BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CHILDREN as young as three years-old to ten are introduced to the wonderful art form of dance at the Fireflies Dance School (FDS) which opened its new dance year for 2012/2013 on September 8.
The school’s founder and director is well-known dancer and choreographer Heidi Slack, who started FDS eight years ago.
She saw a need to hone the talents of children from that tender age as there were no options at that time to improve their self esteem and confidence, body awareness, imagination and creativity, concentration and focus, co-ordination, rhythm, flexibility and fine-motor skills.
In addition she wanted to improve team-member skills, memory and mathematical skills, alertness, discipline and provide moderate exercise while enhancing their sense of accomplishment and artistic abilities.
FDS has welcomed 25 new dancers which took their enrollment to a total of 80 dancers.
The dancers will be taught a curriculum of basic Jazz, Ballet and Afro-Caribbean techniques and are also introduced to basic acrobatic/ beginner gymnastics moves (cartwheels etc).
Slack has 28 years of dance experience and 21 years of a dance as a choreographer with the Children’s Dance Theatre.
She has received training at various dance institutions including the John Hunte of Barbados, L’Antoinette Stiles of Jamaica, Edna Manley School of Dance in Jamaica, Alvin Ailey in New York City, Ministry of Culture and Crystylights Dance Academy both in St. Lucia and Sankofa Productions of Barbados.
One of her aims is to share her wealth of experience in the field of dance with the youth of St. Kitts.
“I hope to positively influence them by training/educating them in the various dance styles/ techniques while improving their self esteem & confidence, body awareness, imagination & creativity.”
On July 7, the school held their annual recital tiled, ‘Dancing through Life’ which was hailed as a tremendous success.
Popularly known for their ‘Daddy-Daughter’ dance, they introduced for the first time a ‘Mommy and Me’ Dance.
Many attendees hailed the event as a superb and excellent performance citing it was a “well-enjoyed Saturday evening”.
The school also has two tutors Kayla and Kalia and is adamant about learning and sharpening their skills as tutors. Several dancers attended their two workshops earlier this year.
Their focus for this term is to teach the syllabus for all three dance genres in preparation for their annual Dance Exam to be held later this year.
