WOODLAND HILLS — On the roof of the vacant store on Devonshire, a man is removing a large sign that is shaped like a fish and has "Eat Me" painted on it. Inside, pieces of monofilament fishing line lie tangled on the forlorn carpet and a display fixture droops half-unhinged from the ceiling.
This is not what Kathy Downey sees, however, as she scans and paces off the dusty space vacated half-a-year ago by the Taylor Tackle Shop.
Downey sees, in the eye of her mind, a long wall of glittering mirror. She sees children whip-twirling down the length of the room, flinging arms out and gathering them in again with every turn, their metal-clad shoes tattooing a hard wooden floor in a five-count rhythm, bup-bup-diddy-up, bup-bup-diddy-up . . .
Could this be the place she's been waiting for so hard for two decades? Are the hand-to-mouth times, the gypsy times, finally about to end?
A few days later, Downey is conducting class at the dance school where she sporadically subleases space.
"Hips under!" she barks. "Tuck it! Squeeze it! Hold it! . . . five . . . six . . . Heels up over the toes! . . . seven . . . eight . . . "Omigod, MARSHMALLOW MUSCLES! . . ."
Along the walls, eight girls and two boys dip and rise through their warmups while Yaz and Boyz-2-Men pulse through the sound system. Downey, a short, energetic woman of 44, moves among them, adjusting an unstraight lower back here, a hunched pair of shoulders there, her piercing exhortations as relentless as the bass-throb of the music.
"Long necks! I want to see giraffes! . . . up, down, up, down . . . No bouncing! No jiggles! No Jell-O arms! . . . Make those heels LOOK at each other! . . . Elbows to the side! . . . Don't stick that FINGER up!"
Downey has a reputation for refusing to compromise in training digressive young bodies to unthinking eloquence.
"She's a tough cookie, very dedicated and demanding and precise, and yet the kids respect that," says Linda Young of Canoga Park, whose two daughters have been taking tap dancing lessons from Downey for more than a decade.
"She really understands the mechanics of the body. A teacher from New York, a man who'd danced in 'Sophisticated Ladies,' saw my daughter dance and was just amazed. 'Your feet are just wonderful,' he said. 'Where have you gotten your tap from?' "
