Greenville & Hockessin Life Summer 2021

Summer 2021

Magazine

The Extraordinary Resilience of

Joe Biden Page 44

Inside: • Delaware Museum of Nature and Science • Behind the Lens: Delaware Photographic Society

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Greenville & Hockessin Life Summer 2021

Greenville and Hockessin Life Table of Contents 10 Aces of harps 16 Behind the lens 26 A Greenville museum evolves 36 Greenville and Hockessin:

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Small towns with a big history

44 Photo essay: The extraordinary resilience of Joe Biden

50 Q & A with Dr. Tamara Blossic 60 Mid-Atlantic Ballet 8

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Greenville & Hockessin Life Summer 2021 Letter from the Editor:

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We’re very pleased to present a photo essay titled “The extraordinary resilience of Joe Biden” in this issue of Greenville & Hockessin Life, the first one since Delaware’s favorite son was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Through the years, the stories of Joseph Robinette Biden have become ours, burned into the folklore of Delaware like trusted fables placed on a bookshelf. We hope you enjoy this photo essay featuring the work of Moonloop Photography and words by Richard L. Gaw. This issue also features a story with details about the Delaware Museum of Natural History’s evolution into the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science. The “nature” will lead visitors to trails and other features outside, while the “science” will include the spotlight on local research, opportunities to be citizen scientists, chances to see the science going on upstairs and curriculum-based programming for schoolchildren of all ages.

Interaction will be front and center when the transformation is complete.

In “Aces of harps,” writer Ken Mammarella writes about Greenville siblings Valentina and Andrés Ramos, who have won multiple honors for their skill with the strings.

Another story features several local members of the Delaware Photographic Society who share some favorite images, stories and tips.

While Greenville and Hockessin may appear to those casually passing through them to be quiet ‘bedroom” communities with little history to discover, the two small towns in northern Delaware actually have quite a bit of history to explore.

Writer Gene Pisasale has a story that explores how, between these two small towns, there are two renowned museums, an agricultural center, numerous sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as a nearby school named for one of the most famous entertainers of the 20th century.

For the past three decades, Dr. Tamara Blossic and her team at Hockessin Chiropractic Care have been helping generations of patients in Hockessin, Greenville and beyond achieve pain relief and better health with quality chiropractic care. Recently, Dr. Blossic sat down with Greenville & Hockessin Life to talk about what led her to chiropractic care, the “Healing from the Core” philosophy, the author she’d like to invite to her dinner party, and much more.

We hope you enjoy these stories and we’re already hard at work planning the next issue of Greenville & Hockessin Life that will arrive in the fall of 2021. If you have any suggestions for stories for that issue, please contact us.

Sincerely, Randy Lieberman, Publisher randyl@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553 Steve Hoffman, Editor editor@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553, Ext. 13 Cover Design: Tricia Hoadley Cover photo: Moonloop Photography www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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|Greenville people|

Aces of harps Valentina Ramos tunes and positions the harp.

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Andrés Ramos in the music room.

Greenville siblings Valentina and Andrés Ramos have won multiple honors for their skill with the strings

All photos courtesy of Jennie Hon

Andrés and Valentina Ramos with harp teacher Anne Sullivan and two of their many awards after a 2019 Philadelphia competition.

By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer Valentina and Andrés Ramos have stellar skills in plucking, strumming, glissing, pushing, knocking and telling stories. The Greenville siblings – she’s 13 and he’s 12 – are award-winning harp players.

“Music is not just plucking notes,” said their mother, Jennie Hon. “It’s creating a story,” Andrés said.

“Every note is a word,” Valentina said, “and the markings are grammar and punctuation.”

Valentina’s résumé already includes 28 awards for playing the harp and piano. Andrés’ résumé includes 11 for playing the harp. Both have earned scholarships and invitations to play at Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall.

“We really want to share the story of how we coped in the lockdown,” Valentina said, adding that they are particularly pleased that they participated in Zoom recitals for retirement communities and created a 31-minute video to Continued on Page 12

Andrés Ramos makes a thank you video to jury members after winning second laureate on the harp at a virtual competition hosted by Bled, Slovenia.

The poster translates his speech. www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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Valentina and Andrés Ramos Continued from Page 11

better showcase their work for those especially vulnerable seasoned citizens. “We also want to inspire other young musicians and bring joy and hope to the world.”

“It has been a year of finding independence, discipline and empathy for these two youngsters,” Hon said in a post by the Sanford School, where her children just finished seventh grade.

Grit, tears and blisters Valentina’s first competition was in Philadelphia on the piano, when she was 9, just two years after she started lessons. “I felt I was going to ‘America’s Got Talent,’” she recalled.

They did well in multiple local competitions, until the pandemic moved the process to livestreaming or on video.

On the plus side, it opened up more competitions, including ones organized in France, Slovenia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Switzerland. On the minus side: “They’re more difficult, because a judge can rewind and replay and zoom in to check your form,” Hon said.

“As their mother, I can attest to you that it is not without grit, tears of determination and finger blisters for Andrés

Andrés Ramos in one of his virtual guitar lessons.

and Valentina to achieve the results of today. To be able to expand on their music to comfort others during the pandemic was an unexpected blessing,” she said.

“Winning a couple of competitions can be perceived as being lucky,” she said. “That’s why we have continued to enter more competitions with challenging requirements.

We want to prove we have what it takes. (For example,

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Natalia Varlashova teaches with the entire body. Proper posture and hand positions are musts for artistic expression and technique.

learning a repertoire of multiple pieces chosen by the judges or playing contrasting pieces from different periods to show diverse skills.)

“We are proud to have been one of a very few winners from the USA. Many competitions have had up to 23 countries participating.”

Playing the harp has led to “a lot of suffering because of blisters,” Hon said, noting an ice bath sometimes helps with blisters. By contrast, a heating pad helps muscles relax.

Sometimes, while waiting to perform, the siblings often apply both heat and ice to sore muscles.

How it all began The music room in the Ramos home now has two harps, an extended upright piano and an electronic baby grand piano with computer connections and recording functions.

The black lever harp is a Troubadour by Lyon & Healy, 5-foot-1 and 38 pounds, with the 36 strings covering five octaves and a Sitka spruce sound board for what Hon called “a crisp full sound.”

The gold pedal harp is an Iris by Salvi, 6 feet tall and 86 pounds, with 47 strings covering seven octaves and a “richer” sound. The Iris dwarfs the players: Andres is 5’ 3” and Valentina stands at 4’ 9”.

