HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Taking part in extracurricular activities like a sports or dance team is how so many young people find community.
At Hot Springs High School, a dance program unlike any other is currently helping shape young students.
The program is run by a director who once walked the same halls as her dancers.
“It's a place where no matter if you want to be center stage or help out backstage, there's a place for you,” said Dance Director Amy Bramlett-Turner.
This dance class at Hot Springs High School is more like a dance studio, with lessons on dance genres like, ballet, modern jazz, tap hip hop, and even world dance forms.
“We have a program of about 230 students,” Bramlett-Turner said. “From that program, they can audition to be part of the Hot Springs Dance Troupe, which is our student company.”
For Bramlett-Turner, she said it’s a wonder she’s back at her alma mater.
“My life is very full circle, and I'm forever grateful for that,” Bramlett-Turner said. “I graduated here in 2007, and I knew that I wanted to get as far away from Hot Springs as I could.”
Bramlett-Turner got her wish, majoring in ballet and modern dance, and later taking jobs performing on cruise ships, but little did she know it was all preparing her for a twirl back home.
“I never thought I would be here so soon, but here I am,” Bramlett-Turner said. “I built it to what [the dance program] is now because when I came in, there were no costumes or shoes or anything. This is my 11th year, and it is bigger than I ever imagined when I first got here.”
With every plie and tendu, the young dancers are learning more than just 8-counts, they’re learning how to become adults.
“If you want to be more flexible, what is that going to take? Or if you make the wrong choices, the show will go on without you, so that kind of accountability part is big for teenagers,” Bramlett-Turner said. “Artistically, they’re learning how to express themselves, how to have a feeling about something.”
That expression which dance provides is exactly why senior Raymond Jordan Jr. decided to learn choreography— all while taking center stage on the football field too.
When he's out of his cleats, Jordan Jr. laces up his tap shoes.
“I needed another outlet to feel out my emotions, because football focuses on my aggressive side. I wanted to be in tune with all my emotion,” he explained.
For Jordan Jr., cleats and a ballet barre go hand in hand, no matter what anyone may say, and he’s even inspiring other young athletes to try out the art form.
“You hear the negative opinions about it, like how men shouldn't be able to dance and it's more for women, but the same way I believe that women can play football, I know that men can dance,” Jordan Jr. said. “I'm just do something that I love, but to influence these other young men to join and dance is a pretty positive thing.”
The senior football playing dancer said he holds on to the bonds that dance and the Hot Springs High School program have created.
“We have boys now, so I have a couple extra brothers, but I consider the rest of them my sisters, and it's all love, that's the best part about it,” Jordan Jr. said.
As a dancer, they’re taught they’re supposed to leave it all on the dance floor, but Bramlett-Turner hopes the students hold on to every combo as a lesson for life.
“We really strive to give students a place where they can artistically express themselves and where they can find a place of belonging,” Bramlett Turner said. “This is hopefully a program that supports them in becoming the best versions of themselves.”
The dance program will produce their Hot Cocoa Nutty Nutcracker on December 12 and 13 with elementary and public shows.