STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK
PHOTOS BY AUBREY STEPHENS AND MANNON GAUDREAU
Some see dance as exercise. Others, an art form.
Hilarie Neely also sees dance as a way to create change in her community.
That’s what she and her Footlight Dance Centre students are trying to do with their latest performance titled “DIVERSITY—Talking with our Hearts.”
The performance tackles such themes as diversity and intolerance with the idea of encouraging compassion.
“I find that young people have such ready access to social media that they tend to react before they think. We’re asking viewers to think: Do you react because you’re looking at the outside rather than the inside? Can we come from a place that might be more compassionate than reactive?” she said.
The nine performances crafted with the help of the 13 dancers launched Friday at Carey School and will continue through Feb. 9. The public is invited to any of the free performances, provided they check in with the school.
The performances use ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop and tap dance topped with narration to inspire and initiate discussions about the diversity in the Wood River Valley, Idaho and the nation. Footlight Dance collaborated with Flourish Foundation and Wow-Students.org to provide memento cards to each student to encourage conversation at home and school.
The advanced ballet students brainstormed what diversity means to them from social, cultural and environmental perspectives. They asked themselves: Who are the different groups in the community? Where do we find the problems of acceptance knowing our biases? How can we become better listeners and talk with our hearts instead of our biases?
They then collaborated with Mason Corkutt at Silver Creek High School, who recorded their thoughts in a sound scape that audiences will hear as they dance.
Sun Valley Summer Symphony Cellist and local music teacher Ellen Sanders will accompany the piece with a solo cello.
Michele Minailo crafted a tap dance that points out that if we recognize how we speak to each other maybe we can breathe before we react and be more compassionate.
And Anne Winton enlisted the aid of students to craft a piece about place, home and community.
“We use fabric to symbolize the feeling of safety, the idea of being wrapped up and belonging,” she said.
Neely said it was time to address diversity as she and the other instructors looked at a nation and world in turmoil because of natural disasters, political struggles and cultural misunderstandings.
“It seemed only fitting that our 2018 dance performance discuss the subject to help us work through the day-to-day stress and anxiety of the world around us,” said Neely. “We talked about how much intolerance there is even here in our home state of Idaho, including controversy over immigration and sanctuary cities. We ask the students: What’s your place? Who are you when you’re in your space? And do you feel safe in that space?”
The dancers include seniors Anika Lyon and Dylan Porth. Many take five to six classes a week and are required to study Pilates conditioning, as well. Their performances are considered pre-professional, the result of rehearsing for six weeks prior.
Footlight Dance has been taking dancers on tour since the 1980s.
“Their performances are always a highlight for the company dancers as they assume the life of a touring professional while keeping up their class load at school,” said Neely. “It’s a wonderful experience to perform their peers and younger students as those students discover dance as an art form.”
PERFORMANCES:
9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 29--At the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater for students of Sage School, Silver Creek High School and Syringa Mountain School.
10 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 30—Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater for Wood River High School students.
1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30—Alturas School
1:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5—Hailey Elementary
1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7—Bellevue Elementary School
10:15 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 8—Community School
8:45 a.m. Friday, Feb. 9—Hemingway School