A lever harp has levers that control sharps and flats, one for each string. A pedal harp has seven pedals, with three levels for all the sharps and flats.

Their love of the harp began when Valentina was 9, and she asked Natalia Varlashova, her piano teacher and a harpist, to try the harp. That Christmas, their parents, Hon and attorney Marcos Ramos, bought the first harp.

Continued on Page 14 www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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Valentina and Andrés Ramos Continued from Page 13

Hon asked Andrés, who was learning the guitar, if he wanted to try the harp as well. Of course.

Varlashova continues piano lessons, and they now work on their harp skills with Anne Sullivan.

School comes first All three family members emphasized how school always comes before music.

And even though they want to share their music as a message of hope, they’re not that talkative about it at school.

“We don’t want to come across as bragging,” Andrés said.

“They know we play music, but we don’t talk about the competitions,” Valentina added.

At Sanford, Valentina and Andrés take English and French together, and they’re both in the chorus.

They have music lessons two hours a week. They work on practicing when they can, and they feel that classes moving online has given them more time to develop their music.

They used that time to create performance videos, with Hon as director, writer, editor and lighting technician, effectively what she called “a one-man band.” Go to https://

youtu.be/-Gcdl8K_aGw. Queen Elizabeth and Joe Biden Both siblings prefer classical music when they want to listen to music. “And Yanni!” Valentina said, adding that they’ve seen him perform as well.

Outside of music, Andrés enjoys playing Minecraft, learning about global history and governments, playing tennis and creating Lego architecture.

Valentina enjoys eating, cooking, playing tennis, reading and playing Roblox.

Once travel is easier, they look forward to fulfilling performance opportunities won in their competitions, Valentina in Slovenia and Andrés in Carnegie Hall. And they’re dreaming beyond that.

Valentina said she would like to perform for Queen Elizabeth II. “Maybe I could cheer her up,” she said, referring to the recent death of the Queen’s husband, Prince Phillip.

“Any president at the White House,” Andrés added. “Mr. Biden, if you need me, I am available. Call me!”

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Valentina Ramos has earned 28 awards for playing the harp and piano.

The ice is for blisters, the heating pad to relax muscles.

It’s not easy to move harps, as shown before a competition at Temple University. One of the family’s harps is 5-foot-1 and 38 pounds; the other is 6 feet and 86 pounds.

www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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|In the Spotlight| Several local members of the Delaware Photographic Society share some favorite images, stories and tips

By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer The Delaware Photographic Society was organized as the Delaware Camera Club in 1931, making it one of America’s oldest camera clubs.

“Our mission at DPS is to encourage and develop interest in photography, in all its phases, from a pastime, to a fine art,” it says on www. delawarephotographicsociety.org. “We provide regular meetings at which members, and the public, may meet leaders in the photographic field. … We exchange ideas, provide instruction for one another and exhibit our work.”

The Delaware Photographic Society engages photographers to share their work with the community through the Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography, monthly club competitions, local exhibitions, instruction, field trips, lectures and other programs. Sometimes, the benefits are informal: chances to “discuss photos, technique or gear with like-minded individuals of all experience levels.”

The monthly competitions often think outside the box camera.

Themes in the 2020-21 season included “our life in the Time of COVID,” “different colors that enhance theme” and “interesting selfie of photographer’s big toe (homage to the late Bill Talarowski).”

The society meets September through May, generally at 7:30 p.m.

Mondays, virtually or at Cokesbury Village in Hockessin. Society membership is $55.

Here are snapshots of some local residents who are society members.

Thomas Mammen: Inside the operating room and around the world

Thomas Mammen

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Thomas Mammen fondly recalls the thrill of seeing his first photographs in the darkroom, and he’s also fond of his iPhone X. “It’s good enough for most spontaneous photos, with a robust lens and editing software, and apps make it absolutely fantastic,” he said.

His favorites include Adobe Lightroom CC (“great camera app that is able to capture in the RAW format using the native phone camera and also has a great image editing component”), ProCamera (“great camera which exploits and expands the capabilities of the native phone cameras for still and video functions”), Snapseed (“Great editing software with a simple interface for beginners as well as sophisticated workflow for experts”) and TouchRetouch (“great app to remove unwanted power lines, clone small defects, etc.”). He also recommends Rad A. Drew, a photographer who blogs on www.raddrewphotography.com and vlogs on YouTube.

Mammen also owns several cameras: a Nikon D7100, a Canon G11 and a mirrorless Nikon Z6.

The Greenville resident was born in Malaysia, where his father, a native of India, was a field

Greenville & Hockessin Life | Summer 2021 | www.ghlifemagazine.com

supervisor for a rubber plantation. “The country was dealing with an insurgency there, and school beyond the elementary school was not available locally.

So I was shipped to India at age of 7½ to a boarding school. I joke that I was raised by strangers.”

At Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, he and his classmates turned part of their dorm basement into a darkroom, started a photography club and “created their own liberal arts education.”

He moved to United States in 1974 and to Delaware in 1975. In 2005, he joined the teaching faculty of ChristianaCare. For a decade or so, he captured on film the residents at Wilmington Hospital near the end of their training and gave them keepsake prints. “I thought of them as my own children,” he told The News Journal. “I’m their work dad.” He retired in 2016.

Priya and Pradeep, the two children of Thomas and Mariam Mammen, both enjoy careers in medicine and pharmaceuticals and interests in photography.

Mammen cited multiple benefits of being a society member. “Just belonging mean we egg each other on,” he said, praising the monthly contests for allowing photographers to explore and compare the results with their fellow competitors.

Mammen and his wife have enjoyed traveling (and photographing while abroad), but the pandemic and the need to care for Mariam’s mother have put the faraway ventures on hold.

Among the ways he’s satisfying himself now are photographing the eagles at Conowingo Dam, painting and woodcarving.

Continued on Page 18

“I shot this image with my iPhone through a grimy window of our tour bus while driving through the Cappadocian countryside during a visit to Turkey,” Mammen wrote of “Cappadocia Sunset.” “The sunset was spectacular, and the iPhone was able to capture the luminous reds, oranges. yellows, the purples and the warm greens. I am more and more impressed by the optical quality and software of the current smartphones in capturing professional-quality images.”

