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Against the backdrop of a black T-shirt, Janet Gray's motto is spelled out in rhinestones: "I yell because I care."

The legendary Salt Lake dance instructor, whose ambition and business sense have kept her studio thriving for 30 years, knows she has a reputation. There's the spirit revealed on that T-shirt, after all, plus what's known around the studio as the "Janet Gray voice."

The shirt is just one of Gray's most obvious psychological teaching tools, drawn from her undergraduate training at the University of Utah, where she later returned to teach dance for 16 years. "When I have that on, and I'm giving it to them, students think I care," Gray says. "If I take that prop away and just have a plain shirt on and I yell, sometimes a little tear will come out."

"I'm nature, not nurture," Gray said between classes recently at the former grocery store she turned into a dance studio. "I am strict, and I'm very aware of it. Students understand when I'm being very strict to get them to the next level. And I've always had a very loud voice. My mother was delighted when I moved out of her house."

Leap of faith: Like neighborhood restaurants, dance studios aren't known as great business risks. Back in 1978 when Gray launched her studio, a 20-something single mom wasn't the kind of entrepreneur bankers were likely to trust. Even her family advised her to do something more practical.

Instead, Gray kept at it, teaching every class, every student, for the first three years, until she could afford to hire other instructors. When she commuted to training workshops in Los Angeles, she packed along her young son, Josh. Now a Salt Lake City engineer, he remembers all the dancers who pitched in to help with his math homework.

But along with her tough style, Gray enjoys poking fun at herself. For a June dance recital in Kingsbury Hall, she worked with 17-year-old dancer Kaitlynn Peeleman to craft a line that sparked knowing laughter from longtime studio parents and students. "I'm a thrill seeker," Peeleman cracked during a take-off of the famous dancers' laments in "A Chorus Line." "I enjoy my work with raptors at Tracy Aviary. You know, stepping into a raptor's cage and stepping into Janet's class have the same danger quotient."

The Janet Gray voice came in handy while she was teaching at the U. Or as Barb Hamblin, the former chairwoman of the ballet department, tells it: "Through her discipline, she was able to get the right essence in the steps. And she had really good vocal quality over loud, loud music."

Not every aspiring dancer appreciated the instructor's stern approach. Over the years, a handful of students wound up in Hamblin's office, complaining that Gray was too mean. But she is unapologetic about her demanding standards. "We all have choices," she says. "If I'm too harsh, then go choose somebody else."

Compassionate side: That exacting approach wasn't so unusual among the ballet faculty. What really set Gray apart, Hamblin recalls, were the contrasting facets of her personality, such as the compassion she showed as a mentor, particularly in reaching out to underprivileged or disabled students.

All these years later, the 56-year-old Gray is still teaching jazz and tap to all ages of students, still advocating manners and respect, not just for her dance studio, but for the art form itself. Parents say Gray's passion for teaching fundamentals is unusual in a culture that can seem obsessed with creating the next generation of "So You Think You Can Dance?" contestants.

Colleagues remark on how hard Gray works, traveling to workshops or gigs as a guest choreographer, which help her stay current in the "what's next" world of professional dance. She regularly invites professionals -former students and famous instructors - to teach master workshops at her studio.

"I would say she's unique in the world," says Sayhber Rawles, a well-known Los Angeles jazz dancer and instructor, of Gray's efforts to make connections for her students. "A lot of dance studio owners think of it as a job. Kids leave the room, they lock up the studio and that's it. For Janet, this is her life. She still researches, reads, stays in contact with professionals she has taught. She will contact anybody in the field to make herself a better teacher."

Life lessons: No matter what steps Gray is teaching, she's also schooling her students in larger lessons. She estimates just 2 percent of them possess the right combination of talent and discipline to become professional dancers. But everybody can benefit from learning about the history of the art form or what it means to be at home in your body.

During one recent tap class, she coaxed adult students through a difficult sequence by promising to play a saved cell-phone message from her friend, the legendary song-and-dance man Arthur Duncan. "OK," she said, as she released the dancers to complete the lesson. "Now go find it in your own body."

"We don't just want to train dancers," Gray says, noting that each of the studio's part-time instructors has earned a college degree and a contract with a professional company. "We want to train young leaders who know how to handle themselves maturely. Learning how to be part of a team is the most employable skill I can teach these kids."

Parents say Gray's whole-life approach translates into making the Imperial Street studio function like a proverbial village, as instructors help them raise responsible kids. For example, before every-other-year recitals, Gray requires that students - not parents - sign contracts guaranteeing their commitment to attending rehearsals.

"She's family," says Janilee Kuecks, a Cottonwood Heights mother of three students enrolled at Gray's studio. "I have no doubt I'll have grandchildren going there. Janet was complimenting me on my kids the other day, and I said: 'You ought to take some credit for it,' " Kuecks says. " 'You're like their second mother.' My kids are over there sometimes five, six days a week. She has a lot of influence on them."

Gray starts preaching with baby classes, when the dancers are 3 or 4. "I tell the little girls when they start: 'If you get married before you're out of college, I'll send you a lovely card. I will come to your wedding if you have your degree and know how you're going to support yourself.' "

She relishes telling stories about her teachers, from tap legends such as Gregory Hines and Eddie Brown to Willam Christensen, Utah's ballet icon. It was when Christensen was in his 80s, and teaching at Janet Gray's, that her parents finally realized what their daughter had accomplished.

What was once a business for Janet Gray, the only way she knew to support herself and her son, has become part of a bigger circle. "It's so much a part of my life now," she says, before demonstrating another set of drawbacks and paradiddle taps to the children and grandchildren of former students. "I think I'll go until I drop out of a grand jeté."

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* ELLEN FAGG can be contacted at ellenf@sltrib.com or 801-257-8621. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

* JANET GRAY STUDIOS is at 3065 S. Imperial St. (1700 East), Salt Lake City. For information about classes, call 801-466-7142 or visit http://www.janetgraystudios.com.