Dance puts smiles on many people’s faces, no matter their age or background. Tenafly High School’s Dance for Good club aims to do just that through their new program, Steps for Hope. Offering numerous genres—hip-hop, jazz, and Bollywood—Steps for Hope is hosting classes in the THS cafeteria for students grades three through five every other Wednesday, starting April 10. The dancers will then participate in a recital in June.
Steps for Hope is not only educating future generations, but is paying the spirit of dance forward. The program was started in order for the new generation of kids to be able to take dance classes while raising money. The money Steps for Hope is raising will go to at least one dancer who isn’t fortunate enough to follow their passion and take classes at a dance studio. “One goal we have for this program is to raise as much money as we can so that not only one person can have a chance to dance, but hopefully a couple of children can have the opportunity to shine,” Sophia Silverman (’25), President of Dance for Good, said. “Another important goal is to have the kids I am teaching feel extremely good about themselves since what they are doing is changing someone’s life and that is so special.”
Kavya Chettur (’25), Vice President of Dance for Good, has been training in Bharatanatyam (Indian Classical) dance since 2012. Chettur hopes to share her love and passion for dance through Steps for Hope. “Dance has always been more than a physical activity for me, and I’m excited to share this happiness with the community of young girls that attend our classes,” Chettur said.
Silverman joined The Source Dance Lab in 2021 and got to meet people from various backgrounds. “One of these people is my best friend today. This girl is one of the most talented, strong, and empowered dancers I have ever seen in my life and hearing that she would not be able to afford to be on our team broke me,” Silverman shared. “So that’s when I said to myself, ‘I need to make a change.’”
Early in the year, Dance for Good held a drive for the Goodness Dance Ballet Academy in Africa, but wanted to expand the impact of their club within the Tenafly community. After much brainstorming, Steps for Hope came to life. Creating Steps for Hope was more difficult than the club had expected; It was time-demanding. “The meetings with the principal, the forms, and of course getting people to join, took around five months, but I couldn’t be more proud of my team and I,” Silverman said.
The dancers start off class by sitting in a circle and conversing with one another. They do a stretch before the teachers give them steps to learn. In lines, the kids go across the floor doing the moves the teachers taught. Finally, they work on the dance they will be performing at the end-of-year recital. “It is so important to be able to do something you love no matter what state you are in and being able to help out with that makes me so beyond happy,” Silverman stated.
“If anyone would be interested in helping teach classes that would be great and much appreciated. And of course in order to support, I am going to be setting up a way for people to donate money,” Silverman added. The Dance for Good club is looking forward to extending Steps for Hope into the next year and turn it into a larger program. More smiles and happy dancers.
