LDS Dance Festival

This is the New Tribune Article from the Regional Dance Festival. Mark & I were involved over the weekend. It was a tiring pursuit but we loved every moment. It was amazing to feel the spirit and also the enthusiasm of the youth today. We were very blessed to have the opportunity to be part of this great event.

2,200 youths, one goal: Mormon dance festival

Here’s the task: Take 2,200 young people from dozens of towns in Western Washington. Teach them to dance. Outfit them with elaborate costumes and then bring them all together for a two-day festival to dance before a crowd of thousands at the Tacoma Dome.
And do all of this without paid staffers or professional producers.

That’s the assignment a dedicated group of Mormon volunteers accepted a year ago. This weekend, they and thousands of audience members witnessed the fruits of their labors in three grand dance performances at the Dome.

“They did it!” exclaimed Chandra Orme, director of Dance Festival 2008, after Saturday afternoon’s two-hour dance extravaganza. “It was the kids and hundreds of adults that made this all happen.”

The youths, ages 12 through 18, performed a medley of more than two dozen dance numbers. The dances were as diverse as the waltz and the Samba, all keyed to historic periods in the development and expansion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The routines ranged from an enthusiastic square dance to “Turkey in the Straw” to swift-paced Latin dances to “La Bamba” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”

Most of the numbers featured hundreds of youths from 11 church districts, or stakes, in the region. The finale included all 2,200 dancers and stretched from one end of the Tacoma Dome’s arena floor to the other.

For those involved, the experience – despite the long hours of rehearsal, the late-night extra work and the inexperience of most of the dancers – was immensely rewarding.

Kathy Williams, who coordinated the performance for the Tacoma stake, said the rewards of the project went beyond the performance.

“I think the kids learned a lot about working together. They met other young people their own age, and they enjoyed the satisfaction of a job well done,” she said.

Practices began seven months ago. All of the stakes rehearsed together for the first time Thursday.

Bryce Bettridge, 18, a performer, said the project showed how people could work together to produce a great performance.

“It’s all about team building,” said the University Place youth.

Patti Carpenter, who designed and coordinated the creation of hundreds costumes from polka dot dresses to Navy uniforms, said she had participated in a dance festival when she was young. It was an experience that stayed with her and spurred a further interest.

The Latter-day Saints church has a long tradition of dance, both in the early days when the pioneers in the church trekked to Utah and later in dance festivals such as the one the local stakes staged this weekend, said Ronald McCombs, president of the South Puyallup stake.

In addition to the temporal benefits that the Dance Festival engenders, he said, it has religious implications as well.

“It creates a greater sense of a relationship with the Heavenly Father, and it promotes wholesome and wonderful activities that bring us all joy and happiness,” he said.