“One of my neighbors alerted me about a family of foxes living in my yard, and when I came to check this out, I found another one of my neighbors feeding five pups cut-up hot dogs and pizza! I was able to get really close to photograph them,” Mammen wrote of “Foxhill Fox Kit.” “A few months later, three of them came and squatted on our driveway 20 feet from my wife and me and just stared at us. I told Mariam they were asking where the heck their hot dogs and pizza was!”

Photos courtesy of Thomas Mammen

“Delicacy of Touch” won an honorable mention in the 2020 edition of the Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography. “There are several reasons I like this photo,” Mammen said. “First of all, the entire design forms an oval that encompasses all three figures and the pattern of light leads the viewers’ eyes to the fingers gripping the instruments ever so lightly, merely caressing them. I tried to drill into my surgical residents that they should develop a delicate touch with instruments and tissues. Fine motor control is impeded by an iron grip and stiff finger joints. Second reason I like this is the satisfaction I got from knowing that this resident has incorporated that into his skill set!” www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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Delaware Photographic Society Continued from Page 17

Susan Peter: Adventures into the wild “Are we born to wander?” Susan Peter chose as the title of a society webinar.

Yes, she believes.

“As a wildlife photographer, I am Susan Peter always chasing the light and hoping to do justice to my subjects,” she said.

She’s also chasing chance. In a recent society webinar, she showcased stories from the field, such as coping with lost luggage on a flight to Africa. Peter borrowed sneakers and because of her bad knee, she eventually decided to pay Continued on Page 20

Photo courtesy of Susan Peter

“While in Kenya, a white rhino emerged from a valley,” Susan Peter wrote about this photo. “In hopes of capturing the image and getting eye to eye, I dropped to the bottom of the safari vehicle and was happy to capture the fleeting moment. This image was entered in Nature’s Best Photography, Windland Smith Rice competition. The stats: 25,000 images entered, 123 selected, 40 in exhibition. My image was among those selected for the exhibition that we hope will open this fall in Missouri. The African Wildlife Foundation selected it for the cover of their 2021 calendar. I am thrilled to support their conservation efforts.”

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Delaware Photographic Society Continued from Page 18

men to carry her up and down the hill on a chair to photograph the rare mountain gorillas.

The Hockessin resident said favorite places to photograph include the Maasai Mara in Kenya and the Serengeti in Tanzania.

“My interest in wildlife photography is motivated by love of the wild and conservation,” she said, adding that she enjoys wildlife photography for the “solitude, peace and inspiration.”

Her photos also document natural history for future generations.

“I prefer solitude and detest bear jams (by that, I mean fighting to get the shot at a popular scene,” she said, so when a guide got a text alert about a newborn zebra with dotted stripes, she and her husband, John, jumped at the chance to be among the first to photograph the unusuallooking animal.

“Wildlife photography is good photography,” Peter said. “You need an interesting subject, interesting composition and good light. And that’s not easy. Wild animals are going to do what they do. We can’t ask them to do something cute, look this way or move into better light. Patience is a necessity.”

Another necessity: researching their habitat needs, food supply and the times they are most active. Equipment is important, too: “an accurate, fast autofocus system and a high rate of frames per second (at least eight).”

“My journey to photograph the wildlife I love has taken me on adventures around the world and on adventures as close as my own backyard,” she said. “Through my photographs, I aspire to do justice to my subjects, including their beauty, gentleness, ruthlessness, quirky behavior, social interaction, athleticism, humor and their unending struggle to simply survive.”

And often they don’t. In one story, Peter saw cheetahs chase and kill a female Thomson’s gazelle. She later saw them eating the gazelle – and was stunned to also capture a newborn gazelle, who had appeared early from its mother’s womb, nuzzling the cheetahs. A lion later ended the life of the newborn, she was told.

Continued on Page 22

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Delaware Photographic Society Continued from Page 20

Patrick Litle: Rekindled with a 60th birthday present to himself

All photos courtesy of Patrick Litle

This photo won a bronze medal at the 2019 Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography. It’s “a great abstract photo of a 1915 electric car wheel,” he wrote.

Patrick Litle recalls getting hooked on photography while he was in the Navy and using a camera that he borrowed from his father. He bought his own camera after he left the service in 1972, and he honed his craft by taking a college course, shadowing a wedding photographer in an apprenticeship known as a “second shot” and handling by himself photos for Patrick Litle a dozen weddings.

He put it all aside for grad school and sold his equipment.

On his 60th birthday, he gave himself a camera. And when he retired in 2015, he got more involved in photography and joined the society.

“I don’t want to limit myself to any subject,” he said, acknowledging that he’s best known for photos of flowers and birds. Prime spots for those subjects: His own Hockessin yard; Longwood Gardens and Winterthur, where he has memberships; and Valley Garden, Carousel and Hibernia parks.

Litle praised the society for its camaraderie, training and competitions, including the Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography, which he’s chairing for the second year.

“The contests eye-openers,” he said. “You see there is so much more that could be Continued on Page 24

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Delaware Photographic Society Continued from Page 22

done with artistic prints and digital images.” The society classifies members in three categories for competitions – B, A and Salon – with members working up (and sometimes asking to move down).

A Cooper’s hawk is ready to pounce.

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His photo of an Eastern bluebird on Georgia’s Skidaway Island was accepted into the 2018 Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography.

Greenville & Hockessin Life | Summer 2021 | www.ghlifemagazine.com

He said he has a stack of 300 prints at home, but none of his photos are on the walls of the home he shares with his wife, Tricia. Their minimalist style allows for just one Ansel Adams print and another print by a friend.

“I like how this shows the engineer in his environment,” Litle wrote of this photo, taken at the Wilmington & Western Railroad, “and how complex a 100-year-old steam locomotive can be.”

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|Around Greenville|

All photos courtesy Delaware Museum of Natural History

The squid will greet visitors in the entry of the new Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, just as it did in the old Delaware Museum of Natural History.

The Global Ecosystems Journey features some of the world’s iconic environments.

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A New Museum Takes Shape in Greenville The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science plans to open next year, on the 50th anniversary of the opening of its predecessor

By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer

T

touch by planning to have more people on the floor,” said Jill Karlson, director of public engagement. “These people will help explain what visitors are seeing, hearing, touching and doing through activity carts, presentations of a menagerie of 25-plus live animals, story times and tours.”

he 32-foot-long replica of a giant squid will remain in the entry hall, and a few other items will keep their locations, but everything else will move and change as the Delaware Museum of Natural History metamorphoses into the Joining the 21st Century The coral reef is the top thing that visitors wanted kept.

