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Chaney students dance in D.C.
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
While their classmates spent their summers enjoying the time off, several Chaney Visual and Performing Arts students spent their time in rigorous dance instruction.
Sophomores Tamron Lewis, Curtasia Daniels and Dajanae Bankston, all 15; seniors Marckese Williams and LaRazia Tolbert, both 17; freshmen Kaliyah Felder, 15, and Lysa Santiago and Destiny Merriwether, both 14; and eighth-graders Victoria Smith and Shimyia Hugley, both 13, earned scholarships to spend a week in July at the Dance Institute of Washington.
Fabian Barnes, a professional dancer and president of the dance institute’s board of directors, selected the students for the scholarships from the more than 100 young dancers at Chaney based on their skills and work ethic with input from the school’s dance instructors. Barnes performed as a soloist for 15 years with the famed Dance Theater of Harlem.
“I felt pretty good about myself,” Tamron said of his selection for the scholarships.
“I was excited,” Lysa added.
The students, accompanied by chaperones Penny Wells and Amanda Fetty Cole, spent two days sightseeing in the nation’s capital. The rest of the week, they danced for about seven hours per day under direction of the institute’s faculty.
“I sweat all seven hours,” Kaliyah said.
Instruction covered ballet, jazz, modern, African and hip-hop with stretching thrown in.
“They learn ballet first because it’s the foundation for all dance,” said Tracy Schuler-Vivo, Chaney VPA coordinator.
Marckese acknowledged he was nervous going to the institute. He wondered if his dance skills would measure up to those of students from other programs.
They did.
“We were by no means behind them,” he said.
Barnes, who has visited Chaney as an artist-in-residence for the past three years, gives the Chaney program and Schuler-Vivo rave reviews.
“This past May, I had the opportunity to see the students at Chaney perform,” he wrote last June. “I can definitely see the growth in the students since my first visit, and I truly enjoyed the show! The students were so engaged, and I know that a great deal of that energy and engagement was rooted in the fact that they have someone like Ms. Vivo who is a constant source of support and inspiration for them.”
The students grew up enjoying dancing but didn’t receive official instruction until becoming Chaney VPA students.
They describe the art as a way to express themselves, vent frustration or challenge themselves.
“It makes me happy ... I can be myself and just dance,” Lysa said.
Kaliyah said it helps her to clear her mind.
“When I dance, nobody can take that away from me,” she said.
Curtasia likes that dance always offers something different. There’s always a new dance coming out. She also gets a sense of accomplishment when she’s able to properly execute a complicated move.
And for Tamron: “It makes me feel free.”