QHS Alumni Spotlight: Curtis Jacobs ‘74
By: Katie Rodemich ’02
Curtis Jacobs, now a worldwide artistic dancer, was once a student in the class of 1974, which was the first class in the current Quincy High School building. Curt credits the Quincy Senior High fine arts department for helping him with his start in performance of dance and musicals. The opportunities he had performing in high school made him realize that the traditional path of moving onto college was not for him. Curt has performed in Acapulco, Mexico, as the lead dancer at the famous Princess Hotel, and on the SS Norway Cruise Ship. He has had several opportunities dancing in Japan, Switzerland, and Austria. Curtis retired from his professional dancer role at the Rio Hotel in the Masquerade Village Show in the Sky in 1999. Life, however, hasn’t slowed him down as he continues to share his talents by training students of all ages worldwide and has currently moved into another role as flight attendant for JetBlue Airlines.
The QHS music department taught Curt that, “There’s a discipline that you need to have to be successful in theater. There’s a different kind of passion that goes into careers of the arts, singing, dancing, and acting. I was very involved because I was in all the musicals, the plays, Swing Choir and Madrigal Choir. In addition, I took private voice lessons from Naomi Watts. She was a very strong influence with several singers from that era in Quincy.”
Curt was four years old when he began dancing in Camp Point. He started dancing because one of the daughters of a couple who bowled with his parents taught him tap dance in the basement of the bowling alley while their parents bowled on Friday nights. Curt and his family relocated to Quincy when he was six. When Curt was eleven, he was involved with the summer Quincy Junior Theater and performed in a play called Queen of Hearts. He played the role of Jack B. Nimble.
“I was Jack B. Nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over a candlestick, and I had a candlestick up my sleeve.”
It was there that Curt met Pamela Bedford, who owned the Pamela Bedford Dance Company in Quincy.
“She asked me if I wanted to take classes with her at her dance company and offered me a scholarship to attend. That’s when it really started. By the time I was 14, 15, 16 years old, I was at her studio from 4 to 9 every weekday and Saturday morning, 9 to 2.”
“Pamela Bedford took us to the Regional States Ballet Festival. From that experience, I knew dancing was what I was going to do for my life-long career. You must remember, this was in the sixties and in this town, it was not all that easy for a guy to be in dance. I have had a very successful career, and I traveled the world, but what I got from that ballet festival was very eye opening because it was the first time that I was in a room with other male professional dancers. There were quite a few of us that attended, Ann Westhoff Sorvino, Krisna Hanks, and I.”
After graduating from QHS, Curt attended Loretta Heights College in Denver and ended up leaving after his first semester because he was ready to perform for a living. He was accepted to the Atlantic Foundation Academy of Performing Arts in Florida.
“I was ready to perform in a company. I went to Florida, and I found an academy that was the training school for the Imperial Ballet. I was there for three years. It was probably one of the most challenging three years of my life because classical ballet is very difficult, especially for men. I was very fortunate to experience modern dance and jazz prior to training ballet. I was successful because I had that background.”
While he was there, he met a choreographer named Jean Ann Ryan, who came from New York and choreographed a contemporary dance. The music was composed by Doc Severinsen, the band leader of the Johnny Carson Show, and the piece was called “0 to 65.” Eighteen months after choreographing the dance, Jean gave Curt a fantastic offer. Curt had just finished the spring concert season for their ballet company.
“Jean called me, ‘Curt, I’m ‘Hava’ in the national touring company of Fiddler on the Roof, and if you can get to New York tomorrow, I can get you in the show because one of our male dancers was injured.’ Well, I went; I was 20 years old, and it changed my whole life.”
“I toured with Fiddler on the Roof. I went back to the ballet company for one more season and then I moved to New York in 1978. I went from one show to the next to the next until 1999. I got to perform in every show that I really wanted to do. A Chorus Line was probably my favorite. I also performed two tours of La Cage Aux Folles. My last big long-term show that I have done was in Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel. It was called Masquerade Village Showing the Sky, and it was a lot of fun. My dance career took me all over the world.”
