Dancing or Sport?

This was a dilemma that accompanied me throughout my entire childhood and I was hardly looking for any answer. I can say that my positive attitude towards sport has been showing its signs since I was born. I befriended water even sooner than the dance floor and the ballet pole. Though there were no toddler swimming courses in the ‘80s, I was moving completely naturally in the water. On weekends, my parents used to take me to swimming courses (to my instructor Jožo – that is what we called him and I can still remember it :) ). If you want to know how I learnt to swim sooner than I learnt to walk – it was very simple. I was thrown into the water, Jožo forgot about me and I swam on and on with the board in my hand until one mum noticed that the little girl had blue lips and tears were pouring down her cheeks :) . So they took me out, dried me off and from that day I declared that I could swim.

During the week, I used to attend sport gymnastics classes. My parents had quite a hard time with me – there was nothing which I did not want to do. Eventually, I attended classes of modern gymnastics, Spanish dances and water ballet trainings. At that time, the first musical elementary school Alkana opened in Bratislava and the decision was made – during school I attended classes of ballet, hip hop, step, expressive dancing, gymnastics, dramatic art and singing, hence everything that gave me joy. However, the situation became unacceptable (not only for my parents) – trainings every day and musical performances on the weekends. It was inevitable that I had to define my priorities and make a decision, considering the perspective of the following years as well. Since my brother had a talent for sport and accident played its part here as well, a possibly surprising decision was made – we became a part of the Rock & Roll family in the RRC Hydrorock club.

Under the direction of my trainer, Mr. Stanislav Kočiš, who trained several multiple champions of the Slovak Republic, Europe and the world, my brother and I (later with another partner) were a successful competition pair. We represented Slovakia in the acrobatic club in competitions throughout Europe for 10 years. I can still remember how my mother used to create and tailor competition costumes at night and decorate them several times even when we were waking up for breakfast. We trained 6 times a week for 2 hours. The trainings also included gymnastic training under the direction of the late trainer Ladislav Kornoš (what is interesting, he was my father’s trainer when he was young) and we also had compulsory jazz training in cooperation with the dance theatre Bralen under the direction of Mr. Rastislav Letenay. I consider 3rd place in the European Championship in the Formations category to be my biggest success.

I ended my active rock and roll involvement mainly due to a lack of time (though with a heavy heart) during my study at the English bilingual lyceum. However, the dance spirit in me fell asleep only for a little while – during university studies, I “tasted” hip hop in Fredy Ayisi’s trainings, with whom I trained briefly though very intensely. Despite this, my hip hop technique is not nearly as developed as that of Justis Lorenzo :) , but at least I managed to loosen my gymnastically hard rock and roll movement, which undoubtedly is a part of this kind of dance.

Later on, I wanted to have my own dance group, my own choreographies and to offer my own dance performances. Though I have never done dancing as my main activity, it has always been a pleasant variation from my job.

Today, however, the situation is completely different – I have a wonderful and healthy daughter who makes dance motions to any kind of melody (no wonder – her father has done ballroom dancing for 8 years as well as sport), and the time came for me to fulfil my life-long dream of making a pleasant and friendly environment for all fans of motion, dance and aerobics under the same roof.

The dance schools in New York and London have been my major inspiration. I have been stunned by their atmosphere that worked as a drug – you just want to “taste” it again and again. I believe that Riverpark Dance School will become such a place and that people of different ages will visit it as a place where they can feel the joy of movement and spend pleasant moments of relaxation and peace in a nice environment. I would like to invite all of you to see if we have succeeded in this.

Iveta Tkáčová, Founder of Riverpark Dance School