Students Celebrate The Joy Of Dance

By Larissa Lytwyn

Formal dance has long been engraved in our cultural psyche as an art of precision, grace, and balance — hardly child’s play.

Or is it?

For New York-based Corner Store Dance Company, a five-member professional dance troupe targeting audiences age 3 to 12, children themselves provide the artistic inspiration.

Audience members have the opportunity to improvise scenarios and steps with the dancers.

Middle Gate Elementary School students were the Corner Store’s most recent audience to see its 2004 show, “Step Right Up.”

The company’s first visit to Newtown marked Middle Gate’s final assembly of the school year.

The troupe’s movements often mime real-life activities, from eating to shopping, while incorporating running, jumping, and other easy-to-follow steps with a childlike zeal.

Director Pamela Finney founded the Corner Store in 1976 with composer Ed Di Lello while both were serving as visiting artists in dance at Wesleyan University in Middletown.

Ms Finney, a Sarah Lawrence College graduate, studied dance with renowned performer Merce Cunningham for more than 20 years. She has also served as the artistic director of the Modern Dance Center of Westchester in Bronxville, N.Y., since 1966, where she teaches students age 3 to 18.

At the Modern Dance Center, she said she loves working with the college students.

“I can teach the older students steps that they in turn can teach the younger ones,” she said. “Really, I just love working with children of all ages — from preschoolers to the college students.”

In addition to performing and teaching, Ms Finney leads workshops that include songs, stories, musical instruments, and dances from the troupe’s show.

“Step Right Up” is a collection of dances based on stories, poems, and songs set to both original and traditional music.

The Corner Store employs a variety of instruments, from the piano to the fiddle to the kazoo. Also heavily used are several percussion pieces, including a steel drum, cymbals, and an assortment of smaller noise makers. The result is an unforgettably eclectic sound.

The Corner Store members played their instruments as the students entered, who applauded with enthusiasm after the number was finished. The troupe immediately launched into “Step Right Up.”

The first piece, “The History of An Apple Pie,” featured the consuming, cutting, stealing, or longing for said pastry using a word drawn sequentially from the alphabet.

Other pieces included “Shopping for Shoes,” “The Musical Mouse,” “Newspapers,” “A Windy Spring Day, ” and “The Principal’s Vacation.”

“The Principal’s Vacation” followed Ms Finney’s character, a principal, on her Hawaiian vacation. The students had the opportunity to choose what Ms Finney “saw” in her vacation.

Earlier, the Corner Store asked students to name a food, and, in keeping with the emerging season, “ice cream” was the first response.

So, the principal described her vacation, featuring cool, soft mountains of ice cream in every direction.

Fellow Corner Store members made believe they were ice cream cones, and the principal tried to “lick” and “eat” them — to the guffaws of students.

“I really enjoyed the show,” said student Alyssa Kneski. “It was fun! Different and interesting.”

Fourth grader Brandon Zieman agreed. “I think it is funny — and loud.”

His response made Erika Kroesen giggle nearby. “I agree,” she said. “It was definitely loud — and fun!”