Kristin Harty Barkley
The Cumberland Times-News Wed Oct 06, 2010, 07:45 AM EDT
— CUMBERLAND — The fifth-graders tittered nervously as internationally renowned dance instructor Pierre Dulaine demonstrated the Merengue, swiveling his hips with each sideways step.
“I’ve got buttons on my pants, and I’m shaking my buttons,” Dulaine said, encouraging students to let loose a little bit. Soon, they were squealing with giddy delight.
“So, shake it!” Dulaine commanded, adding a caveat for one over-exuberant young man. “Just shake it! Don’t break it!”
Dulaine turned the auditorium of Bishop Walsh School into a “Dancing Classroom” Tuesday when he visited Allegany County to help promote the local branch of the arts-in-education program he founded 16 years ago.
Launched in New York City — and now taught in schools across the country — Dancing Classrooms teaches young people the basics of ballroom dance, but in the process, they learn fundamental life skills such as self-confidence and respect.
“There’s a lot of social barriers that are broken down,” said Jennifer Christophel, who founded Dancing Classrooms Western Maryland last year, piloting the program in four Garrett County schools.
“When I went into my first class, one of the things I heard a lot of was, ‘I don’t want to dance with him,’ or ‘I don’t want to dance with her.’ There were a lot of cliques. By the 20th lesson, there’s none of that.”
This year, Christophel hopes to expand Dancing Classrooms into Allegany County and surrounding areas. Tuesday’s demonstration at Bishop Walsh was part of ongoing discussions with administrators there who are considering offering the program.
Accident Elementary School Principal Karen Devore said she recommends it.
“It was a tremendous program for us,” said Devore, who took a few of the 20 dance lessons with her fifth-graders when Christophel taught the program there last spring.
The school is in the midst of raising about $3,000 so that it can offer Dancing Classrooms again this year, Devore said.
“I was beyond impressed with Jennifer last year,” she said. “You can’t help but catch her enthusiasm. … My kids are so fired up.”
Christophel, who also owns Balanced Body Studio in Oakland, traveled to New York City last year to receive training in the “Dulaine method” of teaching ballroom dance.
Dulaine, who is “semi-retired” and lives in New York City, makes guest appearances at schools across the country to promote Dancing Classrooms. His life story was chronicled in the movie, “Take the Lead,” starring Antonio Banderas, and the 2005 documentary, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” tells the story of how Dancing Classrooms came to be.
On Tuesday, Dulaine started with boys and girls in two separate circles, then gradually moved them closer and closer together until they were actually touching. Playfully, but gallantly, Dulaine guided students through the rules of engagement.
“Repeat after me. May I have this dance, please?” he asked a partner with a slight bow.
“With pleasure,” is the traditional response, he said.
“It teaches them to become ladies and gentlemen, to relate to one another,” Dulaine said later. “It teaches them discipline, teamwork, being elegant and, more than anything else, respecting themselves and others.”
Frostburg State University adjunct dance instructor Jamie McGreevy stopped by Bishop Walsh to watch Dulaine’s demonstration Tuesday. She’s interested in training to become a ‘teaching artist’ to help Christophel bring the program to area schools.
“It’s great to teach that kind of manners and interaction with gender,” said McGreevy, who was impressed with the program. “The kids are so into texting computers these days they’re not really required to speak to each other.”
Bishop Walsh fifth-grader Claire Howell said that it was “a little weird dancing with boys” at school on Tuesday.
But “it was cool to learn,” said classmate Maddie Frank.
At Accident Elementary School, where Dulaine visited Tuesday morning, students wrote short letters thanking him for the dance lesson.
“I felt so graceful when I danced, and I’m thankful that our school gets to do this fun activity!” Kanykei Chorchanova wrote.
Another student, Charlie Taylor, wrote: “I love the way you were encouraging me and the other students to trust each other. Before I didn’t like being up in front of people, but now I’m not scared.”
