We are currently in need of:

• Notebook Binders
• Sketch books
• Duct Tape!
• Water bottles
• A digital Projector!
• External storage devices

To donate, please contact us at 717-232-2615 or email corrina@danzante.org

Schedule to be announced.

All are invited to our Winter party at Danzante next Thursday evening, Dec 17th from 5-8pm.

Come for free food, purchase youth art, and see our youth perform!

All are invited for a fun night of Salsa dancing, free food and youth art for sale!

Must be 21+ to attend.

November 11th, 6-10pm at Appalachian Brewing Company on Cameron Street in Harrisburg.

Tickets are $5.00 in advance (available at Danzante Studios)

or $10.00 day of event.

All proceeds benefit Danzante’s Youth Arts Programs!

 

Contact Danzante at 717-232-2615 to purchase tickets, or stop by 200 Crescent Street, Harrisburg, Pa 17104 during studio hours –

Monday – Thursday 2-6pm

Adult Zumba class with Andi Oyler

Thursdays from 6-7

Only $5.00 per class!

All are welcome to our Fall Open House at Danzante

Thursday, October 1st 5-7pm

Come and meet our teachers for fall, participate in classes, and register your children!

call 717-525-2323 if you have any questions!

Culture Club Let ’s Dance

18 TheBurg

Peter Durantine

http://www.theburgnews.com/TheBurg-Aug2009.pdf

New Steps for Danzante

Arts group evolves with new leadership, enhanced mission.

For more than three decades, Danzante Community Arts Center has offered programs in Spanish art, dance and music. Now, as the founder moves to retire, new leadership is looking to expand the nonprofit’s reach and services. With an art studio and three dance studios, including a studio theater where music and dance is conducted, Danzante offers opportunities for youth, whether they live in the city or around the region, to express themselves through various forms of art. “I think it’s a treasure,” said Corrina Mehiel, the new director, who is taking over for founder Camille Erice.

When Erice decided to start Danzante in 1978 with guitarist and co-founder Paco Molinero, her intention was to open a dance company where she could offer lessons in Spanish dance. A New York native, she had studied the art in Spain, where she became a Flamenco dancer.

“I just wanted to dance and share it with a community,” she said of Flamenco, a form that is slow and soft and loud and rapid in its rhythm. “It’s my love for the art.” Erice came to Harrisburg, where her family now lived, looking to open her studio. A church in Allison Hill’s Mount Pleasant Historic District offered her space in return for offering lessons to the youth in the community.

Thus began Danzante’s evolution, from a dance company to community center.

“It evolved because of the needs in the community,” Erice said. “There are not enough children involved in the arts.” Noting the crime problems in theneighborhood, she said, “A lot of these kids are in trouble because they don’t have any outlets.”

Danzante’s success as a community center was noticed and about a decade ago, when the old McFarland Press Building at the corner of Crescent and Mulberry streets was renovated, the developer invited Erice to move the community center there. The large stone and red-brick structure, built in 1880 as a printing plant, stands at the Mulberry Street Bridge in South Allison Hill. Its mixed use of apartments and offices included a large, multi-room area for a nonprofit. The invitation to occupy the space could not have come at a better time. Erice said the center had outgrown the church basement. The accommodations at McFarland, where Danzante’s red sign hangs above the doorway, offer much greater space and efficiency.

Now, as Erice steps down, she said she is confident in Mehiel’s leadership. “She’s taking the organization into the 21st century with all her great ideas.” Mehiel said the long-term goal is to improve the quality of services for Danzante to become accredited as an arts program, allowing for more educational opportunities as well as scholarships.

Each year, between 400 and 500 students come through the program, learning to dance— Flamenco or ballet—play musical instruments and paint. Students are taught the Spanish culture and some of the language behind the dance and music.

Danzante works with other community groups in the city such as Gamut Theatre Group, Capital Area School for the Arts and Salvation Army. It coordinates after-school programs with the school district. This year, it received at $12,500 grant to help provide mentoring from the Harrisburg Institute of Messiah College.

“We were impressed with their application,” said Jill Osielski, the grant projects coordinator for the institute, which works to help address urban community needs while fostering mutual learning among students, educators and groups.

At the city’s Artsfest this year, while the students, dressed in traditional costume, danced and played music with Molinero leading on guitar, Mehiel said that Danzante’s mission is “empowering youth with art.” “It’s about teaching the kids that they’re making a commitment to this art form,” she said. “It’s important for the kids to know the end result: they’re showing the community their art and the community appreciates it.”

Danzante Community Arts Center,

200 Crescent St., www.danzante.org,

717-232-2615,

danzante@paonline.com.

Classes for Fall at Danzante