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Home > About 665 > Teacher & Staff Bios > Mark & Dawna Nocera
Teacher & Staff Bios :: Mark & Dawna Nocera
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Owners of Studio 665
World-class adjudicators and dancers
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Complete biography:
The Italians have a word for it – sprezzatura. It’s a term that means the ability to do a difficult thing with such grace and style that it looks easy. It’s an ability that Mark and Dawna Nocera have in abundance. No wonder, then, that when they take to the floor to work on a routine or to demonstrate a figure, the rest of the studio stops to watch. This favorite couple, the only professional 10-dance couple in New England, has a fascinating story that combines both the romance of ballroom dance and their romance with each other.
It was Dawna who first decided that she wanted to dance. In fact, Dawna remembers wanting to dance from early childhood, when she spent hours watching old movies with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse and other dance greats. Back then, the old TV Guide carried ads for ballroom dance lessons. But the small Massachusetts town that Dawna grew up in had no dance studios. The closest ballroom was in Boston – an impossible distance for a young girl with only a child’s allowance. Still, once in eighth grade, Dawna called to find out about classes and committed the information to memory. The next year, in high school, she decided to try to bring dance lessons to her own town by working with her gym teachers to set up classes – an effort that soon failed when the high school boys proved too shy to participate.
None of this, however, dampened Dawna’s desire. After graduating from high school, Dawna decided to take a year off to earn money for college. Now age 18, she finally enrolled in ballroom classes and found that the reality of dancing actually surpassed the fantasy she had nurtured all those years. Soon she was hoping for a regular partner in order to advance her dancing. The dance studio where she was studying suggested that she turn pro in order to make this easier. Deciding to put off college a little longer, Dawna was soon competing as a young professional.
Meanwhile, Mark was following his own trajectory to the top. Growing up in Rhode Island, Mark was one of nine children in a close-knit Italian family. Mark was a natural athlete, and participated in several sports in high school, including basketball, tennis and wrestling. Dancing wasn’t something that was on his mind – until his older sister began taking dance lessons and invited Mark to join her. It was the age of disco music and hustle, and Mark was quickly hooked. Soon he attended teacher training at the studio and taught social dancing for two years.
That might have been as far as things went for Mark – but luckily for him, Ron Bennet came to the studio to teach International style. For the first time, Mark found a coach who saw his potential, and pushed him to go further. It’s a lesson that Mark never forgot – and one that he continues to use today in his teaching. He knows the importance of encouraging students, and of looking beyond the awkwardness of the beginner to see how good a student can become.
Mark’s work with Ron Bennet inspired him to begin competing in International Latin. Within four months, Mark and his first competition partner had placed in the Rising Star Latin category. During that same year, he met Dawna – and their stories intertwined.
Mark and Dawna were doing well in their competitive careers – but they wanted more. Although they were living in different states, they competed in many of the same competitions, and shared Ron Bennet as a coach. Mark and Dawna met for a tryout, and could tell right away that this was different. Dawna describes it this way: “With Mark, I could feel his rhythm through the dance connection. That was something that hadn’t happened before.” Mark remembers that “From the beginning, I knew that we were going to dance together – it just felt so good.” It wasn’t long before their dance partnership blossomed into a romantic partnership as well. While people around them advised them to take their time, within a year they were in love and had moved in together.
Their personal life continued to evolve as well. Mark and Dawna became engaged in 1987, and were engaged for two years before they married. The long engagement was due to them being so busy dancing! In fact, so focused were they on dancing that their wedding might have been postponed longer but for a cancelled competition. In 1989, faced with a scheduling conflict, Mark and Dawna had to choose between attending the British Open Championships at Blackpool or the New England Championships. Mark and Dawna, eager to defend their title, chose the New England Championships. But so many other professionals went to Blackpool that the New England Championships were cancelled. With an unexpected break in their schedule, Mark and Dawna quickly put together a wedding ceremony – minus the traditional wedding dance!
