Meet Valorie Kondos, head coach of the NCAA Champion UCLA Women's Gymnastic Team and a trained dancer.

Finis: First of all, tell us how you got started in dance.

Val: I was taking horseback riding and piano when I was little, and I had a tremendous sway back. My doctors told my parents when I was seven that they needed to get me into ballet so that it could help straighten out my back and develop the right muscles to be able to stand up straight. So I started taking it, and I hated it because I wasn't your typical ballet dancer. I wasn't naturally flexible, I didn't have natural turn out. I'll never forget my first few classes. I was in this class with this girl who was 5'8", and she could develop her leg up to her ear and just hold it there for days. I HATED it. I hated going to ballet.

Finis: If you disliked it so much, why did you continue?

Val: My parents made me (laughs). And then when I was 12, I started performing, and that was all I needed. I absolutely LOVED being on stage.

Finis: So you continued dancing?

Val: Yes, and I never studied jazz or tap or anything like that, and I think I would've made a better jazz dancer or tap dancer because I wasn't a natural ballet dancer. I constantly had to fight my weight. I wasn't this nice little waif-looking, petite young woman. I was much more athletically-built. But I loved to perform, and I was one of those dancers who did much better on stage than in the classroom or in rehearsals. I couldn't understand how some of the girls in the company with me would throw up before a performance. They'd get so nervous that they were a wreck. And then they'd go out there, and it would be like a deer-in-the-headlights stare. I never understood that.

Finis: Tell us more about your dance career. You went on to study ballet through high school, right?

Val: Yes. I danced growing up with the Sacramento Ballet and another ballet company called Capital City Ballet. And we were very fortunate to have a gentleman named Nolan T'sani, who was a soloist with the New York City Ballet for many, many years. He was a tremendous choreographer. So my last few years of high school, I joined that company. He was very much influenced by George Balachine, who was, in my opinion, the greatest choreographer of all time. He was the co-founder of the New York City Ballet. His style was known for being kind of neo-classical classical lines, classical training, but he put a modern or new twist to it with flexed feet, turned-in legs. So that was it. I loved that. The summers of my junior and senior years of high school, I went to New York to study, and I spent my last few years studying at Washington, D.C. Ballet. The artistic director asked me to audition, and it was just at that point that I said, You know what? I always wanted to go back to school, and I always wanted to go to UCLA. And I don't want to go back to school when I'm 30, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life teaching ballet. And I just knew it at that instance.

Finis: What was it about UCLA that made you want to come here so badly?

Val: It's because I was always very athletic. My whole life I had always heard about all these great athletes that came from UCLA. And my dream in high school was to come to UCLA and become a part of a team. So when out of the blue I heard that UCLA needed a dance coach for its gymnastics team, I called them up, and they offered me a full scholarship to be their assistant coach and choreograph for them. It was the closest I could have ever come to my dream.

Finis: What were your first experiences at UCLA as the dance coach like?

Val: My first year as a dance coach, I was not appreciated or respected at all. A great deal of it was my fault because I just didn't take control or show any authority. I was told by the head coach that all these gymnasts had had plenty of dance and that I just needed to oversee them. And it was obvious from my first day working here that they had little to no dance and didn't know what they were doing. I'm a firm believer in teaching through metaphors, so I started coaching them like this, and they thought I was nuts! One time, one girl's arms were above her head in high fifth, and I was telling her to open her arms, and she was just dropping them. So I told her to peel her arms as if she were a banana, like her head was the banana and her arms were the peels. To this day, I am made fun of about that. I was trying to get them to understand movement in a different way. And because I was new, and because I didn't have any background or credentials, they thought I was just a real kook.

Finis: When did things start to change for you?

Val: It was shortly after that. It just took one athlete who enjoyed working that way and enjoyed working with me. There were huge results with her performance. Once the other athletes could see the importance of movement quality and that I did had something to offer them, then they turned around.

Finis: Did you have any aspirations to become a head coach?

Val: No. I never wanted to be a head coach. I thought that I would get into public relations or do something in the entertainment field.

Finis: How did you get into your current position as head gymnastics coach?

Val: It was handed to me on a silver platter. I've always believed in very hard work, and I've always believed in being brutally honest. When you're dealing with athletes of any caliber, or just people in general, I think that they appreciate that. The athletic director here saw that, and recognized that was needed to take the team to the next level, that the athletes were tired of not being pushed through honest criticism. They were being trained really hard, but when they would get to a meet, it was okay if they didn't do well because "we're just out here to enjoy it." Well, no athlete trains that hard to not do well. And I would open my mouth and say, "Well, it's not okay. You're letting yourselves down first." I think that's what the athletic director saw and liked, and she offered me the head coaching job. I remember not knowing how long I would stay at this job -- but I knew I couldn't turn it down.

Finis: You obviously enjoy this job. You've been at it for eight years now. What made you want to stay?

Val: The athletes. I'm working with very bright, talented young women who need a lot of help with the bridge between high school and club gymnastics, where they are being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it every moment of their life, to the real world. I saw that there was a real need for someone to empathize with them and respect how they got to the great place that they are academically and athletically, but that they needed guidance in how to succeed in the real world with all these great attributes that they have. I think I've been successful at that. I've been able to get in touch with them at a personal level, and then I see that helps them achieve gymnastically as well as personally.

