P.E. teacher Debbie Ogden discovered the determination of a true performer during her first dance showcase at South when she witnessed another girl’s mother lose a finger to a swinging door in the entrance way. Ogden began crying and her mom rushed her away from the scene. She was so shaken that she felt like giving up on the performance.

As Ogden got dressed in her first costume, she still didn’t want to perform. She wanted to quit the show and make sure the girl’s mom was OK. But her mother reminded her of their motto: the show must go on.

After calming down, Ogden and her fellow dancers went backstage and prepared for the performance, when a younger girl dancing before them vomited on the stage. The backstage crew tried to clean it up as best they could, but didn’t get it all. Before she was ready, they were being ushered onto the stage. She remembers dancing through the unbearable stench, reminding herself of those same five words.

During Ogden’s whole life, she has loved dance and maintained her ‘show must go on’ attitude. She began taking dance lessons when she was four but began dancing even before that. Ogden’s mother was a baton twirler as an adult, and her constant dancing around the house inspired Ogden to try it out.

“There was really no question about it,” Ogden said, “As soon as the studio would let me in, I began dancing.”

Her first few years she took tumbling, tap, jazz and ballet. She would perform with the rest of her class at the annual “Ranchmart Fair,” where people would eat ice cream at 31 Flavors and watch the dancers as the main entertainment for the evening.

“I loved having people right there in front watching us,” Debbie said. “As I got older, the dances were more complex and I felt that we were the center of attention.”

Now, Ogden’s passions for dancing and teaching coexist as she teaches dance, gymnastics and gym foundations. In her classes, she has a variety of dancers from beginning to advanced, which Ogden thinks is a blessing and makes the classes more interesting. Students in her class learn a variety of dance styles, from square and line dancing, to tap and jazz. Debbie loves seeing the beginning kids learn from the advanced kids, and develop their skills to an intermediate or advanced level by the time they leave her class.

Ogden remembers a particular girl who was extremely shy at the beginning of the semester. She would participate in group activities, but preferred to sit in the corner. By the end of class, however, the girl had become a natural leader in the class, and even created a few of her own dances. Ogden believes this is a perfect example of how dancing can help people open up and feel free to express themselves.

Sophomore Julia Davis was enrolled in Ogden dance class last semester. She agreed that dancing with Ogden provided an opportunity to be outgoing.

“This class made me more open to meeting new people because I met so many people in the class and danced with them,” Davis said.

Debbie’s freshman year at Shawnee Mission North, she tried out for cheerleading to take a break from dance while she was at school, but she always made time for dance. Every day her mom would pick her up after school and Ogden would change into her dance attire in the car and eat a quick dinner while her mom rushed her to dance by four p.m.

While at the studio, Debbie would dance constantly. It was also around this time that she began teaching classes to adults and giving private lessons.

When she wasn’t teaching dance, Debbie was taking tap, jazz and ballet herself. Dancing made her feel like a better person, and taught her self discipline. Every night during her high school years, her dad would pick her up after five hours of dance, and she would start on her homework at nine p.m.

When it came time for her senior year at North, Ogden was cut from cheerleading, so a friend invited her to try out for the drill team. Ogden accepted the offer, and both girls made varsity drill team. While she was on the drill team, she had to start thinking about her plan for college, but all she wanted to do was dance. She tried to convince her dad that she needed to go to New York City and turn her passion into a profession before she was too old to dance professionally.

” I really wanted to be a rockette,” Debbie said “Even now, whenever they come into town, I buy a ticket to go and watch the show.”

In the end, her dad agreed that she could go dance in New York, but only after she had gotten a college degree.

Ogden chose to attend college her freshmen year at the university of Utah where she majored in ballet. One of the courses she took was a modern dance class, which she had never taken before because it wasn’t very popular in Kansas City. She entered the studio wearing pink footed tights and a leotard, and realized that the rest of the class was dressed in cut off tights, t-shirts and no shoes. Debbie didn’t like the no shoes look, because after so many years of keeping her toenails short and standing her her toes. Her feet had calluses, a crooked toe and thick skin.

One of the first days the professor told the class to pretend like they were walking through marshmallow fluff.

“I wasn’t very good at this,” Debbie said “Even though I am outgoing, I felt incredibly self conscious doing it. I was used to being told what to do, while this dance was free form.”

Even though Debbie loved dance, after her freshman year at Utah she transferred to K-State and majored in teaching physical education and minored in dance because she had so many dance hours.

Debbie’s older brother Rick supported her decision to change to K-State from Utah.

“She is a great dancer,” her brother, Rick Ogden said. “She has always loved it. By the time she had moved to K-State, she knew that she wanted to teach people to dance. Debbie is remarkable at it and she has always been good.”

Since teaching at East she has tried to keep up with dance, her last attempt was when she joined a clogging troupe a few years ago. She had heard them advertised on the radio, and went to check it out. She was glad to be on her feet again and practice the shuffle, hop, step progression she had done so many times before. However, Ogden realized that she wouldn’t be able to teach and be a member of the troupe when she had to miss a practice because of back to school night.

After K-State Ogden began teaching at an elementary school in Leavenworth. The kids had never had P.E. class before, and they loved her incorporation of dancing into their workout. For the younger kids, Debbie would teach tumbling and simple moves, but for the 4th through 6th graders she would teach them jazz and square dancing.

Girls in her classes loved the dances that they learned so much that they formed a dance club with her as their sponsor. After school she would teach them different routines, and even sometimes would ask them to pretend to walk through marshmallow fluff as her old modern professor had told her.

Although Debbie only taught at Leavenworth for a few years before East called her, she felt like she made a difference in the kids’ lives through dance. When East called and offered her a spot as the drill team coach and as a gym teacher Debbie accepted the job. She was excited to introduce more students to her life’s greatest passion, dancing.

Sometimes after a hard day, she doesn’t want to go to her next class, but then she reminds herself ‘ The show must go on.’

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