All she wants to do is DANCE

Photo

Canfield resident Lana VanAuker just loves to dance. She says she dances everywhere she goes — Italy, Spain, Morocco, Hawaii and right here at home in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Her most recent audience was a group of senior citizens at the Senior Independence adult day care in Boardman, where she donned a traditional Hawaiian costume and performed the hula. Photo by: MADELYN P. HASTINGS | THE VINDICATOR

All she wants to do is DANCE

All she wants to do is dance

By JoAnn Jones

Special to The Vindicator

CANFIELD

“Anywhere you go, you can dance.”

So says Lana VanAuker, a lifelong resident of Canfield, who dances everywhere she goes — Italy, Spain, Morocco, Hawaii and right here at home in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

“We were in Venice, and my grandson said, ‘Hey, Grandma, they’re playing the drums,’” VanAuker said, “and all of a sudden we were dancing.”

“Everywhere I travel, I take lessons,” VanAuker said, demonstrating with her hands how a hula dance tells a story. “I’ve learned a lot.”

A 1968 graduate of Canfield High School, VanAuker began tap dancing at age 5.

“My sister wouldn’t go up [on stage],” she said. “Some of the time I didn’t know what I was doing, but I pretended I did.”

And now she’s been dancing for about 58 years — at festivals, nursing homes, country clubs and children’s parties, among other places. In her Canfield studio once a week, she teaches belly dancing, a dance she’s been teaching for 40 years.

“My granddaughter and I dance at nursing homes,” she said. “She’s performed about 150 times. I’ve done it over 1,000 times.” She said her granddaughter, Leanna Hartsough, a student at Youngstown State University, is an “outstanding dancer” who does hip-hop, hula and Spanish dances. She also teaches Zumba, a Latin dance fitness program, at her grandmother’s studio.

A full-time activity therapist at Trumbull Memorial Hospital, VanAuker said she loves to see the smiles on people’s faces as she dances.

“I like to help lift people’s spirits,” she said. “My love for older people started when I worked at Park Vista Nursing Home about 25 years ago. One of my greatest joys is to see people smile and bring forth memories with music and dancing.”

“If I dance with somebody, they’re smiling,” she said. “I know how to do all the dances so I say ‘Let’s go,’ and we start dancing around the room.”

VanAuker believes dancing and exercise are so important that she produced a dance video that demonstrates chair exercise for older people. And because of how well she does her job at Trumbull Memorial, she received the Activity Therapy Award of Excellence at the therapists’ state convention in 2010.

VanAuker also enjoys ballroom dancing, which she does competitively, and dancing at local ethnic festivals, such as the Greek, Italian, and Slavic festivals in the Youngstown-Warren area.

“People from ethnic backgrounds really know dancing,” she said. “My friends and I like to polka, so we go to the Slavic festivals.”

VanAuker doesn’t limit her love for artistry to just dancing; she also is an avid photographer and the treasurer of the Youngstown Camera Club, as well as a member of the International Society of Photographers.

“I started taking photos with 4-H when I was 11 or 12,” she said. Her studio is adorned with photos of her grandchildren, an Amish buggy in New Wilmington, Pa., and Venice at night.

“Sometimes I just put my camera around my neck and walk the bike trails behind my house,” she added as she showed a photograph of a small bear she saw on Turner Road in Canfield a few weeks ago. “I’ve entered all kinds of contests. I even send my photos to The Vindicator’s Snapz.”

“I love sunsets and I love wintertime,” she said, adding that Lake Milton, Berlin Lake and Mill Creek Park offer wonderful opportunities for photography.

VanAuker, who said her mother named her after the late actress Lana Turner, has combined her love for dance and photography with her love for teaching both old and young people to make an impact on others.

“You touch people over the years, and you don’t really realize what you do when kids are young,” she said. “A Youngstown teenager I taught is now on TV and teaches exercises and yoga. She said to me, ‘Because of the wonderful job you did, I am who I am today.’”

“If you can teach children to believe in themselves,” she added, “you’ve taught them how to manage life.”

VanAuker appears to manage her life very well as she leads a healthy lifestyle by walking every day and eating fruit, which she said she loves.

“I walk during breaks at work and walk the bike trail after work,” she said.

“Exercise is the fountain of youth. And I dance an hour every day, too. Dancing makes you stay young.”

Because of her contributions to the Youngstown area she was nominated as one of 25 women for the prestigious Athena Award this year.

Van Auker said she was “so honored to be a nominee.”

“The banquet was at Mr. Anthony’s in May,” she said, “and it was one of the most elegant, beautiful occasions I’ve attended in my life. Seven hundred people were there for the 25 nominees. I met some wonderful people, women who have given of themselves.”

Teaching more dance and producing a second video are two goals VanAuker said she wants to achieve.

“Dance is not only physical fitness,” she said, “but it’s good for mind, body and soul.”