Jesse Cooper, who delighted audiences for years as a featured performer with South Street Dance Company, is wearing a different hat upon his return.
Cooper, 24, brother of South Street founder Tasia Choudhry, has taken over the studio as owner and director of the since-renamed Cooper Studios Dance Center. Choudhry returns as assistant director and instructor.
“I’ve got my sister’s 15 years of experience, plus my mother (Jeanne Cooper) who has been around to help for years,” Cooper said.
The studio’s reopening after a two-year hiatus was anything but certain after Cooper was critically injured in a March 12 traffic accident that claimed the life of the other driver.
Cooper suffered near-fatal injuries to his stomach — he had to undergo three separate surgeries to stem the internal bleeding — as well as broken bones in his cheek and sinus passages.
While those injuries eventually healed, Cooper’s dancing career was put in doubt because of additional injuries to his foot. His right ankle was broken and his heel crushed in the accident.
“The doctors tried to fix the heel, but they weren’t able to do so initially,” Cooper said.
Surgeons eventually inserted a cadaver’s heel bone, with a nod to his hopes of dancing again.
“They didn’t fuse the bones together,” Cooper explained, an important step that would have forever limited his foot’s mobility.
“They said there’s no real danger of me injuring my foot by dancing again,” Cooper said. “It doesn’t hurt — it never really did hurt — it’s just been weak.”
His recovery has been described by doctors as “rapid,” Cooper said, “but to me, it’s taking forever.”
His recovery is going so well that Cooper will be in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday to partake in a 5K run at Kauffman Stadium with his brother, Josh.
“I don’t know that I’ll be running,” he said with a laugh. “But we’re going to do it.”
His goal is to regain full strength in his foot as well as his former dancing ability by next spring.
At the time of the accident, Cooper was a featured performer with the Dayton (Ohio) Ballet. He also danced with Ballet Austin in Texas.
Even with his blossoming dancing career in full swing, Cooper had always eyed reopening the Iola dance studio after Choudhry closed South Street in 2009 to focus on starting a family.
Cooper announced plans at the start of the year to reopen the studio. Then came the accident and his subsequent months-long recovery.
Taking over the dance studio, Cooper acknowledged, provides a healthy diversion for him as he continues his recovery.
“This gives me a place to focus my energy and stay involved with dance,” he said. “Being a director and doing choreography is rewarding in its own way.”
ENROLLMENT AT Cooper Studios has been strong, he said, with a number of new faces joining some students who had been with South Street for years.
“Our 3- to 5-year-old enrollment numbers are bursting at the seams,” Cooper said.
Cooper will teach students core dance disciplines — ballet, tap, jazz, pointe, lyrical and hip hop.
Choudhry has returned to help one day a week, while former South Street dancer Bridget Brazil serves as a primary assistant, focusing on teaching hip hop classes. Chelsey Lea, another returning dancer, will help with younger performers as well.
Cooper’s vision includes more than just a year-end recital. His goal is to develop a company class that dances year-round, with visiting instructors and choreographers. He would also like to see a local performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet.
“Those are just visions for now,” he said. “I want our students to get more performing experience, one of the key components to learning how to dance.”
His classes focus on those simply wanting to dance recreationally, as well as those more serious about performing or pursuing a future in dance.
“We want to accommodate everybody,” he said.
Cooper also offered kind words for his family, as well as the community at large.
Some openings are still available in various age groups for those still looking to enroll. Cooper can be reached from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday at 365-7180. Messages will be retrieved for calls placed outside business hours.
His students will cap the Bowlus Fine Arts 2011-12 season June 8-9 with a recital showcase. Cooper is unsure of the program’s theme, but knows a production of “Wicked” will be a central part of the fare.
