Moving on: S.F. arts school’s dance teacher makes her final bow

S.F. arts school’s dance teacher makes her final bow

On Sunday, the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason was packed with parents and students from the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts waiting to see the dance department’s annual spring concert.

Minutes before the show, a steady parade of people, including present-day students and past students who became dance teachers and tech workers, climbed the stairs to the back of the theater to greet Elvia Marta, the department’s director.

According to Hinman, it’s a fitting tribute for Marta, who has been a major influence for “thousands and thousands of dancers.”

In addition to directing the dance department, Marta taught mandatory introductory classes for SOTA’s non-dance students, teaching hundreds of awkward teenagers the rudiments of dancing.

McClung put Marta in touch with the late Raymond Sawyer, a local dance teacher and choreographer, who taught Marta the basics of Afro-American dance, jazz, modern style and how to choreograph a set.

According to Marta, McClung tricked her into teaching.

Shortly after she started training as a dancer, Marta accompanied McClung on a trip to a teachers’ conference in Hayward where Sawyer was scheduled to teach a class.

After the class, Marta received offers to teach in various Bay Area school districts.

During these busy years, Marta said it wasn’t unusual for her to teach 15 classes a week and perform with multiple dance companies.

“Elvia is like a San Francisco staple — she is dance,” said Angela Dorantes, a dancer who graduated from SOTA in 1993 and now runs a dance school called Steppin’ Out Dance Studio in San Francisco.

Crystal Lee, a 2009 SOTA dance graduate who co-founded a tech startup in San Francisco last year, said that Marta set the bar high for physical training and that it wasn’t uncommon for students to arrive at class to find their teacher completing her first hour of sit-ups.