Gabriel Rosas, High-School Placement & Transition Counselor, with student at KIPP Adelante Preparatory Academy in San Diego.
KIPP SoCal Counselor Featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune
By: Karla Peterson, The San Diego Union-Tribune
People are always telling you to do what you love, but for Francis Parker students and longtime dancers Alena Callahan and Isabella Haack, extraordinary times called for exceptional measures. So instead of just doing what they love in a time when the world seemed stuck in place, they decided to share what they love.
The happy result is Distant Dancers, a new program offering free virtual dance classes to kids in [systemically] underserved communities. The 40-minute sessions, held Fridays at 4 p.m. and Saturdays at 11 a.m., usually include a stretching warm-up, a fun “Simon Says” game to teach dance positions, and new routines built around kid-friendly themes. [...]
“We started this during quarantine, so we knew it was important to give the kids and ourselves a social outlet,” said Isabella, who lives in La Jolla. “Our social experiences are kind of cut off, so even if these kids are younger than us, it is really cool to just be with them. School can be super stressful, and life can be super stressful. So using dance to minimize stress through moving and a creativity is so important.”
In addition to coming up with a dance lesson plans, Alena and Isabella reached out to local schools and nonprofit organizations that work with elementary- and middle-school students from [systemically] underserved communities. After starting with students from the Kid By Kid tutoring program, Distant Dancers is now working with students from a handful of organizations, including the Monarch School, the KIPP Adelante Preparatory Academy, Bayside Community Center and ArtReach San Diego.
“The Distant Dancers program has helped our students deal with the challenges of life during COVID by providing a fun and safe space where students can enjoy dancing, along with meeting new friends from a variety of schools in San Diego County," said Gabriel Rosas, a high-school placement and transition counselor with KIPP SoCal Public Schools. [...]
Read the full story on The San Diego Union-Tribune.
About the Author: Columnist Karla Peterson is a longtime San Diegan whose beats at the San Diego Union-Tribune have included TV criticism, pop-culture, Comic-Con and San Diego people and lifestyles. She has won awards for entertainment criticism from the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors. A graduate of San Diego State University, she has been with the U-T since 1985.