Samir Iydroose Photos.
“Go! Go!” voices rang out from the folding chairs assembled on three sides of a group of teenage girls, as they ran into a single-file line. The first kicked her feet up and jumped, her right leg going forward. She nailed a split in the middle of the air. She landed, and turned to her right to go to the back of the line.
The next girl hopped and her leg made it 90 degrees into the air. The next one looked as if she could have kicked herself in the nose. Each drew a cheer from the crowd.
Twelve teens-turned-leaders, all 15 years old, and nine of their counselors performed that routine in the gym of the Dixwell Community “Q” House last Friday afternoon, as the culmination of a weeklong intensive for Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP) Leaders In Training (LITs) with Connecticut College and David Dorfman Dance.
The LITs, a program from LEAP, are 13 through 15 year olds, but only 15 year olds were allowed to participate in the intensive. This summer marks the first year to allow boys to participate in the intensive.
For four days, the LITs took classes including astronomy, Africana studies, marine biology, and the "philosophy of dinosaurs," as well as hour-long dance classes. Each day, students learned a different style of dance, from Hip Hop to Afro-Caribbean to Street Jazz. Friday’s performance, which ran just short of 20 minutes across multiple dance numbers, became a reflection of that work.
Shanice Maxwell: "You can do anything in college."
“I wanted to have classes that they could see themselves in, and show them that you can do anything in college,” said Shanice Maxwell, the LIT manager at LEAP and herself a graduate of Cornell University and Fairfield University. “So, I advocated for having Africana studies, and Afro-Caribbean dancing.”
In addition to the dance performances, the other age groups showed off what they had learned in the duration of the LIT program. Participants from each of LEAP'S six citywide sites assembled slideshows and spoke about what they liked about LEAP: making friends, exploring career paths, and more.
Kids and counselors also talked about the activities they had done, including a wilderness club, archery, and canoeing, among others.
Beloved muralist Kwadwo Adae, who has been collaborating with LEAP and the organization Discovering Amistad, unveiled an unfinished painting (he is going to add the sky) that he had made in conjunction with the kids at LEAP.
Discover Amistad is an educational nonprofit devoted to teaching people of all ages about the history and legacy of La Amistad, a Spanish slave vessel on which captured, wrongfully imprisoned, and enslaved Africans planned a successful revolt against their captors.
The trial was held in New Haven in 1839, forever linking the history of this port city to the history of enslavement and forced migration.
Janiya, 15, said that she really liked the week she spent at Connecticut College.
“My favorite class was … ‘Philosophy of Dinosaurs,’” she said. “It was so cool we got to touch this fossil of an extinct species.”
She said that she really liked Hip Hop dancing, but her peers were resistant to it, so they blended the various styles for their final performance.
This article comes from the ninth and current cohort of the Arts Council's Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). From June 29 through August 21, YAJI students pitch, report, write and edit stories with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman, Program Assistants Abiba Biao and Grayce Howe and Mentor Ruby Szekeres. Samir Iydroose is a rising junior at Hamden High School.