STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Parents and friends filled the auditorium at PS 45 in West Brighton on Friday morning to watch pre-K, kindergarten and first and second graders perform in the Marquis Hip-Hop Winter Dance show.
Heaven Lucas teaches the 10-week hip-hop residency, which is part of the Marquis Studio program at the school.
Marquis Studios offers programs throughout all five boroughs, serving students from elementary to high school.
“I meet with each of these classes once a week, and we’ve been working on all kinds of hip-hop foundations and learning about the culture of hip-hop,” Lucas said. “It comes from New York, so it’s really cool for the kids to kind of get to know something that was born very close to where they live. We learn about isolating our body, and we do a lot of connecting movement to ideas that students already know, like animals or moving like water. Today we have a culminating event that will showcase each class, and they’ve all been working very hard on their unique choreography. We work a lot on emotion through dance, and there’s a lot of social emotional learning that gets infused.”
Students smiled on stage and danced with confidence and joy.