By admin 
- Denise Bellog, 71, grew up dancing in New Jersey.
- She has been a member of the Timeless Torches dance team for 16 years.
- She doesn’t let her struggle with hearing loss stop her from pursuing her passion.
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This as told essay is based on a conversation with Denise Bellog. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Performing arts have been a part of my life since I was a child in Newark, New Jersey. In high school I won an award for poetry recitation, and I was fortunate enough to have some really great experiences dance training.
Growing up, my mother came across two established dancers coming out of the vaudeville era in the 1950s and enrolled me in dance lessons with them. In their classes I had the opportunity to learn all kinds of things world dances. We didn’t just learn ballet, tap dance or modern jazz. Thanks to these lessons I can dance Tinikling with bamboo sticks from the Philippines, play castanets, do hula and Irish step dancing.
As a kid, I thought everyone learned dance styles from around the world while they were there dance schoolbut that is often not the case. It was a very eye-opening experience.
I continued to perform as an adult
My journey into performing arts did not end in childhood. As an adult I auditioned for several Broadway shows but was not cast. Instead, I started doing a lot of work in community theater, and I’ve been teaching theater for fifty years. I have taught at the middle school, high school, and college levels. I always say I’m a woman of many performances, and specifically in 2001 I was teaching at two places. All week I taught public middle school and high school courses, and on Saturday I taught two back-to-back three-credit courses at William Paterson University.
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Everyone wondered why I would teach all week and then get up early at 8 a.m. to teach on the weekend, but I told them I loved it. And I loved that my students wanted to be there. Many of my college-level students at the time had full lives, whether they were married or had childrenbut they were interested in hearing me share my passion. I view sharing my passion as a mission and something I am willing to pay for. I still teach at William Paterson University, and now teach public speaking.
About 16 years ago, my daughter was considering pursuing a career in dance cruise ships. As a theater person, I went into town to buy trade papers, where you could find casting notices. I knew Disney was doing a casting call for their cruise ship, so I was looking through a trade magazine to get information for my daughter when I saw an advertisement that the Timeless Torches dance team was looking for 16 dancers over 50.
My daughter ended up not going to the Disney audition, but I decided to audition for the Timeless Torches.
I didn’t want my hearing loss to play a role in my audition
When I was 46, I started doing it losing my hearing. Everyone kept telling me that you have the hearing of an 80-year-old, and if you’re 46, that’s not good. It was difficult for me as a person who loves theater and dance.
By the time I auditioned for the Timeless Torches, I had been wearing hearing aids for about ten years. But I decided to give the audition a try, even though my hearing aids weren’t great. I didn’t want sympathy from anyone. I just wanted to audition like everyone else.
During the day the auditionwe had numbers pinned to our chests with safety pins. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to tell when they were calling my number, so I looked around and tried to come up with some other system for knowing when it was my turn. Unfortunately, I realized that the numbers were not consecutive. When they finally called my number, a man next to me said, “I think it’s you,” and also informed me that I had my number upside down. I did my best.
I gave the coach my daughter’s number to let me know if I made the cut. It was incredible to discover that I made it into the team. I could never have imagined what it would become.
Once I was cast, I told the team about my hearing loss, and that’s the case now cochlear implants. I can read lips and can’t always pick out all the words to the music, but I can still feel the beat. When I don’t understand the instructions in rehearsal, I just turn to someone and say, “What did she say again?” My teammates helped me a lot.
The oldest dancer in our team is 87, and we also have dancers in their forties. My daughter is 42, so I love being challenged by children I could have had. They bring a whole new energy to our team, and it’s fantastic.
Who would have ever thought I would do that hip hop? But I’m hopping and hopping.
In our team we have every profession, every gender and every size. It was the best chance ever to meet all these people.
I am grateful to my parents for letting me grow up with dance lessons. It’s finally paying off.
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