Faint classical music can be heard from the South Physical Education Building.

A voice shouts.

“Cambré!”

“Coupé!”

El Camino College Dance Professor Daniel Berney’s voice carries outside the classroom where he’s teaching his Monday morning beginning ballet class. He names the movements he desires from his students while they begin class at the bar.

“Plié!”

“Arabesque!”

“Second Position!”

Berney wears a navy blue El Camino T-shirt and black track pants and white pointe shoes on a daily basis to teach his class. He says he wears that specific T-shirt to represent the college after working at El Camino as an instructor and choreographer for 22 years.

He is one of three full-time dance instructors at El Camino alongside Elizabeth “Liz” Adamis and Jonathan Bryant.

Berney says the amount of part-time dance instructors fluctuates throughout each semester.

He choreographs the fall and spring dance shows on campus and teaches beginning ballet, dance appreciation and history of dance of the 20th century.

Prior to teaching at El Camino, he worked at Santa Monica College, California State University, Dominguez Hills and Moorpark College. He still teaches a few classes at Cerritos College.

Berney was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but moved to Santa Monica at the age of 5 when his father got a new job as a doctor. Not too long after the family moved to South Orange County where he got his start in dancing.

Performing has always been a part of Berney’s life. During grade school he danced, sang and acted.

“One of the roles that sealed the deal for me was during elementary school,” Berney says. “I was Barnaby, the little juggler of our Lady Fatima.”

This role was the start of it all for him. Becoming a dance professor was something he never pictured though.

Berney comes from a family of doctors. His father and grandfather were both physicians and he says his father wasn’t too sure about him having a career in dance, but he still encouraged him to go to school and get a degree.

He did. During the 1980s Berney got his bachelor’s degree in dramatic arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara and then continued his studies at the University of California, Irvine to receive his master’s of fine arts degree in dance.

While getting his master’s of fine arts degree at UC Irvine, he was choreographing at a dance company called Ballet Pacifica in Orange County. He was also given the opportunity to teach a few dance classes.

Berney began teaching a modern dance class at Cal State Dominguez part time in August of 1987. Soon later, he was given a temporary full-time position.

During his first few years of teaching at Dominguez, the college’s dance emphasis changed from modern to ethnic. Berney made the decision to find another place to teach.

“The western styles (modern jazz, ballet, tap) were really my training,” Berney says.

This is when Berney took an offering at Moorpark College where he became the chair of the dance program.

“This was a small dance program, but they needed a full-time person to come in and take over,” Berney says. “So I applied and got it.”

At the time, he and his wife were not living near Moorpark. His wife, who he met at UC Irvine had a job in fashion that required her to live near Los Angeles and with one child and another one on the way, it wasn’t feasible for him to be working at Moorpark.

Still needing to be near L.A. for his wife’s job, he started looking around for a new job.

When he was still an instructor at Cal State Dominguez, he said he would choreograph at El Camino and became familiar with some of the faculty. A spot had opened up for a dance instructor at El Camino because one of the faculty members had died.

“They wanted to develop the program [at ECC],” Berney says. “They had an announcement I happened to look at.”

Berney’s dance emphasis is in ballet, but he says that when he teaches his students he adds contemporary styles instead of solely focusing on classical ballet.

He applied and got the position and began his job as a dance instructor in July of 2001.

Berney is in his 22nd year of teaching at El Camino.

After his morning ballet class on a Monday, Berney sits at his desk and looks at his calendar. A student walks in and greets him while simultaneously asking a quick question. Berney looks away from his phone and gives the student his full attention and provides the best answer he can.

On his desk sit two boxes of Nutri-Grain bars and as the student leaves, he quietly asks if he could have one. Berney replies with a smile. “Help yourself.”

Adamis, a colleague of Berney’s since she was hired in 2013, says that Berney has always been an encouraging and compassionate person.

“He knows what he is teaching,” Adamis says.

She says Berney always has great energy and for the students who have zero experience in dance, he helps and pushes them to their best potential.

Amy Wang, 59, says that she loves Berney’s class and his teachings.

“I have taken many classes,” Wang says. “Ballet, hula, modern dancing and latin dancing, but I really like our ballet class. Our teacher is the best.”

Adamis and Berney teach the same students and also run the dance shows together.

Berney also got Adamis’ daughter into surfing, which is a major hobby of his.

Adamis said when her husband died a few years ago, Berney was there for her and always checked up on her. He would also bring her food to her office.

“He treated me like we were family,” Adamis says. “He was that piece of family that I don’t have here.”

Other than dance, Berney says he enjoys sports, specifically swimming and surfing.

Berney, who declined to state his age, says, “I am an avid water person. I swim daily and give credit to my longevity. I take good care of my body because it breaks down doing what I do.”

He used to play baseball in high school and played tackle football against Marines from Camp Pendleton, but ultimately stuck with dance.

Berney says the dance program does get a good amount of support from administration.

Right now, his main focus is to develop the program at ECC.

Berney says that whether you have experience or not, a dance class helps students better understand the act of performing arts. He hopes this will help grow the classes.

“We would have to reach out to the high schools and do some recruiting to get the juniors and seniors who are interested in dance to come here for their first two years,” Berney says.

When it comes to the dance classes at El Camino there are two aspects: the lab (ballet, modern dance, jazz classes) and the lecture, which include dance appreciation and dance history, he says.

Berney says every year the dance professors, including himself, bring eight of their dance major students to the American College Dance Association in Anaheim, which provides opportunities for their future careers in dance.

The students also get to perform some of their own dance pieces at the convention.

Berney says the other thing he sees himself being involved in on campus is the Guided Pathways Meta-Majors.

Berney has been a team lead for the program for the last three years. There are eight programs from two different divisions, which include dance, fashion, music, cosmetology and more.

This program guides students within specific majors on a path throughout their time at El Camino.

Berney expects his students to get more than just the actual practice of ballet, modern dance or jazz.

“What I hope they get out of it is that fact that you have enthusiasm and passion for what you do in life, so find that and pursue that,” Berney says. “If [students] see teachers with that kind of enthusiasm and passion for what they do, they’ll find it infectious and maybe it will help them.”

Editor’s Note:

• Tags were added, photos were enlarged and video was embedded on Sunday, June 11.