Rosemerry “Fuhrmann” Hanian – Covington’s Legendary Creative Dance teacher

The Fuhrmann Auditorium, located at 128 W 23rd Ave, Covington, LA 70433, takes its name from Covington's former theatre owner, Sidney "Sid" Fuhrmann, a native of Goodbee, Louisiana. He ran multiple movie cinemas as well as theatres in the Parish. The first being The Parkview , first opened in 1912 in downtown Covington, where the venue was an eclectic mix of drama, poetry readings, skits, live music, and more, as well as showing silent films. He continued to manage and open other theaters throughout the Parish during his life, the most notable being The Majestic, which was opened in May of 1926.   Sidney married Paulina Frederick in 1914 on stage at The Parkview,  with a romantic backdrop he hand-painted for the ceremony. From their wedlock they had three children:  Patricia Clanton, former City councilwoman, Rosemerry Hanian, former dancer, and  son Brandon, who served in the U. S . Army Air Corps in WW2. Brandon lost his life on June 22, 1942 of dysentery and malaria, after surviving the march of Bataan, inside a Japanese prisoner camp, named Camp O'Donnel in the Philippines. This blog will focus on Rosemerry who ran her dance school in an old church on 23rd avenue next to the Fuhrmann auditorium in Covington. She forever touched lives of both her students and the community. She embodied beauty & grace intertwined with discipline and hard work.

The below paragraph is quoted from Carolyn Gaude, a Danceplayer and assistant for Rosemerry, (below right, leading the class)  throughout decades of her life. The quote is taken from a facebook blog  by Joseph Grubman (cited below) who  came across Rosemerry's name during his research of 1st generation Pilates instructors. " Miss Rosemerry was born at midnight on New Year’s Eve, hence merry being the spelling of her name. She lived in New York during the 40’s to early 60’s. She was in Broadway show first runs, such as Camelot and The King and I, but primarily she worked as an East Indian dancer, proficient in Bharat Natyam with an American version of Khatak, Manipor, and Tamil folk dance. She was a wonderful teacher. She also taught ballet for Thalia Mara. She was in a company of Indian dancers who performed in night clubs in and around New York City professionally with an Indian man who had been classically trained in Indian dance but presented night club acts which were shorter and less obviously religious based. I have forgotten his name. " 

The town talk of Covington was how Rosemerry Fuhrmann danced in the Broadway production in NYC, starring Julie Andrews and Richard Burton in the early 1960s. Jodi Griswold, one of Rosemerry's  former Danceplayers remembers the story of how Richard Burton handed her flowers after the production!  Covington was very proud to have her back in the 1960s  when she returned with her husband Constantie Dimitri Hanian, to settle down and raise a family in which they had two sons, Jonathon and Christopher. Creative Dance Center , first opened in 1967 and the studio was housed inside an old church on 23rd Avenue In Covington , Louisiana.  Prior to running her own studio she taught in the Wheril home in downtown Covington and  she also taught for years at schools, notably SSA and St. Paul's where she taught the football team body dynamics.  Her husband, Constantine Dimitri Hanian, studied under Joseph Pilates during the early development of the pilates method and he also taught Body Dynamics in Covington at the studio.  Joseph Pilates created his method while he was detained on the Isle of Man as a prisoner of war, during WW1. After his release he moved to New York City, where Joseph Pilates further developed his technique as a bodybuilder, even teaching at the renowned dance studio, Jacob's pillow . Rosemerry's husband, Constantine Dimitri Hanian, studied  under Joseph Pilates in NYC  during the early development of the method explained by Carolyn Gaude quoted above. Rosemerry used this technique and knowledge on her students to craft excellency and discipline to make the body an instrument for the art of dance. She also deeply believed and taught how was dance a form of communication as well as worship. 

