One dance school kept its ‘Edge’

QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 24, 2021 Page 30

BACK TO BUSINESS

Edge School of the Arts goes virtual

Dance school loses studio, but intends to find new one in the fall

by Naeisha Rose

Associate Editor

Edge School of the Arts in Laurelton has its 25th anniversary on the horizon for June 27 at 7 p.m. But it took a lot for the school to bounce back after having to shut down during the pandemic in March 2020 and lose not just its dance studio, but also a dance mom.

“She was one of our baby class moms and she was also a member of the legacy,” said ESOTA Artistic Director Kerri Edge about Sharon Green Garrett, the Fresh Meadows dancer and dance mom who died from Covid-19 in March 2020. “We come from Bernice Johnson’s Dance studio and she was from there as well.”

Bernice Johnson was a legendary dancer from the Cotton Club era (1923 to 1940), who broke color barriers as one of the first Black dancers in the famed nightclub. She went on to humbly open her own dance studio from her home’s basement in Jamaica in the 1940s, and it would later grow into a cultural arts center located at Sutphin Boulevard near the old Loew’s Valencia Theatre, which is now the Tabernacle of Prayer for All People church.

The cultural arts center closed in 2000 when Johnson’s health declined. The prolific dancer died in 2005, but she inspired former students from her school to go on and open their own dance studios, including Edge who has helped to usher in a new generation of dancers at ESOTA since 1996.

However, for the first time in years, ESOTA had to shut down its dance studio located at 217-12 Merrick Blvd. after it sat empty for six months following the government shutdown in March 2020.

“I would say we paid $70,000 in rent during that time,” said Edge. “We got a small [Paycheck Protection Program] loan, but it didn’t help much.”

ESOTA received $33,000 in PPP, but because of the lack of revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic, it no longer made sense for the artistic director who operates the dance school with her older sisters, Donna Edge-Rachell and Wendy Edge, and their mother, Beverly Edge. “We were not bringing in e n o u g h income to pay the bills,” said Edge. “We did keep the staff.” T h e ESOTA staff regrouped and spent the months of April through June 2020 offering free virtual classes so students could take the classes via computer from the safety of their homes and stay active, according to Edge.

“The loan helped us keep our staff on board and we received a donation for five computers,” said Edge. “The whole thing was very strange. We are used to being full to capacity at the studio ... not seeing the students left me emotional.”

The school usually has approximately 400 students a year, but operating at 25 percent capacity virtually did make it easier to teach dancers online, according to Edge.

“It’s tougher to teach a larger class,” said Edge. “The smaller classes worked in that sense, but we are missing our people.”

The dance school also had to cancel its 24th annual recital, a June money-making program students started practicing for last March that helps to provide for operating costs for the school for the following dance season, which is in the fall. The school fully paid for costumes, which never arrived last year because the clothes shops went out of business, according to Wendy Edge.

“Things weren’t quite the same,” Wendy said. “The kids didn’t have the usual opportunity to showcase their talents. And we missed seeing the end result.”

In July 2020, ESOTA launched a five-week summer session. The first four weeks the students were in practice mode and in the fifth week students were filmed for a virtual short concert, which included students either filming themselves at home with the help of their parents or being filmed in-person as they gathered safely at outdoor locations wearing masks and socially distanced.

“The kids had done short films before. We did a dance movie we called ‘Four Little Girls,’ before, which tells the 1963 bombing in Alabama where the four little girls lost their lives,” said Edge, about the new dance recital that became a series of

“We got a small PPP loan, but it didn’t short dance films for the songs they amount to much.” had practiced in March 2020. During the Black Lives Matter — Kerri Edge, Edge School of the Arts protests, Councilman Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans) reached out to ESOTA for a dance performance that would unveil a Black Lives Matter mural in Jamaica in July 2020. “We wanted them to be a part of the experience,” said Edge of the BLM performance. Later the dance school was commissioned by Councilwoman Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) for “The Free to be You and Me” concert in November 2020. This was followed by a Kwanzaa performance earlier this year, a little after the holiday. Most recently, ESOTA students performed at Juneteenth events at Agawam Park on Long Island and at Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans. The dance school will be closing out its 25th season with a virtual Motown

Edge School of the Arts dance students perform at Agawam Park on Long Island for a Juneteenth celebration in West African inspired costumes. PHOTO COURTESY EDGE SCHOOL OF THE ARTS concert, with tickets on sale for $25 via bit.ly/ESOTA-MOTOWN-25. “We had rehearsals and classes online virtually and we have locations where we rehearse and then shoot at Springfield Park,” said Edge. “We are also shooting all over parks in Queens, which is cool because a lot of the kids and the parents have never seen some of the parks we are going to.” The other parks in Queens include Roy Wilkins Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, Athens Park, Astoria Park, Queensbridge Park, Gantry Plaza State Park and Roosevelt Island Park. Valley Stream State Park was also a location shoot for the concert. The dance school is in the process of opening a new studio. “We have a new exciting partnership for September 2021,” said Edge. Q