Last week I saw a shy and soft-spoken four-year-old Sophie Villa
come out of her shell.
In the first week of March, Imagine Project Inc., a New York-based non-profit organization, held a workshop at The Ballet School of Stamford. The workshop focused on acting, song writing and dance, all based on ideas from the children involved.
The non-profit organization is aiming for children like Sophie. The organization’s statement says, “We have nurtred underserved children who barely speak; to sing, children who hardly move; to dance, children who never thought it possible, to turn their own ideas into staged works of art with music created by the children themselves.”
For 13 weeks Bill Bartlett, the director of Imagine Project, Inc., will work with the children to create exactly that, a finished product incorporating acting, dance, and song writing all created by the children.
By the end of the first class, with a little coaching from Bartlett, Sophie was dancing and acting in front of her classmates. For the next few weeks and beyond the sky is the only limit for Sophie.
Follow Jason Rearick on Twitter: @photogJR
Bill Smith shovels his driveway on Szost Dr. in Fairfield, Conn. as snow continues to fall on Friday, March 8, 2013.