In Rosemerry's studio she taught weekly dance classes of ballet, modern, yoga, body dynamics, creative, primitive dance, jazz, and East Indian throughout the decades until the early 1990's.  On Saturdays she had weekly rehearsals with her students that she personally invited to be in her performing troop named The Dance Players and Junior Dance players, comprised mostly of Junior high to High school seniors. The performing troop was required to study ballet as a weekly class as she expressed ballet was the grammar of dance. Her technique fusing classical ballet  with early pilates methods crafted bodies able to achieve their highest level of physical achievement over time , and this was just one of the components of her teaching. Her choreography afforded the dancer to look within to express the character, idea, story, or emotion of the dance. No mirrors nor air conditioning-  the student was taught to learn how the correct position feels when in its proper alignment. Mrs. Rosemerry taught on a bench which often doubled as a prop at times and often used a rhythm hand drum with a drumstick to keep the time of the jumps, leaps and turns of the dancers as they moved across the wooden floor.  She also beat the drum during East Indian dance instruction as the dancer was to keep to the tempo of her instruction.  In addition to her drum at times she used a straight  wooden stick to tap the floor , keeping the beats of the steps and movements of the dancers who were doing sequences, or jumps across the floor such as scissor split jumps, grand jetes', barrel jumps and the cabrioles 😉  

She choreographed an annual Christmas show that ran free performances inside various churches such as St. Peter's, Christ Episcopal, and St. Anslem's with the first being in SSA's original chapel where she taught for years . The first half of the show opened with the poem "Dance to the Glory of God" written by Saint Chrysostom and read aloud while the dancers moved to this opening  piece.  "Dance to the Glory of God wrote St.. Chrysostom...." the poem began and this first line set the show with its whole purpose and intentions.  The show continued with dances choreographed to traditional Christmas tunes such as Carol of the Bells where the dancers wore East Indian bells on their hands and feet, dancing  down the aisles of the churches towards the altar space of the church where the dance was performed. The dance Joy, is one of my favorites.  The dancers carried boughs as they leapt and jumped to the joyous music of Joël Cohen's medieval Christmas song  "Conductus" (Adest Sponsus) as they spread joy throughout the church . The second half of the Christmas show was set to the music of J. S. Bach's Magnificat in D major and the book of John was narrated by a reader to tell the Christmas Story.  The Christmas story set to the following sequences of dances: Hand Maidens, Dance of the Archangels with Angel Gabriel,  Shepards, Trumpet Angels , and lastly Mary's solo Dance of Humility.  At the Fuhrmann auditorium Rosemerry's original show is done annually by local dance company Dancescape every Christmas season. While it is a one night show today , Rosemerry would run multiple shows throughout various churches in the parish, the original costumes are still used for Bach sequence and the choreography is unchanged.

Outside of the Christmas season The Dance Players would perform at local festivals and other free community venues as well as at spring showcases. The Danceplayers were dancing to  music such as Gershwin, Erik Satie, Al Hirt, Enya, and Debussey  , as well as  performing East Indian dances.  Rosemerry brought the scope and diversity of dance into her studio to show her students and community about the many avenues , genres, and expressions of dance.  One East Indian dance titled Going to the Well, tells the story of three woman who draw water at a well but are met my a man, and they spill all the water they gathered in their surprise. Another East Indian dance was a solo named Chandra, the Hindu goddess of the moon,  and in the dance she comes alive in the moonlight witnessed by an entranced audience.  The Danceplayers also performed the King and I at the old Star theatre in Covington for multiple seasons. Rosemerry brought her professionalism home to Covington and displayed excellence to the community and her students all in the environment of a non-competitive studio, focused on teaching each student their worth and abilities by means of dance.  If one was fortunate enough to take a Yoga class or a weekly dance class, or to be invited into her Dance Troope, or to be in the audience of her show-  the sentiment is shared - her teachings and deliverance had lasting impact on their lives. 

For more on this extraordinary woman see following blogs and links below: 

See below blogs links to read more about Mrs. Rosemerry

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cj2saLwqf/

https://tammanyfamily.blogspot.com/2016/09/rosemerry-fuhrmann-hanian.html

https://tammanyfamily.blogspot.com/2017/03/rosemerry-hanian-on-development-of.html

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