Long-Sought Dance Collaboration Delights
Three decades, a duck, and a deep love of dance and community . . . these are some of the ingredients that went into the creation of this year’s unique Upper School spring Dance Concert—“Friendships in Ferguson.”
About 30 years ago, dance teacher Sheila Alioto was deeply inspired by a PBS documentary about dance as a way to build bridges in inner-city New York City schools. More recently, the unrest over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, reignited Alioto’s commitment to pursuing a similar bridge-building project. “I had treasured the idea for so many years,” Alioto says, “and finally last fall it seemed like the right time.” She broached the idea of an arts collaboration with administrators and her students. All were enthusiastic.
But how and where to identify potential partners or schools? Out of the blue, Alioto received a call from a resident of Ferguson, who had heard that the Aliotos have a farm on the outskirts of West County and wondered if they might give a rescued duck a good home. As it turned out, that woman is a school teacher in Ferguson. She and Alioto discussed the dance idea, and Central Elementary School emerged as a possible partner.
Sheldon McAfee, the Principal of Central Elementary, was very welcoming—and so began an intensive six-week collaboration after spring break. Twice a week, Upper School dance students traveled to Ferguson and worked with more than 30 students from third through sixth grade—most of whom had never danced before but were brimming with interest and enthusiasm.
The Central Elementary students chose whether to perform classical ballet, jazz and hip-hop, or tap. And the Principia students designed and led the classes “and pretty much choreographed and taught all the dances,” Alioto says, while she took care of the myriad details related to logistics and costuming.
The groups practiced twice a week after school in any space that was available at Central—the hallway, the cafeteria, the gym—with Alioto moving from group to group to support and give advice. Each 30-minute bus trip to Ferguson provided the opportunity to have a “metaphysical,” where students and teacher shared ideas and inspiration that informed the choreography, selection of music, and the rapid creation and alteration of costumes for a group of nearly 45 dancers. There was an immediate connection between the elementary students and the upper schoolers, who shared texts during the week.
In Alioto’s view, every step of the process “felt God-directed.” Senior Lily Oyer agrees. “Sometimes our metaphysical preparation at the beginning of practice would go really long, because we just got so caught up in sharing ideas!” she says. “Mrs. Alioto showed us that God comes before and above all.”
The end result? A joyous concert celebrating newly learned skills in a set of four joint dances, with another three pieces featuring only Principia dancers. After the show in Ridgway, Ferguson and Principia parents and students gathered for cookies and conversation, with numerous children and families expressing the hope that the collaboration will continue.
Note: Zoe Boyman (US’16) contributed reporting for this article.