Friends and Neighbors: A graceful exit

Before each class, Larry Ippel greets his young students in the doorway to help them don their dance slippers and write on their hands to distinguish left from right. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Ippel says many of the young students have separation anxiety from their parents before the first class but within a couple of weeks, they are happy and engaged. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Ippel devised a rack of drums that he uses to provide a beat to refine a child’s constant motion. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Ippel leads a group during a summer arts camp at the academy. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Before one class, Ippel gets imaginations stirring by having them draw. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Ippel during his final MOMENTA performance with dancer, Lisa Green. (Photo by Meg Bradley/Stephen Green Photography)

Ippel takes a bow during his final performance for MOMENTA. (Photo by Meg Bradley/Stephen Green Photography)

The dance education begins in a child’s chair, where 2-year-olds sit down in front of a soft-spoken man seated on the floor there to help them put on their dance slippers.

Before they enter Studio One, Larry Ippel lets them pick a marker, which he uses to write an “L” on their left hand and an “R” on the right. 

This scene has played out thousands of times over Ippel’s 40-year career as an instructor with the Academy of Movement & Music in Oak Park — and as a founding member of its dance troupe, Momenta. 

Ippel, 66, who is trained in modern dance and teaches the school’s youngest dancers, recently gave his last performance and will retire after classes end on July 25.

“Larry is built into the bricks and mortar of the academy from its earliest days,” said director Stephanie Clemens. The two were dance partners before they formed the school.  “I am having a very hard time imagining life at the academy without his distinct vision, his extraordinary work ethic, his calm presence and his gentle sense of humor.”

Ippel was a college high jumper when his coach suggested he get some dance training because the world’s top two jumpers had taken dance.

An art major at Illinois State University, Ippel was placed in a class focused on improv and modern dance and after seeing a performance as part of a class assignment, he traded in his track spikes for dance shoes. 

Ippel later spent three years at the California Institute of the Arts and had a performing career in Chicago, where he danced with Clemens. He joined her not long after she rolled up the rug in her living room and started the academy in 1971.

From the very beginning, Ippel worked with children, using dance to create self-awareness, confidence and develop strong problem-solving skills that would transfer to any profession. He also helped develop programs to bring dance and music to children with disabilities.

“It’s about space, time and level of energy. The concepts of dance are the concepts of living,” said Ippel , who plans to write children’s books as a way to continue his teachings. 

“How many have gone into dance careers? Not as many as those that have gone into other careers and I am just as satisified.”