Dance The Next Generation
Six boys ranging in age from eight to ten, are standing in front of a ballet barre excitedly waving their hands in the air, as if they hope to receive a free video game. But no, their teacher, Addul Manzano, has only asked these young students, intent in learning the traditional ballet barre, what comes next. "Tendu," one boy said as Mr. Manzano, who towers over the boys, but speaks in a soft voice, murmured. "No, someone else." "Plies," said another boy," and then finally, someone said "rond de jambe." "Twenty points," Mr. Manzano exclaimed, and happily the boys began the combination: leg in front, to the side, and around in a circle.
"I use this little game to help the boys remember the exercises," Mr. Manzano, who is in his first year as a dancer with the Sarasota Ballet Company, explained in his vaguely Spanish accented English. "In Cuba, where I trained, we had a ballet class three times a week starting at eight, but here these boys only come twice a week. So I have them stretch on the floor - legs wide apart - after the barre, to make their center strong. The turn out has to come from high..from the hips," he added, demystifying the boys' proud announcement that they could do the splits; no easy task for young, male bodies.
Although these boys are not planning on becoming professional dancers, Mr. Manzano approaches his teaching with the same standard of excellence that he learned as a student. One or two of the students appear to have an innate ability that might lead them to a career as a dancer, but for now, they are attending this class in order to benefit from the discipline that is as much a part of a ballet class as the exercises. Though one of the boys likes the idea of performing, and another wants to get strong in order to play football, these young boys are enrolled in the Dance-The Next Generation program because they are having problems at school. Founded fifteen years ago for youth considered at-risk, it is an award winning, full scholarship, seven-year program sponsored by the Sarasota Ballet Company. Funded through grants and private donations, Dance-The Next Generation has helped more than 600 students graduate from high school, and there are many who have also gone on to college.
Each year, flyers are sent to four different public schools in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. "We announce that we're looking for students who are interested in dance," explained Lisa Townsend, the director of the program, "and we say something about having educational opportunities or something about scholastic challenges. After the auditions, which test flexibility, rhythm and basic motor, coordination skills, we send our list of selected students back to the school, and we get the school's input about students who they think are at risk for one reason or another."
Ms. Townsend, a tall, slim woman with a dancer's posture and grace, has been in charge of the program for the last six years. A graduate of the Juilliard School, and a former member of The Tulsa Ballet of Oklahoma, she teaches most of the ballet classes that are held either at The Sarasota Ballet Academy studios or in the dance studios at Booker High School. "Over the years, a certain amount of camaraderie develops among the students and their families," she said, talking enthusiastically about all aspects of this special program. "We have a bus to take the younger students from school to the studios, but family members pick them up after the class, and parents sometimes share the driving, and become friends. And also, the students perform in different events. Right now, we are preparing for Sarasota Arts Day, and I'm choreographing a piece, sort of a square dance for the oldest sixth and seventh year girls."
Class for the older girls began at six and will end an hour-and-half later. The girls in this class have had a full day of school, and after a half-hour, ballet barre, they begin to learn the choreography. "We don't have much time, so I need you all to concentrate," Ms. Townsend said, as she began to organize the girls into groups for the two-and-a-half minute piece. Though some students giggled, and others seemed to resist, at the end of the hour they had learned the tricky patterns, winding themselves in and out of a circle, and around one another, hand to hand. "Just some cleaning up of the details, and we'll do that the next time." That said, the girls ran out of the room, while Lisa Townsend locked up the studio and started home after a long day that would start again, early the next morning.