to creative thought,” she explains. She runs the ballet studio out of the Healthworks Fitness Center building where she began with only three students. She now has forty students who put on two productions each year at the high school in December and May. “Of course, I’m impassioned by ballet,” she says, and she’s not reticent about explaining why. Ballet has everything. It is artistic with line and beauty; it is athletic, musical, requires knowledge of anatomy to get the most out of the body, and it instills discipline which helps build character. “I don’t teach just to make money,” she says. She teaches to build characters and discipline in life.

As many know, ballet can be grueling practice and repetition, but Fran loves it, and easily shares her love. “I’m very joyful in my teaching,” she says, but don’t think she’s lax on technique. “I love technique,” she adds. “I love to have perfect technique.” If a dancer has lousy technique, it takes away from the artistry. Fran’s insistence on technique and her infectious passion have paid off for the girls. Two nine-year-olds auditioned for and were asked to dance in this year’s performance of the Nutcracker by the Joffrey Ballet at the Kennedy Center, November 22 to November 26. Veronica Contreras and Brooke O’Connell, both of Poolesville, were selected for this honor after auditioning in the nine-to-thirteen age group. Fran has other students in the same age group who were also ready, but the performances will take place over the Thanksgiving weekend, causing conflicts in their schedules. “They are really talented,” says Fran of the girls. “Talent has nothing to do with me,” she adds, but she can train them. Teaching ballet, Fran says, “is about creating beauty and goodness.”

The nine-year-olds are her oldest dancers because her studio in Poolesville is too small. Here is where her dream has been hindered. “My problem is space,” she says simply. “I need a bigger studio.” She has had to send former students to the Maryland Youth Ballet in Bethesda. They need room to leap, and they need room to learn pas de deux. The Hope Garden Ballet is ready to make the leap to the big studio. Fran is willing to rent or build a studio, and she has many former students on whom she can call to help teach to expand the program—and parents of her students agree. Robin O’Connell says, “Brooke loves, loves, loves Miss Fran. She is kind and gentle with the children.” Robin hopes somehow a space will come available before her daughter outgrows the studio. “[Fran] is phenomenal,” she says. “She’s just a gem.”