Delaware Museum of Nature “We’re joining the 21st and Science, beginning in century,” Halsey Spruance, executive director of the pri2022.

“Delaware” will be reflected in the Delaware Regional vate, nonprofit museum on the Kennett Pike in Greenville, Journey Gallery, one of three galleries at the museum, and told TownSquareDelaware.com. “We’re moving from the the huge annotated floor map of the state. The PaleoZone techniques of the past and are embracing the future. We will showcase fossils and dinosaur replicas from Delaware have to change the platform, the foundation.”

The museum was founded in 1957 and opened in 1972. and nearby areas.

“Museum” will continue to be shown in its extensive The grand opening is planned as a 50th anniversary celcollection of artifacts, including North America’s second- ebration, on May 13, 2022, with a soft opening at the end largest collection of bird eggs, plus quantities of other avian of March.

Meanwhile it is conducting some programs at Winterthur, material and mollusks.

“Nature” will lead visitors to trails and other features out- Hagley and online, and Karlson said it has partnered with side, reborn after being heavily damaged by a tornado last other organizations.

Progress and background about the change are chronicled August.

“Science” will include the spotlight on local research, on the museum website, from two key landing pages: https:// opportunities to be citizen scientists, chances to see the sci- evolve.delmnh.org and www.delmnh.org/metamorphosis.

Adult admission before the museum closed for the masence going on upstairs and curriculum-based programming sive project was $9, and it will probably be $12.95 when it for schoolchildren of all ages. reopens, Karlson said.

Through it all, interaction will be front and center.

Continued on Page 28 “We want to give it a more humanistic and conversational www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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Greenville Museum Continued from Page 27

The building is 72,000 square feet, with 27,000 square feet of exhibition space on the first floor and the same amount for research on the second, with the rest for administration and operations.

The gift shop, the Nature Nook (for programs for the youngest visitors) and classrooms will not move.

What’s New The walk-over coral reef is staying in its location, leading to an area focusing on oceans.

“The coral reef is the top thing that people mention as something they want to see stay,” said museum spokesperson Jennifer Acord, adding that a whale skull pulled from Pickering Beach will hang nearby.

The elephant bird mural will also

The PaleoZone emphasizes creatures that lived in Delaware and nearby areas.

remain in its current location.

“The current dinosaurs are not returning – they are models and are not in the best condition,” she said. “Model building has definitely evolved since then, and it was

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Continued on Page 30

Greenville Museum Continued from Page 28

a great opportunity to bring in a Dryptosaurus.”

“It’s a distant and somewhat smaller relative of Tyrannosaurus rex,” Atlas Obscura wrote, adding that an 1866 discovery in New Jersey, “was the first partially complete skeleton of a carnivorous theropod dinosaur in North America.”

“We are keeping our iconic T. rex skull (it’s a model too),” Acord said.

The new museum will have three major galleries, labeled Delaware Regional Journey, Global Ecosystems Journey and Discovery. The first two are called journeys because museum leaders want to encourage visitors to go on journeys of exploration. The third is for traveling exhibits and events.

Some of that exploration will be in crawl-through areas, sized for children and open to limber and willing adults, to consider what lives beneath the savannah and tundra and how experts understand the layers under the earth everywhere (that’s called stratigraphy).

The Delaware Regional Journey explores five local ecosystems (bald cypress swamp, salt marshes, bayshore dunes, Delaware Bay and temperate forests). The Global

One area showcases rotating exhibits about local researchers.

Ecosystems Journey explores four more (oceans, savannah, rainforest and tundra).

Interconnectedness and Climate Change Two other important areas are the PaleoZone and the outdoor Evolution Trail.

The PaleoZone will focus on dinosaurs and other creatures Continued on Page 32

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Greenville Museum Continued from Page 30

that lived in the midAtlantic in the Cretaceous period, 45 million to 66 million years ago.

The Evolution Trail takes 1,500 feet to represent 4.6 billion years, from the formation of Earth to today (humans join in only the last three feet). Also outdoors are a pollinator garden, a meadow, an outdoor classroom and a forest showing the succession of different plants, called old and new growth.

Research in multiple disciplines will appear in different ways. The work of four rotating teams of local researchers will be

The Delaware Regional Journey is one of three main galleries.

in one area. Visitors will be invited to help research by, say, uploading date- and locationstamped photos of flora and fauna. That’s called citizen science. And from time to time, there will be tours of labs upstairs, which features research on mollusks and shorebirds.

One unifying theme is interconnectedness. Dioramas will “tell the stories of where things Continued on Page 34

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live and why they are important,” Karlson said, later noting that “all life is connected. We all have DNA.” Another theme is Climate Change.

“There’s a climate change message throughout because it’s something we can do something about,” she said.

From the Ceiling, on the Floor, in the Ears Many exhibits will be at eye level, but noteworthy elements will hang from the ceiling and cover the floor. Sounds – like calls from swamp birds and the waves, pings and eventual silence of diving into the ocean in a submersible – will enhance the experience as well.

A $9.8 million capital campaign covers the metamorphosis. By May, six governments, 25 corporations, 25 foundations, and 243 individuals contributed 63 percent of the museum’s goal, “demonstrating their confidence in the future path of the museum,” Acord said.

“By switching from static, taxonomy-based dioramas to interactive, ecosystem-based engagements,

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An annotated map makes a dramatic statement on the floor of the Delaware Regional Journey Gallery.

the new Delaware Museum of Nature and Science will inspire people to discover, examine, and uncover the wonders of science in the natural world,” the site promises. “The new museum will be the go-to place to learn about our world, how we are connected, and how we can make a difference.”

www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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|Greenville & Hockessin History|

Greenville and Small towns with

Hockessin Friends Meeting House

By Gene Pisasale Contributing Writer Two small towns in northern Delaware may appear to those casually passing through them to be quiet ‘bedroom” communities with little history to discover. That assumption is shown to be incorrect when you explore the rich heritage of both Greenville and Hockessin.

Between these two small towns, they feature two

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renowned museums, an agricultural center, numerous sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as a nearby school named for one of the most famous entertainers of the 20th century.

