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Palo Alto Online

Still on her toes

by Robyn Israel

The year was 1932, and a young couple named Mabel and Heston Beaudoin were just starting a new business in Palo Alto. Their new venture: Beaudoin's Cottage Studio, a multipurpose facility that offered children the opportunity to take dance lessons, stage puppet shows and put on plays. Other services included supervised parties, a nursery school and rehabilitative assistance for children with speech defects.

Situated at 464 Colorado Ave., the studio stood at the corner of Cowper Street, which back then was merely a dirt road, surrounded by artichoke fields and pear trees. To call the facility, you merely dialed 5557. "Rhythm is our business" read the Beaudoins' business card.

Seventy years later, rhythm is still the main business at Beaudoin's Dance Studio. Still located at the same site, it now focuses exclusively on dance lessons, offering ballet, tap and ballroom dancing for children and adults. Many couples come to learn how to waltz at their weddings.

At the heart and helm of the business is Heston's second wife, Flo Beaudoin, who has been teaching three generations of locals since 1939. A gracious and energetic woman, she has lovingly carried on the tradition since Heston died in 1995.

On Saturday, Flo will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of Beaudoin's Dance Studio with an open house celebration. All current and former students and their parents are invited to stop by, meet fellow alumni and look at photographs taken at the studio over the years. Spontaneous dancing is also encouraged, as are reminiscences of shared experiences at the facility.

Between 50,000 and 70,000 students have passed through this local institution since it opened its doors 70 years ago. It remains the only dance studio on the Peninsula operating this long and owned by one family, according to Flo.

Beaudoin's Dance Studio currently numbers about 100 students, said Flo, who remains the studio's owner, manager and sole instructor. She works with a wide range of ages: children as young as 3 years old and adults who are in their 80s. Among her students are Eric Nielsen, who takes tap dancing every Monday night, along with his 10-year-old son, Mikkel, and his 8-year-old daughter, Torie.

Inspired by "Riverdance," the family longed to take formal lessons, and investigated classes at Cubberley Community Center, but couldn't find one that would teach children and adults together. Guided by a referral, they found what they were looking for at Beaudoin's, where Flo enthusiastically teaches the finer points of tap dancing to parents and their youngsters. The first half hour will be devoted to traditional steps, Nielsen said, while the second segment typically involves the performance of a dance routine.

"She'll work with people. She's really known for that," Nielsen said. "She runs small classes that are very intimate. She's a super-energetic lady. And she cares about her students. She gives Christmas, Valentine and Halloween presents."

At first Mikkel and Torie were a little timid around Flo, Nielsen said. But they have since warmed to the diminutive dance instructor, who spent Christmas with the Nielsen family last year.

"She runs a very disciplined studio. Even though it's informal, she keeps you in form, in straight line. She's a classic dance instructor from years back. You can tell."

A native of Calgary, Alberta, Flo moved to the Bay Area at the age of one-and-a-half and started dancing when she was about 8 years old. Seeking tap dance lessons, she first came to Beaudoin's Dance Studio in 1939, along with her sister, Val. Impressed by her talent, Heston hired Flo to be an instructor at his Mountain View branch, where she taught children. At that time, Beaudoin was renting additional studio space at a number of different locations, from San Carlos to Santa Cruz. It wasn't long, however, before the professional relationship turned romantic, and in 1941 the couple married (Heston's first wife, Mabel, passed away during childbirth, leaving a son).

A native of Utah, Heston grew up in Palo Alto and studied dance at UC Berkeley, where he was one of two men in the tap-dancing class ("he loved that!" Flo recalled). He built the studio with his father in 1931, much to the disbelief of neighbors and other locals who felt nobody would come take dance lessons during the Depression. But Beaudoin proved the naysayers wrong.

"He was a good teacher, Flora said. "He kept everybody interested because he was always joking. If you goofed up, he wouldn't make a big deal out of it. He'd make a big joke and carry you over. His whole life he had a ball."

Affectionately known by their students as Mr. And Mrs. B., they taught ballroom dancing together, and also choreographed Fathers Frolics (a group of men who performed at the Elks Club), PTA shows and the Big Game Gaieties, which would typically take place the night before the Stanford-Berkeley football game.

In the 1950s and 1960s, their instruction also included etiquette training for teenagers enrolled in their cotillion and ballroom classes. Boys were taught to escort the girls to the car, and girls were instructed to introduce their young men to their parents.

"I used to hate to do that!," remarked Cathy Graham, a former Beaudoin and Palo Alto High School student whom Flo recently ran into.

Today, Flo still stresses the importance of basic manners to her students. For instance, at the conclusion of a dance, she will instruct the man to twirl his partner around, take her by the arm and graciously escort her off the dance floor. Simply saying "Thank you" is also encouraged.

"I teach etiquette as much as I can," Flora said, expressing her dismay at the loss of common courtesies in modern society.

Nielsen, for one, appreciates the services offered by the charming veteran. He concurrently takes an adult tap class at Cubberley, but said he learns more at Beaudoin's.

"The adult class focuses on the modern, flashy entertainment value, whereas Mrs. B. teaches the art of dance and brings along the history."

With the Nielsens, Flo will often put on different albums, some from the 1920s, others from the 1960s. But the dance is the same, regardless of the music.

"You realize dance is exactly the same now as it was then," Nielsen said. "It's a timeless thing."

Still passionate about her craft, Flo has no plans to retire. She lives next door to her studio, and she is still having fun, she said. And her lithe physique is proof-positive of the benefits derived by a life devoted to dance.

"It always made me feel good when I moved. It still does."


What: Beaudoin's Dance Studios' 70th anniversary celebration. An open house and reunion is planned.

Where: 464 Colorado Ave. (corner of Cowper Street)

When: Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.

Info: Call (650) 326-2184