An array of crimson, magenta, yellow and cream textiles came to life as the beats of YoungBlood Z’s anthem “I’mma Shine” ricocheted off the walls of University of Oregon’s Gerlinger Annex. The floor pulsated with synchronized movements. Smiles were few as a dew of seriousness lingered in the air around students concentrating on their performances.

Dreams of advancement danced on the faces of these fine arts scholars. Professor Sarah Franco animated the class with dance combinations. Her Jazz III course at the UO Dance Department showed how dancing encompasses the hands-on learning approach.

Since September 2007, Franco, 26, has educated dance majors and UO students in the fine art of movement through the vehicle of assorted dance genres. During spring this year, she taught advanced jazz, ballet, and modern dance courses.

The talented Franco began to shape her craft at Brigham Young University, earning her B.A. in Ballet Performance. She then received her M.A. in Modern Dance at The University of Utah. Her plans out of graduate school were to perform in New York.

“I got a phone call from the University of Oregon saying they had a crisis and needed a teacher, so I changed plans and came out here,” Franco said. She had experience teaching over the summer and during her years of schooling.

Franco believed that a teacher must be stable in his or her personal identity before he or she can be an influential teacher. Franco hoped to aid dancers in discovering an active approach to life that hopefully crosses into several aspects of their lives. She thrived in being able to teach something where students were not sitting in chairs being lectured.

“I hope that each student learns to relate to their body in a positive and healthy way that they love their body for the way that it works and the fact that it’s different from everyone else’s body,” Franco said.

Franco angled away from the dance floor wearing black capris, a Nike long-sleeved shirt and ballet slippers that failed to cover her left foot’s big toe. Her back rounded her lower body toward her head allowing her feet to rest slightly on the ground, completing an extended back bend stretch.

Students trickled in the spacious studio, pairing up to lug practice bars across the floor. Ballerinas stretched four to a bar, two on each side facing away from the other two.

A dancer delicately squeezed on her ballet slipper, tying the laces snug around her toe and tucking the ends underneath the baby pink canvas in preparation for Franco’s instruction.

“Let’s get started,” Franco said. She motioned to accompanist Alec Pemberton, obscured by a large piano. Thunderous tones erupted beneath the propped lid, consuming the air in the workspace. Students’ limbs burst to life, extending away from their bodies, only to quickly return like overstretched rubber bands. Passion through hard work and dedication became apparent in the dancers’ eyes as they physically and mentally strained themselves in the direction of improvement.

The music ended, lingering on a single note, as Franco demonstrated the first ballet combination. Long legs and pointed toes reached their full potential as students gracefully kicked their feet to the side between pliés.

Glancing from bar to bar, Franco strolled the aisles, calling out reminders, commands and encouragements to her pupils. She stopped to tailor students’ forms and techniques.

Franco guided a student’s waist with a gradual backward pull while coaching her on body alignment. Slowly, she eased her pressure off of the dancer’s body, absorbed the new shape. Franco’s eyes remained locked on the dancer as she muttered words of praise and then broke into a priceless smile.

Franco’s impartiality towards dance styles depend upon her energy level. Being a dancer consists of more than the typical nine-to-five job, often leaving Franco with little time for much else than her passion.

“If I’m feeling perhaps a little fatigued, a little burned out in my teaching, then teaching ballet is nice because I can rely on the tradition to carry me,” Franco said.

“When I’m teaching modern, I feel like I need to keep regenerating teaching and reinvestigating how I’m approaching movements so that students can keep learning new things.”

Franco believes in the benefits gained from teaching in a diversity of methods.

“I like to do group work and mix it up. I don’t like to do the same thing back to back, so if I do a large group work, I want to do something small after that,” Franco said.

Certain aspects of teaching weigh more in importance than others for Franco. The most rewarding moment of teaching is when him or her lets go of a damaging habit that had been keeping them from progression, Franco said.

“They become fearless or empowered in that moment and you can see it in their face. It’s joyful,” Franco said. Her lips curved at the corners, displaying a flawless smile that complimented her soft brown eyes.

“It is wonderful. They are rare and it only happens every once in awhile but it is worth it when it does,” Franco said.

Rochelle Gross, 20, was a student in Franco’s Ballet III course on Tuesdays and Thursdays this spring.

“She has great teaching techniques and is always looking for better ways to communicate to you what she’s thinking and ways for you to improve,” Gross said of Franco.

Though Franco had been practicing and improving her teaching abilities, she desired to perform. Teaching paid the bills and remained enjoyable for Franco, but her true passion for dance lied within the performance of the art.

As for the future, Franco planned on following her dreams.

“After this term is over, I’m going to Salt Lake City to dance with a choreographer and to be a performer,” Franco said. The choreographer, Stephen Koester, trained Franco during graduate school at the University of Utah. Franco did not know how long she will be performing in Utah or whether she will ever make it back to the University of Oregon to teach.

“I love teaching,” she said. “I feel that at some point in my life I’ll be completely content with teaching, but not yet.”