Local CMS High School Students Get to Dance with the Stars of “Syncopated Ladies” at Special Masterclass

What’s it like to dance with international superstars?

 

Last month, two dozen local high school students got to find out during a special masterclass with three performers from Syncopated Ladies, the LA-based all-female tap ensemble. The group—whose viral videos have topped more than 100 million views, appeared widely on TV and garnered fans like Beyoncé and Janet Jackson—was in Charlotte as part of its current national tour.

 

Students from Olympic High School and Northwest School of the Arts (NWSA) came together for 90 non-stop minutes of dancing at the event, coordinated by Blumenthal Performing Arts’ Education department. Along with tips on technique, participants found inspiration, encouragement, and new ways to push themselves further as artists.

 

For dance teachers Rebecca Messer (Olympic) and Amelia Binford (NWSA), the goal with masterclasses like this one is to broaden students’ exposure to different styles of dance and teaching. They started working with Blumenthal to arrange this opportunity for their students last August.

 

 

“It's nice to have tap companies that are so fresh that can come in and, for lack of a better term, not be so traditional,” said Binford, who teaches both middle and high school dancers at NWSA.

 

WHAT IT MEANS TO STUDENTS

 

That fresh take is exactly what student Jada Symone found through this experience. The Olympic senior, who has been dancing since she was three, remembers the first time she saw Syncopated Ladies online: “And it was like, ‘Wow, they kind of meshed hip hop and tap together, which I’ve never seen’…that really surprised me.” She had only previously seen tap as part of big, Broadway-style musical numbers.

 

Through the workshop she discovered a new way of approaching dance psychologically too.

 

“I think a lot about the movements,” Symone said. “And I think about the steps and if I’m going to mess up.” The workshop helped show her how to “be in my own body and just have fun with the movements.” That knowledge could come in handy later as Symone hopes one day to open her own dance studio and rec center, with a focus on supporting the mental health of young girls.

 

 

After guiding the group through an extensive warm up and then practicing several fundamental moves, the dancers from Syncopated Ladies encouraged the students to use whatever they knew already—no matter how little or how much—and to make it their own through improvisation. They urged the students to start incorporating it into their daily practice too, even if it feels scary or intimidating at first.

 

“No one can take your style from you,” dancer Pamela Yasutake told the group. “Your improvisation is your artistic identity.”

 

They asked for a volunteer to give it a try and Northwest sophomore August Emehel’s hand shot up. She gave it a whirl for four bars and then everyone else got the chance to show off their unique style too. Around and around the circle they went, dancing and cheering each other on.

 

Improv in dance was a new discovery for Emehel, who has been tapping since she was five years old. She thinks it will help her be more fluid and free in her movements.

 

A self-described “big fan” of Syncopated Ladies, she searched for the right metaphor to capture her experience at the workshop: “You know when you have a really good dream and you start flying, it felt like that,” she said. “It’s like when you’re on a roller coaster for the first time and you’re really scared but it’s super fun and you don’t want it to stop.”

 

 

The workshop helped build self-confidence and inspire in other ways too. For Olympic senior Janiya Gault, getting the chance to meet the dancers and see how they have managed their success was especially meaningful.

 

“It was [an] eye opener… just to see other African American females tapping, and that they went pretty far with it,” said Gault, who recently got back into dance, after spending time participating in other sports.

 

“Seeing that they can go to the professional level and still give off the energy and happiness of just being an African American woman and still being able to explain like, ‘this is how you can keep going, keep pushing yourself, you’re beautiful in your own skin’ and all of that... It was a good experience.”

 

Working with the students at NWSA was also fun, she said, in this first ever combined workshop. Even as they worked through some difficult tap combinations, everyone remained friendly and encouraging. “As a group, we all were helping each other and still learning at the same time,” Gault said.

 

WHAT IT MEANS TO PERFORMERS

 

“I love getting to meet young dancers in the local cities that we’re performing in and connecting with them,” Yasutake said, “especially coming out of the pandemic and having so much disconnection.”

 

Charlotte was the fifth stop on a national tour that was originally supposed to take place in 2021. Although the group pivoted to performing and teaching online, she said nothing matches the experience of actually being with students and audiences again in person.

 

“It has been completely rejuvenating and uplifting and reinvigorating,” Yasutake said.

 

Community is key in their work, according to dancer Anissa Lee. “All of us are products—to a certain degree—of community involvement,” she said.

 

“We all come from urban areas where after school programs are really important and being a part of a community of people who care about your well being and your thriving and where you end up in life, and so we just love to give back...”

 

 

She tells students not to be so hard on themselves. “It’s OK to have things that you need to work on and to grow and to nourish yourself in that way,” she said.

 

Dancer Gisele Silva views teaching as an essential aspect of her work. One of the things she tries to impart is the value of different experiences and what that brings to a performing group.

 

“It’s very important for them to believe in themselves, to think from each personal story is a different perspective,” she said, and not to give up even when there are challenges. For her, joining Syncopated Ladies meant leaving her native Brazil, learning a different language and culture.

 

“If you want to, anything’s possible,” she said. “So just go for it and try. Don’t be afraid to try.”