Hockessin, Delaware began as a village around the year 1688, shortly after William Penn took possession of his new land grant to the north. The name may have roots in the Lenape word “hokes,” but is most likely related to the first properties named Ocasson settled by William

and Hockessin: with a big history

Coffee Run Cemetery

Cox around the year 1726. The Hockessin Friends Meetinghouse at 1501 Old Wilmington Road was built in 1738; the date marker in the stone structure stands below a gable roof with a cornice and crown molding at the roof line. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The Coffee Run Mission started as a log cabin built in 1790. It was the first Catholic church in Delaware, a precursor to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington. The adjacent cemetery holds more than 50

Wilmington and Western Railroad

gravestones from centuries past; the site was also added to the National Register in 1973.

Fans of scenic tours will enjoy the Wilmington and Western Railroad, whose roots date back to 1867 with the Delaware and Chester County Railroad, which ran from Wilmington to Landenberg. The company merged into the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad, a Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) subsidiary, in February 1883.

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History

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The 10.2-mile line running through the Red Clay Creek Valley operates both steam and diesel locomotives, with special themed tours including the Autumn Leaf Special, the Halloween Express and the Holiday Lights Express.

A famous performer from yesteryear spent the latter part of his life in Hockessin, but his claims to fame were his performances in Chicago, New York and Hollywood.

Cab Calloway was born on December 25, 1907 in Rochester, New York. His mother wanted Cab to become a lawyer like his father, but he was far more interested in music. The family moved to Baltimore when he was 11 and he later started attending jazz shows there, seeing musicians like drummer Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones. Cab was hooked; he knew he wanted to become a jazz performer.

Calloway became a jazz singer and performed at New York’s Savoy Ballroom in 1929. Two years later his big opportunity arrived: he and his orchestra were hired to sit in for the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Cotton Club in Harlem. That same year, Calloway recorded what Continued on Page 40

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Roger C. Summers Lawn Care “31 Years of Doing it the Right Way”

www.RogerSummersLawnCare.com www.ghlifemagazine.com | Summer 2021 | Greenville & Hockessin Life

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History

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would become his signature song, “Minnie the Moocher.”

It was the first single recorded by a black performer to sell over one million records. The tune became so popular, Calloway was soon known as “The Hi-De-Ho Man,” a reference to the song’s chorus.

Calloway’s career was on fire in the 1930s and 1940s; his band included jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie, Ben Webster and Milt Hinton. Calloway’s numerous talents were highlighted in the 1940 musical “Strike Up the Band” starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, where one character was admonished after an improvised drum solo with the words: “You are not Cab Calloway.” He remained active and popular on the music and film stage for many years, passing away in Hockessin on November 18, 1994. The Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington was named in his honor.

Greenville, Delaware is not only the home of President Joe Biden — several points of historic and cultural interest are close by. One of the nation’s most important chemical companies, Du Pont — had its roots along the Brandywine in 1802 due to the efforts of founder Eleuthiere Irenee du

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Cab Calloway School for the Arts

Pont. Originally created to produce gunpowder, Du Pont later branched out to produce an enormous array of useful chemical compounds and products like Nylon, Teflon, Corian, Kevlar and dozens of others which transformed the way people live. The beginnings of the company are evident when you tour the Hagley Gunpowder Works and

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History

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nearby Hagley Library and Museum. Du Pont merged with Dow Chemical in 2017.

The du Pont family’s roots are evident at both the nearby Mt. Cuba Center and Winterthur Museum.

Mt. Cuba’s more than 500 acres of natural lands include rolling hills, streams, rock outcroppings and deciduous forests. The site was the former home of Lammot du Pont Copeland, who built a Colonial Revival mansion near the small village of Mt. Cuba in 1935. The beautiful landscape prompted him to preserve hundreds of native wildflowers and other plants, eventually leading to a col-

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Hagley Gunpowder Works

lection which included over 6,500 examples of eastern North American flora, complemented by Lilac Allee, a Formal Garden, the Dogwood Path, Pond Garden, West Slope Path and Rock Wall.

Winterthur, the former home of Henry Francis du Pont, stands not far away on 979 acres which include a “country house” with 60 acres of natural gardens. The home became a focal point for du Pont’s interest in collecting antiques

Greenville & Hockessin Life | Summer 2021 | www.ghlifemagazine.com

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and Americana, eventually expanding to 175 period-room displays and 85,000 items. Its massive library contains more than 87,000 volumes and roughly 500,000 manuscripts related to decorative arts, American history and architecture.

The Greenville-Hockessin area offers numerous sites for people to explore, stroll amidst scenic gardens, learn about the rich history of industrial America and view the homes and legacies of some of our nation’s most famous personalities.

Gene Pisasale is an historian, author and lecturer based in Kennett Square. His 10 books focus on American history. Gene’s latest work is “Forgotten Founding Fathers: Pennsylvania and Delaware in the American Revolution.”

His books are available on www.Amazon.com and his website at www.GenePisasale.com. Gene can be reached via e-mail at Gene@GenePisasale.com.

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|Greenville & Hockessin Photo Essay|

The extraordinary resilience of Joe Biden Text by Richard L. Gaw “My dad always said, ‘Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.’”

Joseph R, Biden, 46th President of the United States Over the past 60 years, the stories of Joseph Robinette Biden have become ours, burned into the folklore of Delaware like trusted fables placed on a bookshelf.

We have nearly memorized them all down to the word because they have been uttered so frequently by their author: the places, the experiences, the people, the neighbors, and always – always – the dusting off of life’s most horrible tragedies from a tailored blue suit and a will to carry on that seems to have gathered its strength from the gods.

Continued on Page 46

Photos by Moonloop Photography

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Joe Biden

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Are any of us able to summon the strength to confront a severe speech impediment that threatens to tear at our life’s dreams before they have a chance of happening?

And yet, there Joe Biden was, a young boy reciting Yeats and Emerson over and over again at his bedroom mirror -- diligent and faithful in his resolve.

For many of us, losing a wife and a young daughter to a car accident would be enough for us to close the doors on our tomorrows, but there Joe Biden was, taking the oath to become a U.S. Senator on Jan. 5, 1973 in a Delaware hospital, while his young sons Beau and Hunter lay on a nearby hospital bed.

Are we as parents able to forgive the unpardonable sin of outliving our children, but there Joe Biden was at the funeral of his son Beau on June 6, 2015, standing outside of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Wilmington. There, at the front of his family, he held the hand of his late son’s widow Hallie and his granddaughter Natalie with a solemn strength that acknowledged both his unbearable grief and also his refusal to let it take him down and every Biden around him.

