Story originally printed in the Onalaska Life or online at www.onalaskalife.com

Published - Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Last dance: For Holmen pair, annual spring recital is a bit bittersweet

Katherine Weber, left, and Katie (Mumau) Bjerke, right, will take part in the last recital this weekend with longtime dance teacher Julie Austin. Photo by Randy Erickson

By RANDY ERICKSON | Editor

For a dance school owner, there’s probably nothing more stressful than the end-of-the-year recital. There’s a hundred little details to attend to, from costumes and music to lighting and programs. For Julie Austin, though, this year there’s a bit of sadness thrown in with the stress.

The Julie’s School of Dance recitals this weekend will be the end of the line for two students of Austin who have practically been fixtures since they were little. For Katie (Mumau) Bjerke and Katherine Weber, this is their last recital.

Bjerke started taking dance lessons when she was 6 at the Marilyn School of Dance in downtown La Crosse, a long haul from home near Drugan’s. That school was owned by Marilyn Wood, Austin’s mother, and Austin was a teacher there before starting her own dance school in Holmen almost 12 years ago.

As a third-grader, Weber was among the first students at Julie’s School of Dance when it opened in Holmen.

Both Bjerke and Weber graduated from taking lessons to giving them, Bjerke three years ago and Weber last year. Now, though, they’re getting so busy they have decided to hang up their dance shoes, and Saturday’s recital is their last hurrah.

Bjerke is going back to school for nursing, and Weber has become very busy as a junior vocal music student at Viterbo University. Weber leaves at 5:45 the morning after the recital for a master class in Indiana, and she’ll be spending a lot of time this summer preparing for her audition with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Over the years, Austin’s relationship with the two has evolved from teacher to second mother to friend and confidant. Austin has many memories of them over the years, like the time Bjerke was in her first recital, bedecked in pastel ruffles, and she got all worked up onstage because her fellow dancers weren’t circling up like they were supposed to.

Bjerke was always the more talkative of the two in classes, although part of that could be that Weber was always a couple years younger than the other dancers in her classes because she advanced so quickly.

“I always had a story about cats,” Bjerke said with a laugh.

Bjerke also had a tendency to fall down onstage during recitals, a habit she thinks she might finally break with this last recital.

One thing Bjerke and Weber have in common is they both one pageant titles. Bjerke was Miss La Crosse Oktoberfest, and Weber was Miss Holmen.

Austin has been teaching dance for at least 30 years and always remembers her former dancers’ names when she runs into them years later, but she said she’ll always have special memories of Bjerke and Weber. They both feel the same about Austin, which will make the recital this weekend very emotional for the three.

“It’s bittersweet,” Bjerke said. “I’m excited to be moving on ... but it’s really hard to leave something that has been a part of my life since 6 years old.”

AT A GLANCE