A dance workshop opens the door to a different world

COURTESY PAIGE REED

Hopewell High School senior Paige Reed was one of two Charlotte dancers to spend a week at the Alvin Ailey Extension workshop in New York City. “I was really surprised,” said Reed, who earned a scholarship after attending a workshop at Northwest School of the Arts. “I wasn’t expecting scholarships or anything.”

A dance workshop at Northwest School of the Arts opened the world to Paige Reed.

To her surprise, the Hopewell High School senior, earned a scholarship to the Ailey Extension, a weeklong workshop hosted by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.  

“I was really surprised,” said Reed, 17, who went to Northwest with friends from Habilah Dance Studio in Matthews. “I wasn’t expecting any scholarships or anything. Sometimes I go to dance conventions with my other studio, and it’s known that they give scholarships … and just enjoy the experience and stuff. But the Alvin Ailey tour, I was just there to be dancing and then they gave one up. Oh, wow. I didn't know. I was overjoyed.”

Not only did Reed spend a week learning from some of the world’s top teachers, but she was also immersed in unfamiliar cultures – starting with New York itself.

“It was my first time actually being there,” Reed said, “so it was like kind of like a culture shock, but it really reminded me of downtown Charlotte in a way. Just being there, the people act different as well.”

Teagan Power-McCarter, 13, was born in New York and lived there until she moved as a 3-year-old. Earning a scholarship to the Ailey Extension left a positive impression.

TRACY POWER

Teagan Power-McCarter, an eighth-grader at Northwest School of the Arts,  spent a week at the Alvin Ailey Extension workshop in New York City. “It was just really fun,” she said, “because it was a very different experience from my home studio because I do competitive dance. It was just way different.”

“It was really fun,” she said. “At first, they were just watching us do some basic ballet and they were moving people up to the 16-and-up class and just watching us and I ended up staying in the 13-to-15 class, which I ended up really liking because we had different classes that I’ve never really done before and I just got to learn new things and I made a couple of friends. It was just really fun because it was a very different experience from my home studio because I do competitive dance. It was just way different.”

Charlotte is a familiar stop on the Ailey Experience Tour, which is held in the winter and spring along with AADT’s annual North American Tour. Troupe instructors teach choreography in schools at each stop and give scholarships for the summer workshop. An offshoot is the avenue for participants to meet people – as well as dance genres – from around the world.

“Charlotte is one of our favorite cities on the Ailey Experience tour, but I think Mr. Ailey’s mission and his legacy that this came from the people it should always be delivered back to the people,” said Lisa Johnson-Willingham, the initiative’s director since its launch in 2011. “It is our goal to continue his legacy by bringing dance to the people in Charlotte and all the other major cities that we tour in the U.S.”

Ailey Extension, which has reached more than 43,000 students from 70 countries, grants tuition scholarships to dancers of all ages and experience levels to meet in New York for classes taught by expert instructors, including alumni from Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and The Ailey School. The setting allows participants to learn more than 25 styles of dance and fitness without judgment.

“Our workshop is no-audition,” said Johnson-Willingham, a former Ailey dancer. “It’s a welcoming environment, non-competitive, so they get to just relax and feel free to express themselves and be who they are and dance with different people and new teachers. They’re able to learn new things to take back home with them and share with their community. I think that’s really important.”  

It was important to Power-McCarter, who admitted the competitive nature of dance can be overwhelming. Her instructors were OK teaching dancers of varying experience and skill styles like Horton, hip hop, Afro-Cuban, ballet, West African, Zumba, pilates and contemporary.

“I feel like when you go to a new class, especially for me and dancing, if you don’t know any of the people, I get nervous, like, what if I’m not good enough, or, like if I messed up something,” she said. “But it ended up being like we were all sort of on the same level, and some things people were better at than others and then it would flip-flop. I was really nervous at first, but when I went throughout the week, I wasn’t nervous at all, and it was a really good environment because everyone just has a lot of energy. And I also love being in New York, so I really just liked being there.”  

Reed said she didn’t realize the gravity of her week until she returned home.

“I was proud of myself, and then at the same time, it is Alvin Ailey, one of the best studios in the world,” she said. “I was like, ‘wow,’ and then I didn’t really come to that realization until coming home and settling down. Then I realized how amazing it was when I got to New York. I was blown away.”

In addition to learning new techniques, Reed cited the live music accompaniment as the biggest surprise of her workshop experience.

“I’ve been taught by different teachers before, but I haven’t really danced to live music at all,” she said. “There were musicians during ballet and then our foreign technique classes in the West African course. Then it just amazed me how these musicians could play music with the combinations we were dancing, and it was cool.”

That’s the spirit – and intent – of the program.

“We invite everyone to dance because we say everyone can dance at Ailey,” Johnson-Willingham said. “This includes young kids who aspire to be professionals, as well as like fans of Ailey dance, connoisseurs, or enthusiasts or, families to come and participate in our workshop and classes.”    

This article corrects the spelling of Teagan Power-McCarter's name.

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