“ALL OF THE CHILDREN
DANCE TOGETHER,
WHETHER THEY’RE
LOW INCOME OR NOT,
AND NOBODY KNOWS
WHO RECEIVES
FINANCIAL HELP.”
Shatanya Shaw
TOP RIGHT: JEREMY SMITH; BELOW RIGHT: TAV JINIVIZIAN
co-director Blossom Sisters Dance
& Performing Arts
The school’s status officially changed
in 2014. And through a combination of
fundraising and grants, close to half of
the students receive subsidized tuition.
The school offers year-round instruction in all different forms of dance,
including ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary and African dance, to children
ages 2 ½ to 14.
“All of the children dance together,
whether they’re low income or not, and
nobody knows who receives financial
help,” says Shaw, adding that some of
the longer classes offer mentoring.
“Our ‘Girls Like Us’ program is a
two-hour weekly class for elementary to
middle school-aged girls, many of whom
are at-risk youth, and each session
starts with 30 minutes of mentoring,”
Shaw says. “We discuss self-esteem, do
self-image exercises and self-evaluation,
so the girls realize their strengths and
can build on them.”
The mentoring is provided by instructors who are both trained in dance and
work professionally in counseling or
social work.
Shaw and Elliott believe the value of
dance education is priceless, and that
students gain much more than simple
instruction by coming there. “When a
child who never danced before starts
dancing, and you watch them realize
201magazine.com
FINDING AN AUDIENCE Dancers performed at the Sugar Hill Gang 25th anniversary concert at
Hackensack High School, as well as at the Anna Maria Ciccone Theater at Bergen Community College.
their grace and coordination, you can
see their confidence build,” Shaw says.
“And when they perform they feel
empowered.”
The classes also offer a measure of
discipline to children who are unable to
join other extracurricular activities for
financial reasons. “Having that structure
and learning to be part of a team, those
qualities are important your whole life,
throughout college and your professional
life,” Elliott says. “So the younger a child
can start to experience that, the better.”
The sisters danced in free public
school groups growing up, and after
moving to Bergen County with their children and deciding to open a school, they
each pursued formal dance instruction.
But the feeling of being too poor to dance
in programs with other girls still hurts.
“When you pass by a dance school
and you know you can’t afford it, you
have a feeling of inadequacy, like you’re
not good enough to be there,” Elliott
>
(201) FAMILY | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
37