Studio owner, teacher kept dance card full
|
EVERETT — Mike Jordan, owner and director of the second-oldest dance studio in the state, used to ask fellow dance teacher and friend Eleanor Leight, "Are we going to keep doing this forever?"
To the generations of students who learned to dance under Mr. Jordan's tutelage, it may have seemed that way. At the age of 69, he not only continued to run the 78-year-old Betty Spooner Creative Arts Foundation dance school, but the onetime Broadway dancer still graced the stage.
"He felt good about still dancing on stage," Leight said. "He felt good about himself dancing. And he loved dancing."
Mr. Jordan had finished performing a song-and-dance routine at a variety show in Snohomish and was driving a student home about 10 p.m. Thursday when he lost consciousness. The car coasted to a stop. Mr. Jordan died without regaining consciousness.
The cause of death is presumed to be a heart attack or a stroke, according to his family.
"I was stunned," said Leight, director of the variety show.
Many of the others who had been touched by Mr. Jordan through the years had the same reaction yesterday when they learned of his death. Mr. Jordan's cousin, Debbie Galuska, said his friends and family had been planning a 70th birthday party for him.
Born June 23, 1934, in Everett, Mr. Jordan began dancing at the age of 2 in his mother's recitals. As he grew older, he began to teach at his mother's dance studio. Founded in 1926, the Betty Spooner Creative Arts Foundation is the second-oldest dance school in the state after Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts.
After Mr. Jordan graduated from Everett High School in the early 1950s, he majored in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington until he was drafted into the Army in 1957. For 18 months, he toured the world dancing with a United Service Organizations (USO) show.
In 1959, after his discharge from the Army, he won a dance role in "Gypsy," on Broadway. In the 1960s, Mr. Jordan took a break from dancing and went to work for business-machine companies in Yakima and Hawaii.
His mother's death in a traffic accident in 1967 brought him back to Everett and the studio.
"When Betty died in a car accident, he flew home. The family all rallied, and the show had to go on," Galuska said. "Mike took over, and the show went on. Mike stayed, and the rest is history."
Mr. Jordan took over the school, which taught generations of students ballet, jazz, tap and even popular dance styles such as disco. He created Everett Community College's dance program, which taught more than 400 students before he left the program in 1978.
In 1993, the Oak Harbor resident was honored as one of Everett's 100 centennial citizens, an honor given to the most influential shapers of the city's history. In 2001, the city of Everett awarded Mr. Jordan the city's highest arts award, the Richard Wendt Award of Excellence.
Ed Morrow, a former Everett city councilman and former port commissioner, was a lifelong friend of Mr. Jordan's.
"We went to school together," Morrow said. "He always worked all his life, starting at the age of 12 delivering newspapers. He appreciated hard work. Work was responsibility that he enjoyed."
There's been no decision on what Mr. Jordan's death will mean to the studio's future, Galuska said.
"We're focusing on finishing this season and the culminating show on the 22nd — that's our priority ... ," she said. "Former dancers and dance teachers and a host of people will step forward. We're already hearing from them, a huge circle of friends and family."
"He touched so many lives. Mike was the epitome of a caring, loving person. I never heard him say a bad word about anybody," said Pat Friend, house manager of the Everett Performing Arts Center, where three of Mr. Jordan's holiday shows were performed.
Mr. Jordan is survived by his sister, Judy Martin of Mission Viejo, Calif.; his foster sons, Chip Hunter and Mike Quinn of Everett; and numerous cousins and a large extended family. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com