Zazie Tobey dances her way home

2010: It was the year of “Baby” by Justin Bieber, Shakira’s “Waka Waka,” and Lady Gaga’s MTV Awards raw steak dress. It was also when new dance teacher Zazie Tobey graduated from Amherst Regional High School.

Sixteen years later, she returned to her alma mater to apply for a job when a former ARHS dance teacher, Tracy Vernon, reached out to Tobey, making her aware of the position, which had been more recently vacated by Remy Fernandez O’Brien, who moved to Spain after occupying this position for a few years. Coming back to ARHS as the dance teacher was never her plan, but “I couldn’t be happier about where I am right now,” she said, it was a “happy, full circle phenomenon.”

During high school, Tobey remembers being part of the Dance Theater Ensemble and an active member of the spring musicals. She choreographed scenes in the musicals; one that stands out to her is a scene from the musical Cats. “This program nourished me,” she said.

You can find Tobey in the ARHS and ARMS dance studios teaching classes including Bomba, Intro to Dance, and Unified Performing Arts. Bomba is a performance ensemble. Tobey said she is excited about this class in particular because they are bringing in two guest teachers, Nick Shaw and Tracy Vernon. They both have experience teaching this class in the past and, “a rich history of dancing together,” said Tobey.

Intro to Dance touches on styles like contemporary, modern, jazz, a fusion of these styles, and a fusion styles of both hip-hop and ballet. The class also includes the basics of choreography, technique, and improvisation. She is hoping to teach this class Michael Jackson’s Thriller combination to perform during the Halloween season. Tobey has training in most styles of dance, including Butoh, an avant-garde Japanese theater-dance style.

She has knowledge in world dance/social dance and would love to teach a class focused on that in the future, but her Intro to Dance class will involve some of those styles, including Salsa and Swing. Tobey has much experience in performance and loves it, but “I teach because I like to learn,” she said, “youth are so vibrant and so creative and have so much to offer.”

The Unified Performing Arts class brings students from the PIP program. They are working on filming a stop motion video this quarter. In the future, they would love to find a way to share the video with the community. The ensemble dances and moves together, while also celebrating how “everybody moves to their own rhythm and their own music,” said Tobey.

Tobey lives in Leverett near the Peace Pagoda with her fiancé, a professional skydiver, and her dog, Haiko. Each morning she wakes up to the monks drumming at the Peace Pagoda. She shares her love for dance, music, art, and teaching with her family, probably why this love comes so easily to her. Her mom was a French and Spanish teacher for 35 years.

She recalls always having a space for charades or dance performances. To this day, her family is still close. Recently, she and her dad performed their choreographed dance piece for the rest of the family. “We’re close to a family band, but not quite,” she said.

After graduating high school, Tobey took a gap year to travel the US with a group of seven other artists and three dogs. She worked on developing her music and street performing skills. She performed on the streets of every US state, excluding Hawaii and Alaska, traveling by small bus. She played music and performed on the streets, in plazas, and on stages. “I had a wanderlust,” she said.

After a year of travel, Tobey attended Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa (“Swanannanowhere, we would call it,” Tobey joked), North Carolina, where she focused on writing and biopsychology, until she realized she missed dancing and began taking dance classes again, seeking out dance classes more than actually going to class. “Maybe I do miss dance, and I need [it] in my life,” she said.

She transferred to Mount Holyoke, where she double majored in dance and English, with a focus in poetry. Right out of graduating, Tobey began teaching dance at local studios, the same studios she grew up dancing in. For the past seven years, she has been with the Northampton Academy of Music, working on their musicals and in their education department. Her current title is the Associate Education Director of the Northampton Academy of Music.

She has also traveled, been to places such as Japan and the Yucatan. One of her favorite places is Turkey, “Turkey is my heart,” she said.

Tobey has many other interests outside of dance. She loves dogs with all her heart and is deeply interested in what dogs can do for people’s psychology. She runs her own gardening business called ‘Zazie Tobey Gardens.’ “My thesis statement is plants and dance,” she said.

Tobey recalls the afterschool culture in her years at ARHS. She remembers dance classes after school, DTE rehearsals, and choreography sessions. Now that she is back, she has seen how this culture of dancing both during and after school has diminished, and as the new dance teacher, is adamant about bringing it back.

Tobey would like students to look out for her after-school dance classes she is planning to start teaching this year. She emphasizes that these classes are drop-in, casual, and open to anyone. “Sometimes that one hour of dance class is the best hour of someone’s week,” said Tobey.