TOVE I. S. GERHARDSE
The BYU Children and Teens Creative Dance Program will perform two concerts in the Richards Building Friday, featuring 38 individual dances choreographed and performed by children between the ages of five and eighteen.
Christine Ollerton, director of the BYU Children’s Dance Program for the last 24 years, said that from the 50 dances, which the children have been working on since September, 38 were chosen based on creativity and originality.
One restriction, however, was that the dances could not be improvisational. Because they had to be choreographed, the children had to be able to remember and repeat their dances, Ollerton said.
The basic philosophy of the Children’s Dance Program, which has about 350 participants, is not to teach routines or steps, but to emphasize the creativity of dance.
“Through classroom experiences and creative problem solving, basic skills and technical aspects of dance are nurtured and developed,” said Kathleen Sheffield, a teacher in the program.
The three goals of the Children’s Dance Program are to enhance problem solving in and through movement, teach the decision making process and express individual creativity through technique, improvisation and performance, Ollerton said.
The Children’s Dance Program also functions as a student-teaching lab for a children’s dance methods class at BYU. The students in the methods class learn how to teach dance as well as assist with the Children’s Dance Program. Later the students may be hired to teach.
“Creative dance is the best philosophy for young children,” Ollerton said. “It is full of expression. The children problem solve in movement. Everything is used to enhance their ability level.”
“These are beautiful, artistic dances,” she said. “I am amazed that children can create art out of themselves without having anything plastered on them.”
Even though some of the children do not get to dance at the concert, they all get a certificate and a chance to dance at Parents’ Day in December, Ollerton said. Many of the children also dance in Family Home Evenings and Church Programs.
Ollerton said everything in the concert, from the simple costumes to the music, features children’s choreography.
One dance, in which the children pop up from boxes, was created by five 8-year-olds. Each of these children had a hand in decorating their own boxes, Sheffield said.
“The children’s imaginations are endless. It is delightful and revitalizing to watch children move and express themselves in their own way,” Sheffield said. “The children’s dances strike a chord, and we recognize the child in us.”
Jane and Catherine Leavy, ages 7 and 8, with two other girls, have created a dance called “While the cats away.”
“First we listened to the music and started brainstorming. Then we decided to be mice that come out to play while all the cats are gone,” Jane Leavy said.
Ollerton said that it is inspiring to see what children come up with, and for the child, it builds self-esteem.
In addition to building self-value and confidence, the program enhances the children’s physical abilities and helps them think intellectually.
“I have seen fruits of my labor,” Ollerton said. Some of the students she has taught have received master’s degrees in dance, or they have become full-time faculty members.
The Friday concerts start at 4 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. in 166 R.B. The tickets are $2 and can be purchased in advance in 165 R.B. from 1-4 p.m. and in 147 HCEB.
