Members of the National Ballet School jette-ed by the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation for its annual outreach visit to Newfoundland and Labrador recently.

The women facilitated a session with Dr. Erin Cameron’s Movement Concepts class.

“You don’t necessarily need to be trained in dance for years to teach dance, do dance or love dance.”— Ashleigh Powell

“We are here at Memorial talking about how to introduce dance into physical education,” said Ashleigh Powell. “We are showing students that dance is a skill they already have and help them pick out elements of what they are already doing that they can turn into dance movements or dance activities.”

Ms. Powell and her colleague Angie Seto spoke to students in the class about how dance is based on basic movement skills and is a language that everyone speaks.

“You don’t necessarily need to be trained in dance for years to teach dance, do dance or love dance,” Ms. Powell said. “We hope that we light a spark in one or two students so they think dance might be something they want to incorporate more in their lives.”

Appreciating dance is not something new for Kaitlin Hobbs, a student in the Movement Concepts class. She first attended the National Ballet School when she was 10 years old. She says she is pleased her fellow HKR students are getting to experience dance in this way.

“It is awesome that they (the school) can come to Memorial and do classes because they can share their knowledge and wisdom,” said Ms. Hobbs. “People who have never danced can gain insight into what dance really is.”

Ms. Hobbs is currently a professional dancer locally who has aspirations to continue to dance on the local and national stage.

The school’s visit to the province is part of a partnership with St. John’s- based Kittwake Dance Theatre.