Street dances at the artPARK begin
The weather was perfect for an outdoor dance on Saturday evening June 4. The Pomerene Center for the Arts presented the first in a series of four street dances at the artPARK on Main Street.
“We need a little dance in our lives these days to give us a little positive energy,” said Anne Cornell. “Everything seems to conspire to drag us down. Music and dance and being together can be our help support. Several things came together to bring the dance series about. Last summer I was out here on a Saturday morning and there was a man who stopped to talk and said, you should have a polka festival here. That just sounded like so much fun. So I thought, what if we did a street dance series? If we get big enough we could expand but right now I just wanted to start and see how it goes. If you’re going to dance, you need to know how, so we’re having free dance classes on the other side.”
Cornell started talking to the dance community and Carol Hampton knew Tim Cohen a dance instructor originally from the Columbus area where he taught dance professionally. They brought him in and to teach dance classes scheduled ahead of the event.
Saturday, June 11 will be Salsa, with the Latin jazz band Yumbambe from Columbus. The next weeks’ band is up in the air due to unforeseen circumstances but a Polka Band will play the last weekend in June. “This band got their start when they were still in high school,” Cornell said.
There used to be rent parties with music on the lawn at the original Pomerene Center.
“We needed something for this venue and already this is a much more diverse crowd age-wise and that’s what I love about the artPARK,” Cornell said. “It’s out and easy to step in if you are just walking by. The plan is to have food here too. We have perfect weather tonight. Tom Davis on guitar is from Coshocton and studied with Barry Hardesty. This band was formed at Capital University in a college dorm room and the band has such a cool name. Willie Nelson Mandella is a rock and roll band. It’s a mash up of country, revolutionary, surrealist artists and a religious leader.”
This is a free event for the community sponsored by the Oshea Fund. Through the Coshocton Foundation the fund was left to the people of Coshocton who love to dance. Established through Kathleen E. O’Shea who loved dance, this fund is to be used to support live theater and dance performances in Coshocton County.
“The fund was left for people who love to dance and we can do that, we want to do that,” Cornell said. “We all need joy in our lives. The kids enjoy it too. This place with the steps and things, kids just know what to do here, play, climb steps, whatever.”
Cohen said, “I’m giving dance lessons and teaching people how to ballroom dance with live music afterward so they can take what they learned and apply it to whatever they play. Ballroom dancing can be Waltz, Tango, Rumba, Cha-cha, Swing, Jitterbug, Jive, Salsa, Merengue, Mambo, Vienese waltz, Argentine tango and like 30-plus other different dances. Tonight we learned East Coast swing, which would be classic rock type music, just simple basic stuff. We’ve got to get people interested in dance and get bitten by the dancing bug so to speak. Next week and the week after we’re doing Rumba and the last Saturday of the month we will begin at 5 p.m. and do Polka that night. A polka band will be playing.”
Hampton said, “We’re here because we love dance and I think it’s important to keep that going in the community and get people dancing. Just remembering to have fun and enjoy life, and don’t be caught up in all the ugliness that’s going on.”
Category: Arts & Entertainment
