Getting their groove on
Dance classes huge hit at Tusarvik School in Repulse
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 17, 2014
REPULSE BAY
Students at Tusarvik School and other youths in the community were groovin' to the beat in Repulse Bay (Naujaat) this past week.
The hamlet brought in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School's freestyle battle dancer Eugene (GeNie) Baffoe to conduct a number of workshops with local youths.
Baffoe, originally from Montreal, Que., has been training in the field of hip-hop for the past decade.
The past six years have seen Baffoe teach, choreograph and direct at a professional level, and he now heads Winnipeg's urban dance drew B.O.S.S. (Built on Self-Success) Dance Team.
Baffoe spent six days in Repulse focused on introducing and having youths understand movement, relate it to music, and bring the two together in harmony.
He held classes during the day for students and evening workshops for those interested in the community who no longer attend school.
Baffoe said with younger kids, his approach is about understanding music and how your body moves to it.
He said he focuses on a simple approach, such as stepping to each side and clapping on beat.
"I want them to try to understand how to clap with the music, and get their bodies moving in a way they normally wouldn't during a normal school week," said Baffoe.
"With the older crowd, who may have a bit more experience with dance, we do a little more complicated movements combining basic and advanced movements to the music.
"I want to get them moving their bodies in quicker ways."
Baffoe said the Repulse youths were keenly interested in tuning their body movements to the music, and their energy was through the roof.
He said he enjoys showing young kids how to do their own dance walk during a routine day.
"They can do it when they're playing music or just hearing it in their head.
"The older kids were interested in breakdancing, so I taught them some head spins and basic moves they could keep working on after I left.
"There are many kids into sports here, and you need to be quick on your feet to get around a defender or block an opponent with the ball.
"There are a lot of times in hip-hop when your feet are moving very quickly and, if you practice that, it can go a long way toward improving your sporting life."
Grade 7 student Melanie Yank, who turns 12 on Dec. 19, said she really enjoyed the dance classes, especially learning how to do crazy feet.
She said the classes taught her a lot about how to move through different beats.
"It takes a lot of courage to really dance, so you can't be shy about doing it," said Yank.
"I love music, especially when it has a good beat, and I've been dancing since I was three, so this was a great week for me.
"My friends and I talked a lot about Eugene's classes, and we were redoing the moves trying to remember them all.
"We'll keep practising all the moves he taught us while he was here."
Naujaat SAO Kowesa Etitiq said Baffoe's visit came about as a result of hamlet council wanting to focus on youth and recreation programming for the community.
He said council passed a resolution this past January called the Repulse Bay Community Youth Development Initiative, which instructed him to come up with positive youth programming.
"Council wanted to see more opportunities for growth among our youth," said Etitiq.
"At first, we were looking at a hip-hop group from Iqaluit, when the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School was suggested to us. I contacted Kelly Bale at the school and she got in touch with Eugene for us.
"It all fell in place from there and it was very, very successful for us."
Tusarvik vice-principal Julia MacPherson agreed, saying the students responded very well to Baffoe.
She said his passion and enthusiasm for dance was contagious throughout the week, and everyone had a great time in his classes.
"The kids at Tusarvik are all music fanatics and Eugene's visit created a real buzz in the school," said MacPherson.
"Everyone either owns their own iPod or shares someone else's between classes.
"Music is definitely important here, and student participation and excitement over these classes was really quite something.
"They didn't want Eugene to leave, and I had to pull him away at the end of his final dances with the grades, so it was a great experience for them."
