Nigel Lythgoe And Jenna Elfman Bring 'Dizzy Feet' To Hubbard Street Dance
By Michelle Meywes Kopeny in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 4, 2014 8:00PM
From left: Dizzy Feet Foundation executive director Danae Rees; Nigel Lythgoe, creator and executive producer of So You Think You Can Dance and Co-President and a founding member of the Dizzy Feet Foundation; actress and Dizzy Feet board member Jenna Elfman; Kathryn Humphreys, Director of Hubbard Street’s Youth, Education and Community Programs; and Kalena Dickerson, Hubbard Street Associate Director of Development. Hip Hop A student: Chase Wayland. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
So You Think You Can Dance's Nigel Lythgoe and film and TV star Jenna Elfman (Growing Up Fisher) stopped by Hubbard Street Dance Center on Friday to observe company rehearsals and a couple kids classes. The two were in town for SYTYCD auditions, but were visiting Hubbard Street in their Dizzy Feet capacity. The Dizzy Feet Foundation is dedicated to supporting, improving and increasing access to dance education in the US, and the organization recently gave Hubbard Street $10,000 to help support their Youth Dance Program.
The program goes beyond studio instruction with community outreach like in-school and before/after school programs. They also teach more than just technique with unique classes that encourage creativity like one we saw on Friday called ChoreoLab where students, in this case ages 9-11, are encouraged to improvise their own movements. “Dance without question gives you self confidence,” said Lythgoe when we spoke with him about the additional benefits of dance education. The importance of these programs isn’t just to create the next generation of professional dancers or television stars.
While one side of Dizzy Feet awards scholarships to individual dancers, their ultimate aim reaches much wider. The community objective is to “get as many people involved in dance as is possible,” according to Lythgoe. They want to make dance more accessible by continuing to push their National Dance Day initiative, created by Lythgoe in 2010, and are hoping to get a national certificate for dance curriculum. And given the obvious health benefits of dance, we may even see a future collaboration between Dizzy Feet and the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign.