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  JENNIFER YUEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Debbie Allen observes a modern dance class, one of the many offered at her dance academy in Culver City, on Tuesday. The center caters to all ages and dance levels.

By Andrea Dingman

Daily Bruin Contributor

In a classic case of life imitating art, Debbie Allen, who created the character Lydia Grant – the dance instructor on the hit series “Fame” – has just opened her own dance academy.

The Debbie Allen Dance Academy, which opened this past February in Culver City, mainly trains students who range in age from 8 to 17 years old, but also provides a few classes for younger children, adults and professionals.

Just as “Fame” was about a school that turned around the lives of its students, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy is meant to be a haven for young people to find motivation.

“I wanted to find a way to stay involved and to keep giving to young people who want what I can help give to them,” Allen said in an interview at the Academy.

While Allen believes that many of her students have potential to be professional dancers, the Academy is not simply a training ground for the entertainment industry.

“Whether any of them, or some of them, or all of them become professional dancers is not exactly the point,” Allen said.

“This is the discipline that is for everybody; that’s why we do have our adult classes and our open classes,” she continued. “It’s never too late.”

The focus of the Academy is completely on the students, a fact that is noticeable in Allen’s interactions with her pupils, all of whom she knows by name.

Stephen Smith, former principle dancer of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the present dean of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, spoke proudly of his students.

“We have a lot of wonderful, talented kids, and that’s what it’s about,” he said.

Most students in the Academy take between 12 and 19 classes per week, in styles ranging from ballet and tap to flamenco and African. This global focus is not arbitrary, Allen said, but rather a reflection of the state of America and the world.

“There’s no pure anything, just like there’s no real pure people,” Allen said. “The world is about growth, communication, collaboration and exchange.”

Larry Billman, from the Academy of Dance on Film, was supportive of Allen and her new Academy.

“Debbie is a focused, ambitious woman, who is determined to make all that she does a success,” he said. “If you look at her career – from performer to choreographer to director, and now film and TV producer, this is a woman who tries it all and succeeds.”

Success is all that can be expected from the producer of the film “Amistad,” the producer and director of the series, “A Different World,” five-time choreographer of the Academy Awards, author and actress. Appropriately, Allen’s goals for the Academy are nothing less than excellence.

“I want to see it just expand and become a real center of dance here on the West Coast that is a conduit for young people and for those who love the art of dance,” she said.

The goal is a realistic one, according to Billman.

“I think that Debbie will bring a commercial/contemporary sense to her academy, for her choreography has always been a collision of pop and classic dance forms,” Billman said.

“But, her classic background will help her find a way to make her students curious about the past and I believe that she will introduce them to the classic forms and their innovators,” he continued.

Allen’s love for the art form seems innate. Like many of her students, Allen began performing at an extremely young age and still has fond, vivid memories of her first productions.

“I remember the bar, I remember my little pink slippers and my black leotard, and I remember jumping up and down and pointing my toes,” she said.

“I remember the smell of those new costumes; I can smell that tulle lace, I can smell it right now, that white satin, you know somebody’s mama just made the costume,” she continued excitedly.

The implications of dance for Allen reach to the core of her being. The art form permeates all of her other projects, such as her children’s books about dance.

“You see, dance for me is not a metaphor for life, it is life,” she said reverently.

This zestful approach to dance extends to Allen’s general approach to life.

“Life is always worth living. It is always a blessing to get up every day and see the sun come up and watch it go down, and to know that you’ve done something in this world on this day that’s made it a more beautiful place, a place where people can express themselves,” Allen said.

ACADEMY: The Debbie Allen Dance Academy is located at Conjunctive Point, 3631 Hayden Ave., Culver City, 90232. For more information, call (866) 432-6234.