Motion Express brings Joy of Motion Dance Center’s award-winning brand of dance education for free to D.C. children and teens at their schools. The Employ level of the Motion Express program is geared for students grades 9th – 12th. It provides a dance and/or administrative internship experience that emphasizes job and life skills, leadership, advocacy, and strengthening of the youth voice. Students also have the opportunity to take free dance classes at JOMDC during their internship. Below is a blog post from another one of our Motion Express Employ students who is interning with Outreach Manager Quynn Johnson:
My name is Alexis Tompkins and I am 17 years old. I attend Cesar Chavez Public Charter School and am now a rising senior. Some of my long-term goals are to study technology and go to school for athletic training. I want to own three gyms with a small recreational center incorporated for adolescents ages 10-18. In addition, I would like to achieve my bachelors, masters, and PHD degree.
Dance to me is a chance for everyone to express themselves. It’s a relief, a step out of reality, and a chance to find yourself from within. This is what I like most about dance. My time here as an intern has helped me grow more in life. I have learned several different aspects of life because of the many different genres of dance that Joy of Motion Dance Center offers. Working here has been a pleasure for me because it is a luxury to work in a nice diverse atmosphere. We have had the opportunity to help out with different shows, make tickets, file papers, and work with different Microsoft Office programs.
Creating our own outreach program was very interesting because I was able to see how far my mind could open up to build a program just for youth. It wasn’t easy, but it was fun to see how creative you can be knowing that it is also for a good cause. My outreach program is called A.I.T which stands for (Adolescents.In.Training.). The mission of this program is to engage the young kids and teens into sharing their ideas through dance. It is a chance for kids to express themselves. The vision for A.I.T is to see young kids and teens work hard to achieve different aspects of their life with dance.
