Dancers show their art form
Published 10:19 am Thursday, July 23, 2009
SOUTH POINT — Even the audience got in the act as students of Yvonne DeKay’s dance studio showed the younger set of the Briggs Library reading club another version of creativity.
This summer the youth programs at the library have revolved around ways to channel the imagination into the arts. Practitioners from the world of music and the visual arts have come to the various branches to show their stuff.
On Wednesday it was dance’s turn and the youngsters got a glimpse of the wide range of high steppin’ that is possible from gymnastic tumbles and twirls of modern dance to the precision of classical ballet.
“Dance goes into creativity,” DeKay told her audience at the South Point library branch. “I’m not just a dance teacher or a dancer. But I am an artist also because I create things all the time. It’s called choreography when you make up a routine.
“We just don’t want to labor all the time. God gave us art and that makes us smarter,” she said.
Joining her on the makeshift dance floor were Noell Conley, Taylor Reber, Abby Clevenger and Jessica Melvin. All performed routines they have danced at competitions.
After the ballet segment, DeKay showed the special ballet slipper with its hard base that dancers wear to stand “en pointe,” agreeing with one of her students that dancing on tiptoe that way can hurt.
“But if you love it, you go ahead and deal with the pain,” DeKay said.
And before the session ended, all had their first ballet lesson going through the basic feet and arm positions.
As the summer program winds down, coordinator Susan Spears said it has been a success.
“They have had such a good time and we have had a lot of different way to be creative. We’ve given them a lot of different ideas,” Spears said. “And they have had a lot of good ideas themselves.”