Idaho Mountain Express: A web of compassion

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

A web of compassion

Dancers demonstrate random acts of kindness

By JENNIFER LIEBRUM
Express Staff Writer

Footlight Dance Centre performers, Malila Freeman, Lauren Robideaux, Cassidy Simpson, Annie Ashfield, Lynnlea Strickland, Liza Buell, Kendall Piggins, Olivia Stimac.
Photo by Aubrey Stephens

    Known for her evocative themes—remember last year when students wore those red Stop Bullying Now! wrist bands—Hilarie Neely and her dancers are giving movement to another emotional topic—compassion.
   The Footlight Dance Centre will be blanketing Blaine County schools in a performance called “Compassion/Weaving Community 2014,” this year’s free educational dance tour.
   “This year, our performances will integrate the art of dance as we look at compassion in the Wood River Valley that brings us together with generosity, kindness and understanding our differences,” Neely said. “This show is a follow-up from our anti-bullying project.”
   The idea extends from a partnership with the WOW-students.org, Flourish Foundation and the Blaine County School District and their efforts to encourage compassion.
   Each show will open with a slide show of schools’ WOW-students’ work locally and Flourish Foundation’s work abroad.
   The art teachers in each school have been providing the backdrop for the performance by collecting work from students to be used as compassion flags and creating maps illustrating their Sun Valley vision.
   As students enter the show, they are invited to submit a “kindness/reflection card,” and will receive another on the way out with a compassion message from a peer.
   “The program is about student generosity, compassion and kindness to oneself, family, our schools and local community,” Neely said. “By viewing this show with an integration of ideas from community organizations that have the same goals, students learn that we are all working together.
   “We want to leave the audience with the message that they can make a difference by understanding you can find joy in giving and acceptance in receiving through kindness.”
   The dancers will interpret the subject through ballet, modern dance, jazz, tap and hip-hop dance forms.
   The tour of schools begins Monday, Jan. 27.

Tour of schools
- Hailey Elementary School, Monday, Jan. 27, 9 a.m.
- Carey School, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 9:45 a.m.
- Woodside Elementary School, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1:15 p.m.
- Community School, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 12:30 p.m.
- Hemingway Elementary School, Friday, Jan. 31, 8:15 a.m.
- Bellevue Elementary School, Friday, Jan. 31, 1:15 p.m.
- Wood River Middle School, Monday, Feb. 3, 2:20 p.m.
- Wood River High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 10:45 a.m.

acheter viagra
buy viagra
comprar viagra

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: