Troupe uses dancing to educate students

Alvin Ailey saw his first dance performance on a school field trip.

For many of the 188 students from Culbreth, McDougle, Smith and Phillips middle schools, the chance to see a special performance of Ailey's dance troupe Thursday marked their first performances, too.

"Some of these kids have never set foot in a theater," said Jean Parrish, AVID coordinator for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. "This is an experience they'll never forget."

The Advancement Via Individual Determination program is an academic elective offered to help motivate and prepare students for four-year colleges.

The Ailey dance intensive is an interdisciplinary approach. Students spent a week with the dancers studying Ailey's life and history, writing poetry and expressing themselves through dance.

The program was led by Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, a former Ailey dancer who now acts as co-director of Arts in Education.

Thomas-Schmitt said the way the program incorporates history, language and dance is its strength.

Students on Thursday visited Memorial Hall to see a performance of Ailey's signature piece, Revelations. Ailey choreographed the dance to show his experiences growing up black in the South.

Friday at the Lincoln Center Gym, they performed the Revelations choreography themselves.

"I loved learning the Revelations," said Kholiswa Tsotetsi, a sixth-grader at Culbreth. "Since it's Alvin's signature dance, it was really nice that they taught it to us."

Thomas-Schmitt said the program gets students to work together.

"This is not America's Top Model - I need you guys to stay together," Thomas-Schmitt told the group.

She asked the classes what group members give to one another, and students responded loudly with "support."

"And you are a group, so support each other," Thomas-Schmitt said. "It's a group, not a solo."

Thomas-Schmitt said the program is different than what many of the students are used to. By the end of the week, though, she said students get used to the approach.

"These are kids that do not have dance in their lives, and it is something that's very new and foreign to them.

Jeimy Salazar, a sixth-grader at Smith Middle School, said she was surprised the first day.

"It was kind of weird," she said. "Later on we got used to it. It was a learning experience."

Justen Best, a Smith Middle sixth-grader, said the program showed him a new side to something he didn't think he would like.

"I wasn't really into dances like that, but I really have a new appreciation for it now," Best said. "Once I was looking at it, it kind of caught my attention."

Ailey's background was similar to the students the program targets.

"A lot of things about him they can relate to, and when you can give them a tangible idea that they can identify with, then they can embrace it," Thomas-Schmitt said.

The dance intensive was helpful for teachers as well, AVID teacher Karen Herring said. She teaches science at McDougle Middle School and said the mirroring exercises the dancers did is something she plans to use in her classroom.

The program will travel to seven cities this year. The visit to Chapel Hill was coordinated after the company was booked at Memorial Hall.

"When I found out Alvin Ailey was going to be there this year, I said, 'OK, I've got 188 kids, we're coming,'" Parrish said. "One of the things (AVID) tries to do is expose them to cultural arts and especially things that are a part of the history they don't necessarily know."

Thomas-Schmitt said the group wants to show students their potential and told students she wants them to apply what they learned to other areas of their lives.

"I want you to start thinking about your futures - what do you want to do?" she said. "Get out, see, do and be productive."

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.