She Arrived in the United States Hidden Beneath a Pile of Potatoes

December 04, 2014 Pawtucket woman, 93, ends 80 years of teaching dance, with a flourish
Article
Theresa Landry, 93, started teaching for pennies during the Great Depression; only the recent sale of her studio could stop her.

By
Linda Borg The Providence Journal

PAWTUCKET — Theresa Landry sweeps into the dilapidated dance studio wearing an ankle-length mink coat, her signature black turtleneck and long pendant earrings.

At 93 years old, she has a girlish figure and wears her dark hair in a Sixties flip. There isn’t a thing about her, from her vivid blue eyes to her smile, that betrays her age.


As a small child, Landry began dancing for pennies in a French-Canadian club in Central Falls where she was raised and still lives. During the 63 years she has operated Theresa Landry’s Dance Studio on Dexter Street in Pawtucket, Landry has taught thousands of children to tap, foxtrot and swing.

Now that the former mill building has been sold, she says she is ready to quit.

“God’s telling me to hang up my shoes,” Landry says. She pauses, then adds, “If this gentleman hadn’t bought the building, I’d still be teaching.”

Even today, when a photographer poses her for a picture, she tilts her head, smiles broadly and flips her sequined hat into the air.

Her second-floor studio, with its uneven wooden floors and peeling paint, is a shrine to a career that began during the Great Depression. Every inch is covered with newspaper clippings and photographs of her students’ performances. Landry herself is in photographs with Liberace and Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and Johnny Cash.

As a young woman, tap was Landry’s specialty and there are dozens of snapshots of her in heels, fishnet stockings, and a very short black suit.

Landry had an unassuming start. She arrived in the United States hidden beneath a pile of potatoes in her parents’ truck. At the time, immigrant families could bring only one child across the Canadian border and Landry had an older sister. If Landry had cried, she never would have made it.

Landry began dancing out of economic necessity. Her father, a skilled step-dancer, earned only $3 a week during the Depression, so 10-year-old Landry volunteered to go door-to-door, teaching children how to dance. She earned 50 cents a week.

When she was 14, Landry saw a newspaper ad looking for vaudeville-style dancers. Landry lied about her age and began performing in clubs from Newport to Worcester. The managers told her, “No excess baggage,” which meant, “Don’t bring your mother.”

In 1936, when she was still in high school, she opened her own dance studio in Central Falls. Days, Landry worked at Brown & Sharpe Mfg. making military belts. Nights, she taught dance.

Former students say Landry was irrepressible and rarely took no for an answer.

“She has a zest for life that’s such an inspiration,” says successful dancer Kevin Doyle, 63, of Barrington. “She finds happiness in everything.”

No one intimidated Landry and no one, it seems, could resist her charm and effervescence.

Landry remembers talking herself onto the “Tonight” show, hosted by Johnny Carson. She told her students to keep their heads high and marched them right into his front office.

When Carson appeared, he said, “Sing me a song that’s funny.” She sang a foolish ditty about puppies and landed a part on his show that evening.

She showed a similar chutzpah with Johnny Cash, waltzing into his Nashville mansion as guests were appearing for a wedding. When she bumped into him, she asked him to hear her friend, a talented performer, play guitar. He took both of them to his studio.

Landry’s motto goes something like this: “If you don’t knock, no one will open the door.”

Her curiosity has taken her from London to Paris, where some of her fancy costumes were made. A broken heart led her to Cuba, where she performed on a stage rumored to be visited by Castro.

During the 1950s, Landry even had her own local television show in which she sold Buicks.

But teaching spoke to her heart and soul.

“What I remember most is she took the time for people,” says former student Kim Audette, 51, of Pawtucket. “She drove us to succeed but she was never hard. She put everybody first.”

Landry attributes her longevity to three things: She never drank, she never smoked and she begins each day with a hot shower followed by a cold one. But it’s her dancing that she says has kept her forever young. When she was 80, her doctor told her she had the bone density of an 18-year-old.

This Saturday, the doors to the Theresa Landry Dance Studio will close but not before Landry throws a final party, free of charge, to former students and friends. It will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. and offer light refreshments.

It’s hard to believe this is her last waltz.