SCHOOL’S OUT -- Stars are born

Danette Goulet

CORONA DEL MAR -- Monday morning, a dozen little soul sisters stars

were born.

When the girls walked into the Grant Howald Community Center in Corona

del Mar on Monday morning, half of them had never taken a dance class

before.

In no time they were demanding a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. It was the

first day of the Dance and Arts Camp offered through the City of Newport

Beach and run by Robynne Smith and the Academy of Dance in Santa Ana.

Only 19, Smith made a perfect role model for the 7- through

11-year-old girls.

She had them dancing in no time.

“The whole process works toward a show for the parents at the end of

the week,” Smith said. “We’ll make backdrops and costumes.”

The theme of the program varies each year. This year’s is “dancing

through the decades,” starting with the 50s and 60s.

After a quick warmup to music with stretching, running and even

skipping, they began to make up a dance.

It was created on the spot from start to finish, with the children

invited to suggest steps. But, being the first day, the girls pretty much

left it to their teacher.

Smith kept things rather simple, but threw in dance moves that

challenged children a bit -- such as the jazz square.

Each time she would add a step they would go back and practice it from

the beginning. So what began as chaotic and visually uncomfortable, with

everyone’s timing off and some leading with the right foot and others

with the left, soon smoothed out.

But it was not a constant three hours of grueling footwork lessons.

True to the camp’s title, the girls have to craft a project each day

that corresponds with the theme.

So after learning a dance to Aretha Franklin’s Respect, they decorated

hula hoops, which Smith said they could incorporate into their dance if

they wished.

Glue, sequins, sparkles and garland transformed plain Hula-Hoops into

sparkling circles.

* SCHOOL’S OUT is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a summer camp within the Newport-Mesa area

and writes about her experience.