CN: September 19, 2018

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September 19, 2018

Spicing up Hazelwood with dance

Around Town

Community Voices By Rick L. Stevens. Pg. 2 Hazelwood Parks and Rec and Kor Komplex co-host ‘The Charenji’ ninja/obstacle race. Pg. 3

Special Section Senior Living. Pg.4

Features (FLIP) Students dance during the salsa session of an El Movimiento: Latin Beginnings Ministries class.

Submitted photo

El Movimiento: Latin Beginnings Ministries offers free salsa and breakdance lessons By Charlotte Beard We are almost a month into the return of kids to school. Many parents have their children involved in some form of sport or extra-curricular activity; however, other parents struggle to find additional ways to engage their child. Financial burdens also cause a strain on finding those opportunities. A dance studio in Hazelwood has spent almost two years offering a no-cost quality alternative for youth. El Movimiento: Latin Beginnings Ministries located at 7211a North Lindbergh Blvd., was established in 2017 as a nonprofit for youth by dancers David Blake and Tashia Ochoa. However, the two dance instructors developed the concept for Latin Beginnings in 2014. “The whole thought process behind that was building a community that focused on beginners or people who were interested in (Latin dance) and didn’t know much about it,” stated Blake. Blake and Ochoa desired to provide a “layman’s” approach to Latin and breakdancing. They began to get requests for dance instruction for youth. It was then that they decided to open the studio and offer

salsa and breakdancing to K-12 youth. Classes run on a semester format with a one-month quarterly break. Current classes resumed Sept. 10. Pre-enrollment is not required; however, each class is progressive therefore, attendees are encouraged to start at the beginning of the semester. Alyssa Gray, age 14, has been attending the classes since the studio opened in 2017. Prior to her coming to El Movimiento she had dance experience in jazz, hip-hop, and ballet. “I knew next to nothing about Latin dancing and I hadn’t touched the surface of breakdancing…at all.” Gray’s family found out about the opening of El Movimiento and its youth Salsa classes while attending one of the studio’s Tuesday socials in St. Charles. Both Gray and her sister had previous desires to learn salsa and the offering of breakdancing was an added plus. The youth meet on Mondays at 6 p.m. starting with a short character-building session, followed by the salsa lessons and ending with the one-hour breakdancing instructions. Latin Beginnings Ministries aims to instill character strengths in the youth

that they can use outside of the class within any aspect of life. “It gives the kids a lot of opportunity to break the ice,” Blake said of the characterbuilding session. “You may have some that are very boisterous, then you may have some kids that are kind of shy. With the lessons we try to make it as interactive as we can by asking them questions and get the kids feeding off each other. Some of them know each other and some of them it’s their first time meeting each other. We get kids from different (geographical) areas.” Gray shared, “(The instructors) do a lot of devotions and they apply how dancing is a way to worship God. God wants me to be the best I can be, and they train you to be the best you can be.” This semester’s character-building sessions will cover nine attributes or characteristics of a person living in accordance with the biblical term “fruits of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, humbleness and control. Each principle is See ‘DANCE’ page 2

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Recipe, Movie & Sudoku. Pg. F-1 CLASSIFIEDS AND HOME & GARDEN. Pg. F-2 /F-3 Moore On Life, Yeggs & Crossword Puzzle. Pg. F-4

Weather FRIDAY Partly Sunny; Storms 84/64 SATURDAY Mostly Cloudy; Storms 77/63 SUNDAY Mostly Cloudy; Storms 76/60 FirstWarn Weather

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CN: September 19, 2018 by Community News - Issuu