Curt has a very impressive dance resume and is also certified to teach a curriculum called RPM, which is Revolutionary Principles of Movement.
“It’s built on a curriculum from the Harkness Ballet, which our director, Ruth Petrenovich, created back in the sixties. There are many very famous ballet dancers that went through this curriculum with teachers, David Howard and Diane Cartier, who are all ballet teachers in New York City. The premise of this curriculum is that it’s based on incorporating kinesiology with the principles of movement. It’s a scientific approach to training dancers because to every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”
Even with living his dream and traveling the world, Curt remains closely connected with his family, friends, QHS alumni, and the Quincy community. A few of the many connections he has within Quincy is that Curt took dance from Pamela Bedford and in 1975, Kathy Burnett arrived in Quincy for her student teaching under the direction of Pam. When Kathy came to Quincy she lived with Curt’s mother. “Kathy was teaching for Pam and looking for a place to live. At that point, I wasn’t here, but she stayed at my mother’s house.”
Another association within the alumni community is that Curt came back to Quincy and taught a class at the Kathy Burnett Dance Studio to one of Kathy’s students, Tiffany (Tomlinson) Frese ’93. Tiffany now owns and runs QDance in Quincy, and Kathy Burnett has returned to Quincy and is also currently teaching at QDance. Curt and Tiffany reunited four years ago in Vegas at a dance convention when Tiffany recognized him as her former teacher.
“I had this woman come up and she says, ‘Blast from the past!’. “I’m like, do I know you?” Tiffany reminded Curt that she had taken a class from Kathy Burnett that Curt taught when she was 12 years old! Curt has also returned to Quincy to teach workshops and dance pieces for another QHS alum, Beth (Grunden) Heinze ’87, with Henize Dance Academy.
Today, Curt applies his dancing talents as a judge and trainer for dance competitions and conferences with Dance Teacher Web. His master class involves the Kelly method and includes training dancers for success through elements such as breathing, balance, strength, flexibility, coordination, rhythm, and musicality.
It was also through Dance Teacher Web that he got to meet his idol, Chita Rivera. “Chita and I met in San Diego and she’s amazing! Chita did a show called A Dancer’s Life, which was a one woman show. A very good friend of mine, who I had danced with years ago in Japan, Richard Amaro, introduced me to her.
“Richard helped set up meeting Chita and I was able to see A Dancer’s Life with my husband. It was a preview in San Diego and it was before it appeared on Broadway. She was 78 years old at the time and after the performance she came out with Richard, wearing a leopard print motif. She had on spike high heels and a little dog in her arm. Chita had her little wig on and she just looked adorable. She had to leave and she says, ‘I got a date with a doctor.’ When we parted, she gave my husband Mark a kiss on his cheek. He responded to me that he was never going to wash his face.”
Last summer, Chita was the keynote speaker and opened the dance convention for Dance Teacher Web.
“Her assistant Rosie called me and said, ‘Curt, she’s having a little private get together for a few people and she wants you to come.’ So, I went in there. I told her the story about the kiss on the on the cheek and how Mark said, I’m never going to wash my face again. So, when we got ready to leave and I said, ‘Chita, you are amazing.’ Chita said, ‘We’re dancers!’ Then, she says, ‘Oh, and tell your husband, Mark, he can wash his face now.’ This woman was 90 years old, and she was so sharp, and I love that.”
In 1998, Curt was ready for a change in his life. After dancing for many years, he became interested in becoming a flight attendant. One day, as he was heading to the theater at the Rio to warm up. A gentleman stopped him because the theater that day was being used for other purposes. As luck would have it, they were interviewing for flight attendants. The gentleman ask Curt if he wanted to be a flight attendant. Curt replied, “Funny you should ask. I’ve been telling all my friends I was going to become a flight attendant.” The gentleman told Curt if he was serious to come back the next day.
