Dance and theatre — Tenbusch does it all

LPHS dance instructor Mrs. Tenbusch has tapped her way into the hearts of many in the school for several years, but after past theatre director Mr. Snyder left, she recently has taken a lead role in the theatre department as well.
Tenbusch has always had a passion for dance, which began when she was little. She has home videos of her dancing and performing for her family when she was as young as three years old.
Though her passion has always been for dance, she was required to take theater classes to fulfill her dance major. This included working in lights and sound in different productions and working on tech fully for at least one production. She connects backstage work with what she has had to do as a professional dancer.
“Working as a professional dancer and as a rehearsal director for dance companies, having knowledge of lights and sound is necessary to do the job well,” Tenbusch said.
She has traveled with dance companies from Chicago to places like Spain and France to dance in their festivals. It was only four years ago that she began working at LaPorte High School.
She began her career at LPHS starting her own dance classes. Those classes have grown over the years to include Jazz, Modern, and Ballet. At the end of last year, she had agreed to take on one of the theatre classes while Snyder took on the rest of them; however, when Snyder left, she was asked to take on the rest of the Theatre Arts classes as well.
Theater Arts class is the beginning level in regards to the rest of the theater classes. It touches over everything in theatre, such as acting and tech. The school offers more in depth theatre classes such as Advanced Acting, Theatre Tech, and Musical Theatre, taught by the new LPHS teacher Mr. Sanchez.
Although this is Tenbusch’s first year teaching theatre classes, her teaching license is in theatre, and she likes to take a similar approach to theatre and dance classes.
“Both are often very energetic and enthusiastic about the subject,” Tenbusch said.
Emma Miller, a student in the Theatre Arts class, emphasizes how hard Tenbusch works to make the class as fun and engaging for students as she can.
“Tenbusch tends to go through things more thoroughly. She makes sure to go through each thing multiple times to make sure everything is understood. She even brought out each individual lighting instrument when we were learning about the lights to make sure we all understood,” Miller said.
As well as taking on two new theatre classes, Tenbusch had her baby, Adelaide, on March 21st of this year. Juggling her home and work life has become considerably harder with the new addition of the baby.
“I do not have as much time to do planning for classes since I am taking care of my amazing little girl when I am home. I have to do all of my planning during my plan period during the day or on the weekends while Adelaide naps,” Tenbusch said.
Though Tenbusch was thrown into both theatre classes at the beginning of this year, she has taken the change in stride and continues to work hard to make the class fun and engaging for all of her students.