The "Shining Stars" Dance Organization is a group of young dancers from the UC Irvine community who have formed together to create an entity that is passionate about teaching dance to the youth of Orange County. Through our teaching opportunities, we hone our teaching practice into a deep and thought-out curriculum that will not only train a dancer physically but also mentally. We believe a dancer
is well-rounded once he/she can perform on physical, mental, and emotional levels. Our first dance program was the "Shining Stars" Summer Dance Program, which ran from August 10th-15th, 2015. We had 56 bright young dancers ranging in age from 5-12 years old participate in this week-long dance program. We taught them three technique classes a day, and these techniques were either ballet, jazz, hip hop, or tap. We held a creative workshop every day, where we tackled deeper concepts such as improvisation and creative movement, cultural dances, careers in dance, dance in higher education, and body image. The students were all incredibly receptive to all of these workshops, and we heard many glowing reviews from their parents! To read more about this program, please click on the following links:
http://www.arts.uci.edu/press-room/new-dance-outreach-program-connects-underprivileged-youth-uc-irvine
http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-me-0813-shining-stars-20150813,0,3905650.story
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/dance-678762-program-around.html
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-children-dance-body-image-self-respect-20150819-story.html