The intersection of art and entertainment. Muse-ing #1.

My students performed at the Reading Phillies on Monday. I'm so proud of them and their reflections, which I will be posting, with their permission.

One of my students reflected, "It wasn't like we were 'performing' like we were showing them 'oh look, we're dancing!' It was like a sharing." Building community through dance.

Here's the video. Yes, I did choreograph a tap dance. (I know that's quite surprising for those of you who have known me for many years, but Deana DeHart did trust me enough to give me a pair of tap shoes at Busch Gardens Williamsburg quite a few summers ago... that's worth a lot in my book. :-)  Thanks for the boost of confidence, Deana.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl4Lkuooc7w

Here's a picture of them at the performance:

And here's the design Justin (my wonderful husband) created for them for their T-Shirts:

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Terpsichore is one of Apollo's nine muses of the Arts in Greek mythology. (Balanchine created a ballet based on a few of them.) What I love about Terpsichore is that she's a part of a larger whole, just like Alvernia Dance is part of the larger Performing Arts Department. Together, using an integrated approach, the arts have the power to transform. It's been a fun journey working with the students at Alvernia and sharing Alvernia's mission of service, life-long learning, and community building through the arts and through dance for the past two years.

And a special "thank you" to Rachel B. for spear-heading the T-shirts.