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Joe Biden

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The gods that have helped guide Joe Biden throughout his life and rise to the highest office in this country are the same gods who will readily admit that their servant Joe is not without faults and frailties, but there Joe Biden is, inheriting a nation of similar faults and frailties. Believe in his politics or disagree with them, he remains the same man who stood in front of that mirror as a child.

He is the same man who rose from the ashes of two family tragedies, and Joe Biden is the same man who stares off into an unknown future and believes that through the power of resiliency – of calling on the strength to get back up again -- this nation’s best moments are out there in the reachable distance.

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|Greenville & Hockessin Q&A| For the past three decades, Dr. Tamara Blossic and her team at Hockessin Chiropractic Centre have been helping generations of patients in Hockessin, Greenville and beyond achieve pain relief and better health with quality chiropractic care. Recently, Dr. Blossic sat down with Greenville & Hockessin Life to talk about what led her to chiropractic care, the “Healing from the Core” philosophy, the author she’d like to invite to her dinner party, and much more.

Dr. Tamara J. Blossic

Hockessin Chiropractic Centre

Greenville & Hockessin Life: You began your interest and subsequent career in chiropractic care by seeing it provide healing for you, beginning when you were a teenager. Talk about the circumstances in your life that led you to seek chiropractic care.

Dr. Tamara J. Blossic: I started as a chiropractic patient as a teenager and there were two incidents that required brief care. I had a backpacking injury where I fell and injured my lower back. A second incident occurred when I had an acute neck spasm. My mother was a chiropractic care patient, so when I was injured, she took me there.

College is often a petri dish for migraine headaches, so all through college when I would visit home, I would return to the chiropractor and found out that chiropractic care helped my migraines. After I got out college I became a high school science teacher and returned to the chiropractor again, because my immune system was really challenged at the time, given that I was just starting to teach and I was in a new school system. v It was around then that you began to pursue your education in chiropractic care.

I was working on my Masters in Environmental Science at the time, but I was also juggling with the idea of moving my education in another direction and attending a chiropractic school. It turned out to be a very quick decision. I went to

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visit a school in April of that year and was enrolled there

by August.

While I found that the academic side of chiropractic did not come easily to me the clinical portion of my studies did -- when I could actually get my hands on the anatomical aspect of the science. The anatomy lab allowed me to feel and touch and look, and anatomy came alive to me. Using that knowledge when I got to actually treating patients was a straight line for me. v We often hear that an employee is the “backbone” of her organization, or that an athlete is the “backbone” of his team. It is a term that illuminates the fact that the spine is, in fact, a core component of the body, and the measure of its health is often reflective of who we are and our experiences. It’s a vessel that carries our truth. How do you find that truth, and ultimately lead that patient toward healing?

In my experience, the first piece of healing comes with listening. You really need to listen to what the person is saying. Sometimes, you have to ask for clarification because they may not know what they are trying to say. Then there is the hands-on piece of healing, when I am trying to feel for changes, for things that are not normal.

When I have my hands on a person, I learn the difference between what feels normal and what doesn’t feel normal.

Those subtle clues – whether it be in the tissue or joints

or in the vertebrae – are what starts to give me the idea of where the pain is located. Someone may come in and complain that their pain is on the left, but when I place my hands on their body, I find out that the restriction is on the right but the pain pattern has shifted to the left.

The whole philosophy of chiropractic is that one’s healing ability comes from the nervous system, which is housed within the spine. Each human being has an innate ability to heal through their central nervous system. v I’m trying to get the connectivity between our experiences as humans and how it all deposits itself within the spine. It’s different for everyone, yes?

If you take those two individuals similar in shape and structure and place that same trauma into their bodies, they may have two different injuries.

As that stressor comes into the body, the body has to decide whether the pain will go to the right or the left or the top or the bottom, because all of the stressors they have experienced prior to the injury have already influenced that tissue. It’s due to the fact that the central nervous system has a memory that is stored in our brain, as does the tissue itself.

So even though those two people may have similar injuries, they could have different pain presentations, because of how that stressor comes into their system. v

One of the principle concepts you practice – and encourage your patients to incorporate -- is reflected in a program called “Healing from the Core.” It is described as teaching patients the “How-To” skills for listening to their body’s wisdom. Describe how the act of listening to one’s body can lead to healing, and how you incorporate “Healing from the Core” into your own practice.

The whole premise of “Healing from the Core” was developed by my dear friend Suzanne Scurlock. As a body worker, she began to hear from other body workers who were complaining about fatigue and a loss of energy that was difficult to restore. She began to explore how we can begin to be compassionate with ourselves and learn how to restore our energy. We can practice the state of being rather than doing.

That’s everyone, not just people in my profession. It could be the corporate executive, or a mother, or the caretaker of an elderly parent. We all need those skills.

The concept for “Healing from the Core” is to have the individual exploring what it is that pulls their energy down, and what tools they can learn to fill their glass back up, in order to not get burned out -- and use those same tools to help heal things that may have happened in the past. That could manifest itself as a physical injury, an emotional injury, a persistent grief or even the daily stressors of a Continued on Page 52

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Dr. Tamara J. Blossic Continued from Page 51

relationship or work environment.

My job is to connect to the person and say, ‘How can I empower you to do your own healing work?’

It’s the three-legged stool: You have the physical, the emotional and the spiritual. To me, healing is not just fixing the physical. It’s recognizing that there is more to a person than just muscles and bones. v Do you ever envision the day when the heavy influence of throwing prescription medicine at our nation’s health problems will be replaced by the continuing movement of the healing arts, such as chiropractic care, acupuncture, yoga and holistic medicines?

I am seeing in medicine a return to the roots of caring for the person. I am seeing that through my functional medicine eyes. When I went through my functional medicine training, I sat mostly among medical doctors, and they were talking about the first thing they should do before they start treating patients is to gather their thoughts. There is this percentage of physicians and health care providers who are interested in getting back

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to that holistic approach.

I see a new drive back to the roots of listening to the patient and trying to figure out the cause of one’s pain is, in order to allow the provider to support a person in a multi-team approach. v What is your favorite place in Greenville and Hockessin?

I would have to say that I am attracted to Valley Garden Park near the Hoopes Reservoir. v You throw a dinner party. Who do you invite?

If I invited a famous person, it would be C.S. Lewis. He is one of my favorite authors and his writing is very diverse. v What food or beverage can always be found in your refrigerator?

Blueberries and sparkling water.

