The founding of the Illinois Ballet

By Linda Hughes

Mary Price Boday did not start dancing until she was 18. “Then it took a lot of willpower,” she said. “That is late for a girl.”

Even though she started late, she has put an awful lot into her years as a dancer. She trained with Martha Graham and at the Julliard School of Music and danced with a company in Zurich, Switzerland.

She established Illinois Ballet in 1999, and works in a studio on the Riverfront that is larger than Joeffrey School studio in New York. Boday wanted to dance from the time she was five years old but there was no decent school where she lived. Her mother knew that poor training would leave bad habits. She found a good school in Oklahoma City and was ready to enroll Mary in it when Mary became ill.

When she was between 12 and 13, Mary contracted rheumatic fever. The doctor said he thought it was caused by her tonsils and gave her penicillin shots for several weeks.

Still, she continued to be sick for nine months with one thing after another, including strep throat several times.

As she turned 14, she went into the hospital and had both her tonsils and adenoids out. The bled a lot and the doctor did not know the blood will filling up the entire cavity of her nose.

One night at home her mother could not stop the bleeding and took her to the hospital, where her eyes rolled back into her head and she went into cardiac arrest because of the loss of blood. Doctors massaged her heart and brought her back. As she has a rare blood type, a call went out for donors. At that time she was 5-foot-six and weighed 82 pounds.

The belief back then was that after a serious heart event, a person should not exercise vigorously for five years. Thus, she did not begin ballet training until she entered Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at the University of Oklahoma, taking four dance classes a day plus carrying 21 college credits.

“I learned choreography through the university,” Boday said. “It was part of our training. I was fortunate to have good training. I’ve also learned by watching how other people choreograph. It’s a huge thing to learn. I put a lot into it.”

Upon graduation, Mary went to New York City and was introduced to the Martha Graham dance movement. She studied for six years at Graham’s School and at Julliard School of Music.

When her dance partner auditioned and was offered a contract with a Sweden company, Mary began sending letters to other Swedish companies. Her letters got passed around. Subsequently, she danced professionally with the Zurich Ballet and the St. Gallen Stadt Theatre Ballet of Switzerland. In New York City, she danced with the Leonard Fowler Ballet Company and in the modern companies Pearl Lang Company, Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, Larry Richardson Dance Company, and the Gaku Dance Company. She taught and choreographed at Harkness Ballet and Mary Anthony Dance School.

She has also taught and choreographed at Jefferson High School of the Performing Arts in Portland, Ore., the University of Illinois and Cornish College of Seattle, the National Academy of the Arts of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, and David Howard Summer Intensive Workshops. She was the dance director at Mercyhurst College.

Boday stopped dancing in 1976 to have her son and then her daughter. “I didn’t have time to do everything and raise children,” she said.

Her son danced with the Pacific Northwest Ballet until he was 12, “under protest.” After a girl told everyone at school, he quit. Her daughter danced in Swan Lake with the Art Institute in Seattle. Boday visited her daughter in Seattle only about a month ago and taught in exchange for her daughter getting free classes.

She went back to dancing but generally retired around age 30. “Your technique starts to go down after age 33,” she said. “I wanted to stop while I was at the top.”

She was artistic director with the Peoria Ballet for five years before being fired. She asked to learn why, but was never told. She subsequently sued for severance pay and won just recently. The suit was not about money, Mary said. It was about the Peoria Ballet “defacing me. I felt I had to stand up for myself.”

After Mary was fired, a fellow Peoria Ballet dancer quit and went to Mary’s house to suggest they open a ballet school together. “We decided to do the whole thing,” Boday recalled.

They originally opened as Central Illinois Ballet and later changed the name to Illinois Ballet. Central Illinois Dance Center is comprised of the Central Illinois Dance School, Illinois Ballet, Central Illinois Dance School Youth Ensemble, Central Illinois Dance School Company, Illinois Ballet Company Apprentices, Flynn’s Irish Dancers, Elite Force Dance Teams and The Dance Works.

Karen Ingersoll is ballet mistress and principal dancer.

Boday also serves on the adjunct faculty at Knox College. She has a working relationship with Bradley. Eureka College dancers train with her and get college credit.

The cast of “Phantom of the Opera” took ballet classes with her as well as rehearsed in the studio. “They said I taught just like everyone in New York does,” Boday said. Her dancers also dance with the Illinois Opera every year. This summer they will again dance at a Peoria Municipal Band concert.

As the landlord has raised the rent on her quarters she plans to move her studio at the end of July, but about only a block. “I want to stay by the water if possible,” she said.

She is proud of her studio. Church pews are available for visitors to sit in to watch classes and practice sessions. “Everyone loves them. They’ve been great,” she said. She has brought in plants.

When she opened the studio, she had nothing. As a non-profit, she was able to request items from State Farm Insurance Cos. as the firm upgrades. She got computers, a desk, file cabinets and a conference table and chairs.

No wonder that Boday makes her studio as comfortable as possible. She spends 14 hours a day there. “I don’t leave here until 10:30 at night,” she said. When the company is getting close to a major performance, the dancers even rehearse on Sundays.

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