Finis: You had no gymnastics training, correct?

Val: Right. I got interested in gymnastics when I was 12 years old and saw Olga Korbut at the 1972 Olympics. At that point, I was the tallest one in my class. I was big and strong and very athletic. When I saw her come out, I was not into this pretty ballet stuff at all, and I thought, I'm going to be a gymnast. So I went into my backyard and taught myself some moves. But my parents said, No, you're not stopping dancing to be a gymnast. I also wanted to take ice skating, but they said no. So instead of doing that, when I was 16 or 17, for my first job, I called the local gym (Agilites in Carmichael, CA) and asked if they needed a dance coach and they said no, they couldn't afford one. But when they found out I could play the piano, I started playing the piano for their floor music. So that's how I got started in gymnastics.

Finis: Having had no technical gymnastics background, was there a lot of hesitation in hiring you as the head coach?

Val: First of all, I think I chose this sport, and I was drawn to it because being a ballet dancer, you develop a tremendous awareness of body movement and body mechanics. If something's off, and you're flipping sideways or if you're crooked, I can figure it out. But no one in the gymnastics world knew that or understood that or knew what I was contributing to this team as an assistant coach. When I got this job, there was this tremendous uproar that this quote-unquote 'dancer/choreographer' was taking over one of the most prestigious collegiate jobs in the country. I was asked how I thought I could do that, and I was ego-less enough to be able to say that I didn't know everything and that I would have to hire really good people who knew these things that I didn't know. Coincidentally, the past two years in a row, some of these same people who said all those rotten things about me when I first got the job voted me their national Coach of the Year. That meant a lot coming from those same people. It was interesting, when I got the head coaching job and was saying how hurtful it was to have all these people saying these things about me, Scott Bull (co-head coach with Kondos from 1990-94) said to me that if anyone would take the time to look at the stats, balance beam, which I coached, had been the highest scoring event at nationals for UCLA the last four years. I hadn't even realized that. So it was like, okay, I do know what I'm doing.

Finis: Do you think your dance background gives you and your team an advantage?

Val: I think a lot of people comment on the choreography and how great it is and how great the athletes look and how they move so well. That is my gift to them, but I really don't think it adds a lot of points to your score. I don't think that wins national championships for us. I think it's mainly a gift that I am able to offer to them- how to really listen to your music and get the most out of it, the musicality of their movement, how to move from point A to point B. How one moves is very important in one's life in general.

Finis: Your choreography has been well lauded by many. Do you have plans to branch out at all?

Val: I would love to. I was asked a few years ago why I haven't gotten an agent. But jobs just seem to come to me, and I'm not really hungry to go out there and be known and make a gazillion dollars doing it. But I would like to do other things. I've worked for Sea World, San Diego now for seven or eight years choreographing an ice skating and gymnastics show. I've done a few other Sea Worlds because of that and did some work for Disneyland. I've choreographed an acrobatic show over in Germany. But when I watch the Academy Awards or Broadway musicals, it's SO exciting and stimulating. I would love to do something like that.

Finis: What's stopped you?

Val: An agent (laughs).

Finis: What have been your greatest thrills in your dance and gymnastics careers?

Val: In dancing, there was a pas-de-trois that I was involved with, which is a dance with two girls and a guy. I mentioned before that I was great in the moment. The other girl I that was supposed to dance this with me sprained her ankle during the piece just before we were supposed to go out. So I had to go out with the guy and ad lib her part while still doing my part, which was impossible to do as it was choreographed. I just had to ad lib it. I was in heaven (laughs), and I could do anything. I remember holding a balance on point for so long that it went into the next phrase where I was supposed to be doing something else. And I just kept holding it, and the audience went crazy. In class, I remember that I could do just two pirouettes on point consistently, three every once in a while. And that night, I was doing four. It was just, give me the spotlight, give me the moment, and I could do anything.

Finis: And your greatest thrill gymnastically?

Val: Gymnastically, my greatest thrill wasn't winning the national championship last year; it was the year before that in Alabama at nationals, seeing every single one of your athletes be the best and perform the best they could on that night, especially on beam, which is the make or break event in gymnastics. We put up six athletes and see every single one of them go out there with confidence and hit a routine that was the best of their ability. The head beam judge came up to me and said that in her 25 years of judging, judging our beam team was the highlight of her career. That night was exceptional. We didn't win, but it didn't matter. We had fully succeeded, and we accomplished all of our goals that night.

Finis: What are your future goals?

Val: To choreograph a Broadway show once I get an agent (tongue-in-cheek). I'd like to win another national championship before I retire.

Finis: Maybe this year, since UCLA is hosting the NCAA Championships in April [1998]?

Val: I would like to win another, and I would love to do it at home. I know we have the talent, and I know they're prepared. If they can get through the stumbling blocks, which every meet has, they'll be successful.

Finis: Any other personal goals?

Val: Personally, choreographically, I'd love to branch out and choreograph something on Broadway or off-Broadway or for television. I'd like to do something purely dance, not involved with gymnastics at all.

Finis: So you really need an agent for this don't you?

Val: Yeah! Because everyone hires me to do gymnastics stuff. Would you put that in really big, bold letters? I need an agent ...