To learn more about Dr. Tamara J. Blossic and the Hockessin Chiropractic Centre, visit www.HockessinChiro. com.

- - Richard L. Gaw

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|Around Greenville|

DelNature opens new market, Ag Education Building The Delaware Nature Society (DelNature) was joined by Delaware Agriculture Secretary Michael T. Scuse and National Wildlife Federation President and Chief Executive Officer Collin O’Mara to launch the new Market at Coverdale Farm Preserve and Agriculture Education Building, and celebrate climatefriendly regenerative farm techniques.

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Closed for the past year due to COVID-19, Coverdale re-opened this spring offering a new market, family-friendly farm activities and education classes. Open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the new market is a natural extension of the Coverdale Farm Preserve’s work to grow and provide fresh foods to the local community.

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DelNature

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Patrons can select vegetables, eggs, herbs, and flowers fresh from the farm and cheese, bread, honey, meat and much more from local and regional partners. Coverdale even offers farm grown vegetable, flower, herb, and fruit plants for the home garden.

Coverdale shoppers can also participate in the new Golden Tomato Program, a flexible card-based community supported agriculture program that allows them to choose their own produce.

“We are so pleased to launch this new Market in our Agriculture Education Building while highlighting how protecting the environment and farming techniques go hand in hand,” said DelNature Executive Director Anne Harper. “We are grateful for Secretary Scuse joining us today and the chance to shine a light on regenerative agriculture techniques.”

“Through the ability to visit a working farm like Coverdale, the public can connect with where their food is grown. It is a fantastic opportunity for a child to have a hands-on experience to understand how fruits, vegetables, meats, and fiber are produced. That experience can spark a child’s interest in agriculture that can lead .to a future career,” Scuse said. “And it’s the understanding that farmers care about the environment because good stewardship ensures that future generations have locally grown food to feed their families.”

A highlight of Coverdale’s work is its commitment to regenerative agriculture techniques which mimic natural processes to minimize soil disturbance and build soil health above and below ground, maintain living roots year-round, maximize crop diversity and on-farm biodiversity, integrate lifestock employing intentional grazing, and eliminating the use of synthetic chemicals.

“The Coverdale Farm Preserve is a shining example of how regenerative agriculture can simultaneously produce healthy crops, build resilient soils, provide clean water, restore essential wildlife habitat, and naturally sequester carbon,” O’Mara said. “We encourage every Delawarean and Pennsylvanian to visit Coverdale to learn directly from the Delaware Nature Society’s amazing team about how agricultural best practices are critical natural climate solutions.”

Regenerative techniques are more climate-friendly, and focus on helping to protect the soil and water while growing crops and maintaining livestock. Regenerative agriculture can also help with carbon sequestration by building organic matter back into soil, essentially helping to store more water and draw carbon out of the atmosphere.

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Photo courtesy Christi Leeson

Eric Brinsfield (DelNature board president), Michele Wales (Coverdale Farm site director), Secretary Michael T. Scuse (Delaware Department of Agriculture), State Rep. Krista Griffith, Collin O’Mara (NWF President & CEO), State Senator Laura Sturgeon, Eric Raser-Schramm (New Castle County Exec Office) and Anne Harper (DelNature Executive Director) at the event launching the new Market at Coverdale Farm Preserve and Agriculture Education Building.

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DelNature

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“We are proud to be a site that can model the difficult balance between feeding our community and nurturing the environment,” said Coverdale Farm Site Director Michele Wales. “As farmers our environmental literacy is equally important as our livestock and vegetable literacy. We are learning as we are doing, and our studies will never be complete. The important thing to understand for everyone engaged in agriculture is-despite the learning curve-there are very simple and approachable ways to integrate some of the regenerative methodologies today, and there is funding to help us do it. The support from the local and national agencies to make this a priority are just the lift we need to contribute to tackling the important environmental issues of our time.”

DelNature believes that everyone has a right to healthy food, healthy communities, and a healthy environment.

Regenerative Agriculture upholds these three rights while distinguishing itself as a method of farming that moves beyond simply being sustainable. The farm is an ecosystem working with nature, not against it. RA diversifies its outcomes beyond economic gains and high yields to include the restoration of high-quality soil, water, air, and

ecosystems, along with healthy animals and people. It is a place-based customized approach where the land leads.

“Coverdale Farm Preserve has long been a destination for the local community and region,” said State Sen. Laura Sturgeon. “Today we celebrate the farm’s evolution over the past few years and shine a light on the importance of biodiversity and protecting our water supply.”

Added State Representative Krista Griffith, “It’s exciting to see how climate-friendly farming is being implemented in northern New Castle County. The farms’ education and outreach programs are important steps in connecting farming techniques with the general public.”

The 377-acre property in Greenville, Del. is comprised of a 177-acre working farm and 200-acre nature preserve.

The property has been a working farm for nearly 300 years. The new Agriculture Education Building is Phase 1 of DelNature’s multi-year plan to become a leader in the demonstration and education of regenerative agriculture.

The farm is open to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. In addition to the Market, Coverdale offers classes, and farm-focused fun activities like egg gathering, plus arts and crafts. To learn more visit: www.DelNature.org.

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|Greenville & Hockessin Arts| For more than 20 years, Mid-Atlantic Ballet has been a pre-professional conservatory emphasizing classical ballet training for dancers of all skill levels. After navigating through the pandemic, the company is re-emerging at its new home in Hockessin

The Unbroken Pirouette and Promenade of Mid-Atlantic Ballet

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

M

id-Atlantic Ballet Artistic Director Sandra Davis was just one day removed from the company’s end-of-the-year showcase in June that would feature the talents of 17 of its dancers, and she still had a tangle of concerns to wrestle with before the first ballet slipper touched the stage.

It would be the company’s first live show in more than a year of COVID-19-style lockdown communication that forced Davis and her fellow teachers to instruct their students via Zoom, coupled with the realization that it would be performed at the bandshell stage at the Carpenter

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Recreation Area of the White Clay Creek State Park – an outdoor show in a season of torrential rainstorms.

These extenuating circumstances would normally be enough to send any creative person on the brink of a production into a momentary tailspin, but Davis has also helped guide the rebirth of a company that started in 1997 through not only a pandemic but a move this past January that took Mid-Atlantic from a spacious studio space in Newark to a new home on Lancaster Pike in Hockessin.

With all of that on her mind, Davis paused to reflect on the year 2020 and its impact on the company.

