After 6 decades, Laurel Ballet founder closes school doors
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After more than six decades of training ballet students, Eleanor Tornblom, owner and artistic director of Laurel Ballet in Greensburg, is calling it a career and closing her studio doors.
“I’m 83, and I’ve done this all my life,” Tornblom said from her Greensburg home. “It’s over, and that’s a good thing for me.
“I don’t have the energy any more,” she said. “I haven’t danced for probably 10 years. I sit and I talk and I teach that way.”
Pandemic restrictions on gathering sizes and live performances also played into Tornblom’s decision.
From her first lessons at age 6, Tornblom quickly developed an interest in — and talent for — teaching.
“I was trained to teach, and that suited me just fine,” she said. “I was not someone who enjoyed performing.”
The Westmoreland City native opened Eleanor’s Dance Studio in 1957 and renamed it Laurel Ballet in 1974, after narrowing offerings from many dance styles to just her first love.
The company’s annual performances of “The Nutcracker,” staged in The Palace Theatre with student and professional dancers and live accompaniment by the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, have long been a staple of Greensburg’s holiday season celebration.
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“Above anything, it’s unfortunate to hear this about an organization that’s been a fixture in the community for so many years,” said WSO Executive Director Endy Reindl. “Their 26 years of presenting ‘The Nutcracker’ is no small thing.
“From the Ohio line to Philadelphia, there is no other live orchestrated ‘Nutcracker,’ ” he said. “The fact that the tradition carried on so long says a lot about the strength of our arts community.”
Tornblom recently has developed a relationship with Toni Bazala, owner of Pazaz Christian Dance Academy in Greensburg, which offers training in all forms of dance, from ballet to hip-hop.
“She reached out to me and said she was closing. She donated a good bit of stuff to us, props and costumes, and we bought some other things,” Bazala said. “We quickly became good friends, and I feel like she’s become a mentor to me.
“I didn’t know her before, but I knew about her,” Bazala said. “She created the dance community here. Her dancers were so well trained, and I wanted my dancers to be as good as hers.”
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Bazala says Tornblom may teach some master classes for Pazaz students.
Bazala also intends to keep the holiday “Nutcracker” tradition alive. She has reserved The Palace for performances on Dec. 12-13, if pandemic restrictions allow the theater to reopen to audiences by then. Her alternate performance site is Word of Life Church in Hempfield.
“We’ll be doing it with lots of direction from Eleanor, I’m sure,” Bazala said. “She calls me and gives me advice.”
Through the years, thousands of students passed through the doors of Laurel Ballet, Tornblom says, many of whom have gone on to careers in dance and teaching. Among the instructors were her daughters, Judy Rae Tubbs and Joy Uschak. Tubbs, who went on to found the Westmoreland Ballet Company, did choreography, and Uschak did costuming.
“I spent my entire youth into my later years helping to build Laurel Ballet,” Tubbs said. “It was a huge part of my life and I’m genuinely sorry to see it end this way. But because of the strength of this community, ballet will continue.”
“I’ve done nothing in my adult life but work to keep ballet alive in Greensburg,” Tornblom said. “I know it’s a little thing, it’s just ballet — but it was a good thing.”