A Lesson In Resilience: Long-Time Dance Teacher Sande Mulé Perseveres Through “Nightmare” of a Year
Quitting was never an option for Sande Mulé.
Not when she was a young Broadway hopeful, faithfully riding the train to New York City every single day so she could pursue her professional dance dreams. Not when the directors and choreographers she was auditioning for told her she was “too short,” among other criticisms, and sent her back home to New Jersey with a rejection.
(It’s important to note: They didn’t all reject her. Sande appeared in plenty of shows in her teens, working as a backup dancer and dancing in the ballet company at Radio City Music Hall, and even serving as Angela Lansbury’s understudy in “Mame.”)
When the unforgiving grind of show business started to take its toll and drag her down, Sande didn’t quit. She just channeled her passion for dance in a different direction. She opened Sande Mulé Dance Academy in 1969 and launched a teaching career that would span more than five decades.
...And she’s not done yet!
Not even the heartache of the past year, which Sande calls “a nightmare,” could stop this dedicated dance teacher from practicing her craft.
In the summer of 2020, Sande had to close the dance studio in Wrightstown, PA, that she had owned for more than 20 years (pictured below). As the COVID-19 pandemic stretched on, she lost a large portion of her student base. She had to scramble to find available space so her remaining students could continue dancing, and she even picked up a part-time job to pay rent on that space.
Sande went through all of this while dealing with a string of personal tragedies that she prefers to keep private. Still, she did not quit.
“I’m tough,” Sande says. “I’ve been through a lot in my life.”
She’s tough, and intensely committed to her kids.
Sande, who taught more than 300 students at the original Sande Mulé Dance Academy in New Jersey before relocating to Pennsylvania, estimates that she has 30 dancers currently enrolled at her school. She’s holding class twice a week at a synagogue, after meeting in the yoga room at a fitness center for a few months, and she continues to hunt tirelessly for a new studio location while working part-time in customer service on the side.
Staying afloat is hard work, but Sande keeps at it — because of those kids.
“The kids that I have, those 30 kids, I want to keep them and nurture them,” she says. “I might go three more years and retire when they graduate, but I don’t know. I say that now, but I don’t even know what I would do if I retired.
“I’ve got to find a place for another maybe three years. I owe it to the kids and I want them to finish. They come to me for fun, and over the past year, all they’re doing is virtual learning over the computer at home. Dance gets them out of the house, and for an hour, we can forget about school, forget about everything else, and let’s just dance.”
Although Sande had to cancel her June recital in 2020, she found a way for her students to perform their recital pieces at an area competition in November (see below). And while she has hustled and improvised to keep classes going without a studio to call home, she has made sure that this year’s recital will go on as planned.
Sande Mulé Dance Academy will hold its 2021 recital at The Fuge in Warminster, PA, on June 27. It will be Sande’s 53rd recital as a dance teacher.
What happens after that? Sande isn’t sure. Her arrangement with the synagogue will run out soon, and right now, she is actively seeking her next landing spot.
No matter what the future holds — and whether or not she really decides to retire in a few years — Sande can look back on a 53-year career full of remarkable accomplishments. Sure, it was great to appear in Broadway shows as a teenager, but in teaching, Sande has had the chance to touch lives in more meaningful ways than she ever could as a performer.
She has set an example for generations of dancers; in fact, many of her original students now have children and grandchildren who are involved in dance. And with her never-say-die-attitude and perseverance during these difficult times, she has proven herself just as strong a role model outside the studio as in it.
“I teach not to be a professional dancer,” Sande says. “I don’t teach them that. I teach them to respect each other. Have fun. Exercise. The kids, I think, come to me for fun. They like what we do. I’m not strict.
“I do this because I love it and it’s my passion to teach. To tell you the truth, my husband always told me I needed to make more money, and I would say, ‘But it’s not about the money! I love what I do!’ This is why I don’t have anything today, but you know what? I have the accomplishment of seeing these kids succeed.
“I’ve had girls go on to Broadway and go on to dance in beauty pageants. They write me letters: ‘Ms Sande, if it wasn’t for you, I would have never gotten up in front of a courtroom. I’m a lawyer now, because you helped give me confidence.’ Dance gives them confidence. I had such shy kids, and I put them in the front, and they would dance with their head down, and now they’re lawyers. They’re in courtrooms. They’re in front of people talking, all because they danced. That’s what it’s about. It’s not about making the money.”
