Dancers impart lesson of culture, poise to students

By jeanette M. eng
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY JERRY WOLKOWITZ Lenore Pavlakos, a performer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, shows Emily Wagner, 12, Chris Cali, 11, and Shari Pilcz, 11, ballet moves during a program at the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School, Marlboro.

MARLBORO — A handful of fifth- and sixth-graders who had eagerly volunteered as part of a performance presentation probably didn’t realize what they were in for.

A few minutes later, at the cue of professional dancer Lenore Pavlakos, they were all contorting their arms and legs in an amusing display of their best interpretations of the five ballet positions.

It was all part of their brief introduction to music, song and dance as presented by the Dance Theatre of Harlem, which visited the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School on Feb. 20. In a show titled, "Look, Listen and Feel," the pupils were encouraged to not only view performance art, but to use their senses to engage them more fully in the experience.

Pavlakos, one of the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s principal dancers who also served as the narrator of the program, told the children how much hard work is behind every performance.

Lenore Pavlakos and James Washington, performers with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, demonstrate ballet moves during a program at the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School, Marlboro.

Principal dancer Kevin Thomas, who has been performing professionally for 17 years, demonstrated how he warms up his voice.

"I take short, jerky breaths to stretch out my vocal chords," he explained.

Thomas’ career also includes a brief stint in the chorus of Phantom of the Opera.

Mark Burns, whose musical theater performances began at the age of 9 with an off-Broadway production of Magic Talisman, demonstrated ballet positions.

Then James Washington, who has been dancing professionally for 15 years, demonstrated stretching and strengthening exercises.

"I stretch to warm up my muscles and then I do push-ups to strengthen my muscles so that it’s easier to do lifts," he said, referring to a ballet move in which one dancer lifts another.

To engage the pupils’ sense of hearing, Michael Cherry, the group’s pianist who has been playing since he was 5, played various types of music as the students were asked "How do you feel?" The students heard music that made them feel "sad, gloomy and depressed" as well as "furious, scary" music that could mean that "a monster was chasing [them]."

To engage the pupils’ sense of sight, Pavlakos demonstrated how a dancer can either complement or upset a piece of music. She danced "sadly" to the "happy" music and "happily" to the "gloomy" music and finally danced with much fervor to the appropriate "furious" music.

The rest of the presentation put the three elements of performance together — music, voice and dance. The students were treated to a song and dance duet by Burns and Thomas and a performance about a prince and princess by Pavlakos and Washington. The show closed with Cherry’s rendition of "The Maple Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin.

This was the first time the Dance Theatre of Harlem has performed a show for pupils in an elementary school. The company usually travels all around the world performing a two-hour dance repertoire that has included such classic ballets as Firebird, Giselle, Medea and Romeo and Juliet, said the dancers, who have been working together for about seven years.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem was co-founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and the late Karel Shook as a personal commitment to the people of Harlem following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The booking at the Dugan school was a joint effort between Tara Vitale and Kendra Yozzo of the school’s Cultural Arts Committee and PTA Cultural Arts Chairwoman Felicia Luca.