“The first hour and a half was like the good, bad, and the ugly of being a flight attendant. There were probably 260 to 300 people interviewing. At one point the interviewing process took a break and some people dropped out, but I stayed. During the next portion, they wanted to hear from each of us. They wanted to hear our full name, where we were from originally, what we were currently doing, and why we wanted to become a flight attendant at National Airlines. The first number they called, 1136, was me. I was in shock, stood up and of course, I was in my territory. I announced, ‘My name is Curtis Wade Jacobs. I’m from Camp Point, Illinois. I’m currently dancing in the show here at the Rio. The reason I want to become a flight attendant at National Airlines is because I want to take my show to a higher level.’ Everyone started clapping and I was hired on the spot. National Airlines lasted two years. After 9/11, we tanked. It was so much fun because it was a start-up airline. We were overworked and underpaid, but it was a great group of people. National closed November 6th in 2002.
“Six weeks later, at a New Year’s Eve party, my flight attendant friends suggested that I should go to work at JetBlue. It was a brand-new airline. It’s in New York and it’s a chic airline. I went home in the middle of the night. I sat down, logged on the computer, and filled out the application. The last question was, why do you want to become a flight attendant for JetBlue Airways? I answered, I love what I do, and I do what I love.
“Three weeks later, my mother came to Vegas. I returned home from running errands and my mother says ‘Curt, I just had the nicest conversation with a Cathy Westrum from JetBlue! Call her back’.”
Curt called Cathy back and she asked how his mother was doing. Then Cathy asked Curt to read from a newspaper or a magazine. All he had at the moment was the weather report that he was printing out and he read what kind of day Las Vegas was going to be like.
“It tells me that there’s not going to be any rain, it’s going to be warm, and it’s going to be a clear day, bright and sunny, in Las Vegas.”
After Curt read the report, Cathy flew him to New York the following day for his interview.
“There were two of us interviewing for the position. We started at 9 o’clock and we went to 11:15. I knew the other guy because he was from National Airlines. Cathy asked if my mother was up and I responded, ‘Yeah, she gets up early.’ Kathy gave me the conference phone and told me to call her. I handed the phone back to Kathy and she starts talking to my mother, ‘Hi, Norma. This is Cathy. I just have a couple questions for you.’ She asked my mom if she knew Brian Penrose, who was the other guy interviewing with me for the position. My mother answered, ‘I believe I’ve met him but if he’s a friend of Curt’s, he must be a pretty good guy.’ Cathy then asked, ‘Would you allow me to hire these boys for JetBlue?’ Without a breath, my mother says, ‘The sooner the better.’ Cathy hands me back the phone and walks to the other room. I finished my conversation with my mom and Cathy comes back with our contracts printed out. Everything just rolled into place. What’s great with this job is I’ve got such amazing seniority because I started at the end of the second year of JetBlue’s existence. When I started, there were 800 flight attendants. Now, there’s over 7,000. It’s a good fit for me because I can keep the gypsy lifestyle. It’s a great job but you must have the right personality.”
Curt has learned over the years and his advice would be, “As you grow in life you can’t rely on anything but yourself. In your own stability, in your own energy. Its eye opening, especially after you lose your parents. I lost my father early on, but when I lost my mother, I realized how valuable life is and the relationship with family. Life’s a journey and you create your own life. I feel sorry for people who can’t pull themselves up out of their own unhealthy misery or ways of life. I attribute that to my mother because she was always an extremely positive person and a very hard worker. She grew up on a farm out near Siloam Springs and was never sick. She lived until she was 93. She was just amazing, and I have her genes.”
Curt will be attending the 1974 50th class reunion in September. He is looking forward to seeing many of his childhood friends.
“I think my fondest memories are from being very involved with the QHS choir and of course, the musicals and Swing Choir! I was in “Hello Dolly”, “Oliver”, and “South Pacific”! I was also in “Music Man” when I was in the 9th grade. I drove a live horse on stage with the Wells Fargo Wagon!”
NOMINATE A BLUE DEVIL
We want to hear from you! Visit bit.ly/QHS-Feature to nominate fellow Blue Devils you want featured in our upcoming newsletters!
READ MORE ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS
To read more QHS Alumni Spotlights, visit qpsfoundation.org/alumni-spotlights.