By this time, Mark and Dawna were winning both ballroom and Latin titles together. They quickly began amassing an impressive number of titles, including United Kingdom 10 Dance Championships – Grand Finalists; 2nd ranked United States 10 Dance couple; undefeated New England 10 Dance Champions; North American Rising Star Standard and Latin Champions; Rising Star Champion – La Classique du Quebec; Southeastern United States Standard and Latin Champions; and North American Champions in Professional Basics in Latin and North American Finalists in Professional Basics in Standard ballroom. All the while, Mark and Dawna continued to push the envelope with their innovative style, choreography and costuming. One boundary that they crossed inadvertently, however, came during the United States Ballroom Championships, when Dawna did a tango kick – and watched her shoe sail up to the chandeliers! There were gasps from the other competitors as the shoe fell down, narrowly missing the head of ten-time world professional champion Marcus Hilton. The audience and judges collapsed in laughter once the danger was past, and all action stopped on the dance floor until the errant shoe was safely back on Dawna’s foot.
In 1991, Mark and Dawna achieved the honor they’re most proud of -- representing the United States in the World Professional 10-Dance Championships. They received an impressive ranking of semifinalists during their first entry in this demanding competition. What they will never forget, however, is the awesome feeling of knowing that they were chosen from the best dancers our country had to offer. Both still remember participating in the parade of flags in the ceremony and feeling a lump in their throats at the magnitude of the event.
And what a busy competition year that was for them as well. After their tryout in August 1981, they entered their first competition together in October 1981 – the New England Championships-- and won the Rising Star Latin title. Soon, they won the national Rising Star title. They began traveling regularly to Canada for coaching with Meryem Pearson. In 1984, they took the step of opening up their own dance studio, Studio 665. The next year they began traveling to England for coaching in Latin with Alan and Hazel Fletcher and with Nina Hunt. Their hectic schedule had them spending one month in England and the next in Massachusetts, running their fledgling studio and competing every chance they got.
Mark and Dawna were already national finalists in Latin when they began ballroom in 1986 “from scratch.” Mark says that “we were at a competition when it hit us – we were only doing half of the dances.” Again, they began traveling to Canada to work with coaches Denis Tromblay and Benoit Papineau. Soon their list of English coaches grew as well, to include such greats as Bill and Bobbie Irvine, Richard and Janet Gleave, and Anthony Hurley. Mark still remembers being amazed by the balance and poise of Benny Tolmayer, who interrupted his own tea break to answer a question from the young couple by dancing the figure in question – while holding a full tea cup and not spilling a drop.
It was like a second career for them now that they were dancing both ballroom and Latin. Having already achieved the national finals in Latin, they had to start the long climb to the top all over again in ballroom. But their winning streak continued – within a year, Mark and Dawna had made the finals in the ballroom Rising Star category, and the next year, they won the ballroom Rising Star title.
After ten years of competition, things began winding down competitively for Mark and Dawna. Their busy teaching and coaching responsibilities at Studio 665, along with judging competitions and coaching college dance teams, left them little time for the extensive travel required of professional competitors, and they retired from professional competition in 1994. This doesn’t mean that they’ve completely given up the thrill of performing and competing. Instead, their energies now are concentrated on helping their students achieve the same level of success that they themselves achieved.
As coaches, Mark and Dawna have had both pro-am and amateur students place in the finals in all the major competitions, including the United States Ballroom Championships and the Ohio Star Ball, in both ballroom and Latin. They are especially proud of their work with college dance teams, and point out that they have brought Tufts University up from their 5th place ranking to a first-place position in both ballroom and Latin. Mark and Dawna still enjoy traveling regularly to dance competitions in the United States and Canada. In addition, they regularly win both Top Teacher and Top Studio awards at the competitions they attend.
And oh yes – they intend to continue that Nocera dynasty. Mark and Dawna are the parents of two girls, Charisse and Miranda, both of whom compete with their father and are already taking home awards of their own. So in the future, when someone mentions that term sprezzatura, you may need to ask which Nocera they’re talking about. What you won’t need to ask is whether they gave a great performance – because that’s a given. You’ll just need to wonder how they made it look so easy.
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