NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ Members of Expressions, the Vanderbilt Community
Outreach Partnership Center‘s after-school dance program for local
teens, will perform “FUSION” April 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Tennessee State
University‘s Recital Hall. The performance is free and open to
the public.
The Expressions Dance Program provides free dance classes in jazz,
modern, African, hip-hop and lyrical dance to high school students with
the goal of providing not only dance training and physical activity,
but also discipline, support, introspection and an opportunity for
self-expression. Vanderbilt sophomores Gabe Hemphill and Natalie
Shevaun Keith led a group of 12 female students from Pearl Cohn High
School, Martin Luther King High School and the Nashville School of the
Arts in the program this semester.
“I have had the opportunity to share my passion for dance free of
charge with students who would otherwise not have had the same
opportunity,” Hemphill, Expressions program creator, said. “The girls
come in every day, put in over 100 percent effort, and learn more about
themselves, their abilities and their fellow dancers.”
“Dance is the perfect vehicle to teach young, impressionable kids the
value of teamwork, exercise and respect for themselves and their
bodies,” Natalie Shauvan Keith, program co-director, said. “I know when
I was in high school, dance was my outlet for all the emotions and
pressures that faced me. It has been great for me to share my love of
dance with these young women.”
COPC is a partnership between Vanderbilt and the Tomorrow‘s Hope,
Hadley Park and Preston-Taylor/Hope 6 neighborhoods. The partnership is
funded by a grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
For more information about COPC, contact Danielle Mezera at danielle.mezera@vanderbilt.edu or 615-322-4277.
Media contact: Melanie Catania, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu