DEL Lab Schools Feature: Melinda Kasal-Canty
We’re continuing to spotlight our 2023 DEL Lab School recipients, and this month, we’re sharing more about Melinda Kasal-Canty!
Melinda (Mel) Kasal-Canty is the owner and sole instructor of !ACCENT! Dancers, a multi-faceted dance and fitness studio which also houses ACCENT ON U WELLNESS, an enterprise which offers everything wellness-oriented to include fitness classes, nutrition counseling, and CPR instruction.
Melinda started !ACCENT! Dancers—now entering its 24th year— in a community center. After 13 years, she was able to relocate to her own studio and cultivate !ACCENT! Dancers into a full, technical dance program offering Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop, and Creative Movement for ages two to 60+.
Melinda has had to re-invent herself and her studio after being diagnosed with a very rare and debilitating autoimmune disorder called Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP). With symptoms of full body tingling and numbness, loss of reflexes, and loss of balance, Melinda was nearly paralyzed the majority of 2023. After undergoing an Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) in December 2022, the CIDP symptoms began one month later. Through months of the unknown and finally being given a diagnosis in June 2023, Melinda pushed through with the studio. However, after that June recital, Melinda knew she had to focus on herself.
Melinda was hospitalized for nine days for initial treatment and then admitted to acute rehab for three weeks to regain strength and basic abilities. Despite, hoping she would return right to her old self, her initial treatment did not work. In fact, she was informed that she was afflicted with a rarer variant of this illness and that she would require chemotherapy. However, even that treatment did not work, and Melinda continued to deteriorate. At this point is when Melinda made the most difficult decision to close her beloved studio, as she could no longer operate it physically, emotionally, or mentally.
Even though Melinda initially had difficulty walking without help and maintaining her balance, and tired easily, she couldn’t be without being in an open space, especially for her students. By early September 2023, she began searching for space she could rent without worrying about the overhead. She found a space in a church that she was able to convert into a small studio with a dance floor and mirrors. She began “teaching” again even though she was barely able to move. A couple of her students were her “bodies” – she would say what to do and they would execute the moves.
In January 2024, Melinda finally turned the corner with relief from her symptoms. Trial and error with her treatments has provided the improvement she’s been waiting for. She is now about 90% pre-surgery, teaching, and no longer needing assistance from her students. The smaller program is also easier to manage without the stressors, also only teaching four days out of the week instead of seven. But most importantly, she found a way to get back to what she loves for herself and for her students.
To date, Melinda has produced 47 recitals (two each year, with an average of 20 choreographies per recital). In addition, Melinda choreographs for special events such as wedding first dances, Quinceaneras, Sweet 16’s, and other community events. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Lionel University, teaching individuals to obtain their fitness certifications. She is a proud Air Force retiree, having served 20+ years.
Her dance training is varied and was accessed before and while serving in the military from different universities (San Diego State University, Christopher Newport University, and the University of Maryland). She has a master’s degree in Project Management (summa cum laude), a bachelor’s degree in Business, an associate degree in Sports Science (which includes multiple fitness certifications), several certifications from DEL (most recently, DEL FIT), and is a certified American Red Cross instructor.
From the day she began teaching, Melinda’s philosophy has always been that dance is an ART and should be available to anyone—no matter who you are, where you are from, or your age—because that is how she began her dance experience.
If she wasn’t accepted and nurtured by her first dance instructor at the age of sixteen, she wouldn’t be who she is today.
We asked Melinda to answer the following questions:
A. What is one of the biggest learnings or takeaways that has stuck with you from a DEL Course/Workshop?
The biggest learning and/or takeaway that has stuck with me from DEL is how this enormous, significant, and inspiring entity has the same beliefs, mission, and purpose that I have. I had already been teaching for almost 30 years when I discovered DEL and met Jody and her team in 2016. To learn that what they promote is what I promote brought my purpose in life full circle.
B. How do you apply the DEL model in your teaching environment? Tell us more about how you use what you’ve learned from DEL in your real life.
Whether it’s the DEL Model (or my philosophy), I always let my new students know that in my space, we do not compete with each other or as a program. EVERYONE is welcome to learn the true meaning of dance: ART. In addition, I use the DEL Model of “being able to make a dance about anything” by exercising with movement sentences. Once or twice a month, my Modern and both Jr. and Teen Hiphop classes create pieces using movement sentences, and then we share them with each other. At times, we keep some to show at our performances. In my choreography (sometimes, not even realizing it), I use all my spaces (high/low, floor), emphasize energy, and use stillness.
Most importantly, I stress dance history. None of my dance instructors did that for me, and I always felt lost. So, now I ensure my dancers know at least the basics of how each dance genre connects with the others.
C. At the center of the DEL Model is the Teacher’s Heart, which represents the core artistic and philosophical values and beliefs of every dance educator. Melinda shared:
“My ‘Teacher’s Heart’ includes communication, patience, humor, generosity, respect, family, passion, love, and tenaciousness.”