“We had to keep going, because we had no choice,” Davis said. “Last March, we were just about to partner with the Wilmington Ballet on our spring production of Snow

All photos courtesy of Nathan Uhlmann, Christine Reisinger and Sandra Davis

After several years in Newark, the Mid-Atlantic Ballet, originally founded in 1997, moved to its new studio in Hockessin this past January.

White, and it was an exciting time for everyone. When the pandemic hit, it had not only a financial impact on us but an emotional one, because this is what we do. We have The Nutcracker, our spring performance and our end-of-theyear showcase. It is a ball that is constantly rolling.

“COVID-19 forced all of us – the teachers and our Board of Directors – to decide how we were going to keep our mission moving forward. I had heard that several dance companies were getting their instruction on the Zoom train, so we did as well, if only to provide our students with some kind of normalcy and familiarity.”

Like the virtual classes that linked teachers to students throughout 2020, the end-of-the-year showcase on June 19 did go on, with only a brief shower at the very end of

the performance. To the community of parents, students, faculty and leaders of Mid-Atlantic Ballet, they are two indicators that demonstrate Mid-Atlantic Ballet’s unbroken strength, perseverance and definition.

Diversity Among Friends Juxtaposed against the too-often competitive world of ballet, perhaps the strongest phrase that helps define MidAtlantic Ballet is “diversity among friends.”

Under the direction of Davis and Ballet Master Miguel Angel Quinones, its resident and guest faculty offer quality ballet instruction to students from age 4 to adult at all skill and experience levels, and every class no matter the Continued on Page 62

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Mid-Atlantic Ballet Continued from Page 61

level is structured to cultivate each students’ unique physical and artistic qualities. From children’s ballet classes to advanced ballet lessons to teen and adult ballet instruction, the door to Mid-Atlantic Ballet is open to freedom, self-expression, awareness and enjoyment of the art of ballet.

“In many ways, we’re all a large family, and our role as teachers is to nurture passion and interest,” Davis said. “Each of our faculty brings something different to the table and at every level of instruction.

Consequently, that approach stimulates a desire for the student to want to know more, and since they are hungry to know more and do more, we love to keep feeding them.”

Learning how to dance at Mid-Atlantic Ballet does not begin with a competition, and the ballet barre is often not even used during initial lessons. Instead, early level instruction begins with acknowledging – and appreciating -- “Mind, Art and Body.” It is part of a “non-competition” approach that focuses on each student’s personal development – not preparation for competitions.

“A lot of studios teach their students to perform instead of teaching them to dance, and here, we teach boys and girls how to dance,” said Mid-Atlantic Ballet Executive Director Christine Reisinger. “In the competition world, dancers are trained to perform and give up a lot of much-needed class and technique time to focus on choreography, so they don’t

Instruction at Mid-Atlantic Ballet offers a “non-competition” approach that focuses on each student’s personal development.

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receive the basic skills needed for ballet.”

“In pre-ballet, for instance, we explore body awareness and develop motor skills and coordination that will help them later on in their development,” Davis said. “Everything builds on each other and becomes more advanced and intricate. One of our favorite moments here is the ‘light bulb moment,’ where we get to rejoice with the student who suddenly clicks through his or her self-discovery.”

Star quality Throughout its history, several Mid-Atlantic Ballet students have gone on to pursue careers as professional dancers or dance instructors, furthering their education at such prestigious schools as the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Juilliard School, the Joffrey Ballet, and the Ailey School at Fordham University in New York; as well as danced professionally for the SHARP Dance Company, the Ballet Theater of Maryland, the School of American Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and Columbia City Ballet of South Carolina.

Very often, those students who shine brightest begin their journeys at an early age, Davis said.

“We can begin to see some star qualities in a few of our younger dancers,” she said. “We recently offered a pre-pointe class, and I evaluated some young girls who demonstrated their desire to advance to this next level, and I allowed them to take that class because I could see that they wanted it.”

Throughout the year, Mid-Atlantic Ballet performs two full-length ballets in collaboration with other dance companies and professional guest artists at Mitchell Hall at the University of Delaware. In addition, the company produces performances of shorter works and mixed repertoire at their studio and at schools, libraries, the Delaware Dance Festival and the Nemours Children’s Hospital.

Each season concludes with the company’s annual Student Showcase that gives every student an opportunity to perform for family and friends.

With its end-of-year performance behind them, Mid-Atlantic Ballet is preparing for what promises to be a busy summer season of camps and intensives.

From July 12-16, ballet camp will introduce children ages 4-7 to the world of ballet through dance classes, crafts, choreography, music and stories.

Continued on Page 64

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Mid-Atlantic Ballet Continued from Page 63

Through the company’s Intensive I and Intensive II programs – offered in person from July 19-23 and July 26-30, respectively – students will train with guest and resident faculty in various forms of dance including ballet, modern, jazz and repertoire.

In addition, summer classes will also be offered from Aug. 2-27.

In addition to her role as artistic director at Mid-Atlantic Ballet, Davis still performs regularly with Quinones for the Philadelphiabased SHARP Dance Company. Prior to the

Throughout the year, Mid-Atlantic Ballet performs two full-length ballets in collaboration with other dance companies and professional guest artists at Mitchell Hall at the University of Delaware.

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pandemic, Reisinger and a parent of a dancer took several of Davis’ students to Philadelphia to see their teachers perform.

“What is unique about Mid-Atlantic Ballet is that our instructors are still performers,” Reisinger said. “It gives our students a huge thrill to be able to see their teachers perform live. In 2019, Sandra and Miguel performed the Arabian Dance in Act II of The Nutcracker, and the kids were so excited to watch them and cheered them on from the wings.”

Teaching ballet to students of all levels and ages represents the other half of Davis’ creative soul.

“I teach ballet because my heart wants me to,” she said. “There is something indescribable for me to be on a stage. It is like my heart is Continued on Page 66

Throughout its history, several Mid-Atlantic Ballet students have gone on to pursue careers as professional dancers or dance instructors.

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Mid-Atlantic Ballet Continued from Page 65

absolutely open, and there is nothing like it. After a very difficult year for this company, I am so excited for these kids to be able to feel that same feeling again.”

Mid-Atlantic Ballet is located at 7465 Lancaster Pike, Suite L, Hockessin, Del. 19707. To learn more about classes, performances, COVID-19 safety protocols and providing financial support, visit www.midatlanticballet.org or call 302-266-6362.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@ chestercounty.com.

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