Beach is his classroom

Torus Tammer

At 7 a.m. every Saturday, John Welch meets with four dedicated

students on the sands of Huntington Beach.

His purpose -- to teach them ballet.

Welch said he developed this unorthodox training style via

unconventional ballet techniques, with the intention of preventing

unnecessary injuries.

“I devised this beach method for dancers who have been incorrectly

trained,” said Welch, who lives in Huntington Beach. “The workout is

meant to utilize the sand as a medium that develops a deeper sense of

consciousness, helping the dancer get rid of a lot of their physical and

mental obstructions.”

A dancer himself, Welch had a promising career ahead of him until an

injury derailed it. That might be why he’s now so dedicated to injury

prevention.

“I have been teaching this method for four years and have since felt

much more at peace with myself,” he said.

The first time he took a ballet class, Welch fell over while trying

the most basic movement, known as first position. He started at an

unusually late age. He was 21.

By the time he was 24, Welch had passed London’s Imperial Society of

Teachers of Dance examination. He also passed the examination for the

Royal Academy of London.

“I took my exams for ISTD and the Royal Academy at Studios in Rosemead

and Long Beach because the examiners travel twice a year all over the

world in order to give exams,” Welch said.

When he was 25, he was accepted as a principal dancer or a demi

soloist for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Canada. But a severe ankle

injury he suffered in a training session prevented him from taking the

stage for that debut performance. He subsequently lost his spot.

Determined, Welch rushed back to performing six months later, taking a

post with a smaller company in Vancouver, Canada, named Pacific Ballet

Theater Company. The physical and mental demands of the season, coupled

with a shoddy ankle, took their toll. He aggravated the injury again and

found himself at the end of his career when he was 27.

Welch said he was left with no direction. Not only was he unable to

turn to the familiarity and comfort of dance, he was now feeling the void

created by several years of self-neglect.

“It was 17 years ago when this all happened, and I was either going to

jump off a cliff or just bounce back somehow,” Welch said. “So when I

returned from Canada, I applied to be a teacher and was accepted at

Claremont, where I taught for three years.”

After leaving Claremont, Welch tried running his own dance studio in

Santa Barbara for two years, but it didn’t fill the need. For the next

eight years, he tried everything from working in a bookstore to trying

his hand at law.

Finally, he found his way back to ballet. But this time, he taught it

on the beach.

“All he’s been through has helped him develop his own sense of

philosophical and theoretical understanding of dance,” said Fred Lopez, a

longtime friend.

Tania Norton, 22, has been training with Welch for more than a year.

Taking ballet and dance since she was 6 and armed with a dance degree

from UC Irvine, Norton said she was getting stale and losing confidence

in her abilities.

“John respects us and plays no favorites,” Norton said. “We get equal

attention. He has helped me believe in my abilities to the extent that

now my goal is to be a professional.”

For Welch, his agenda is simple and based on compassion and insight.

“As far as injuries go, I can teach people how to train for injury

prevention,” Welch said. “The main reason I do what I do is so that they

won’t have to go through what I went through.”