As a couple from Ukraine instilled in New York children a love of folk dances

Kaleidoscope is one big family. Photo: from the personal archive of Valentin Usmanov

Extracurricular activities are popular not only in the countries of the former CIS, but also in America. Caring, but rather busy parents are trying to find the best tutors for their children, the best art courses, sports clubs and dance schools. And there really are a lot of those in New York. The only question is whether these activities will help to identify strong qualities in a child and develop them. A year and a half ago, Valentin Usmanov and his wife, choreographer Victoria Markelova, founded the Kaleidoscope children's dance group in Brooklyn, which is now legendary. ForumDaily tried to figure out what to do in order to interest the teenager and help him during the growing up stage.

Love to dance at first sight

Maxim Perezhogin, who was almost 14 years old, got into the Kaleidoscope Brooklyn dance club by accident. An acquaintance told their family about the team of Valentin Usmanov with an unusual creative and personal approach to learning to dance. Maxim became interested and came to a trial lesson. Since then, he no longer wants to leave the dance group and is looking forward to every lesson.

Maxim’s mother, Yulia Perezhogina, does not hide her surprise that a boy of his age is interested in folk dancing, and she does not hide her joy - since he began attending the group, a lot has changed for the better in his life.

“Maxim has become much more organized. Neither bad weather nor slight illness can make him miss the dances, which he attends 3 times a week. And he never misses. In a way, dancing became the purpose of his life. In addition, my son has become more relaxed, free, easy-going, although he used to be very shy,” the mother shares.

Pleases Julia and the fact that classes in "Kaleidoscope“affected the teenager’s health - Maxim’s coordination improved, although previously he had minor problems with it.

Folk dancing helps to solve health problems. Photo: from the personal archive of Valentin Usmanov

"Kaleidoscope" is the youngest children's dance group in Brooklyn - it is only one and a half years old. During this time, the club took part in the Matryoshka festival in Pennsylvania, in Christmas and New Year shows held at the National club, attended events dedicated to Victory Day, and performed at the UN at the presentation of the World Festival of Youth and Students.

“We are probably the only one of our kind,” says team leader Valentin Usmanov. “Our club brings together children of various nationalities, cultures and religions, speaking different languages. What unites them is the ability to learn, which we try to instill in them first of all, a love for dance and history, for ethnic traditions, which we study in parallel with dance.”

Studying folk dances, as it turned out, is quite an effective way of studying the history of any nation. The leader of the Kaleidoscope says that every time he learns a new dance of a nation with his children, he shares with the pupils information about the history of the nation and the events that influenced its formation. This new knowledge for children is then necessarily expressed in dance.

12-year-old Zlata Usmanova is engaged in “Kaleidoscope”Exactly one year. For her, the fascination with folk dancing also began with trial classes. Mom brought her three-day free classes, and then something happened that no one expected: Zlata literally fell in love with folk dances from the threshold, although she hadn’t thought about such a direction before.

Valentine not only teaches children to dance, but is their mentor. Photo: from the personal archive of Valentin Usmanov

"AT "Kaleidoscope“I am impressed by the way they work with children and how they are treated. And it's not just about dancing. Here they teach boys to be gallant, and girls to be feminine and gentle. I don’t think that anywhere else in America these character traits are instilled in children,” says Zlata’s mother Tatyana. He says: the results of the classes are obvious. Zlata began to speak Russian better, she now maintains her posture always and everywhere, and has also become more relaxed and cheerful.

Tatyana Usmanova is very pleased that the head of the club brings up responsibility and continuity in children. For example, every time after class, the older children take the younger ones home.

Unconventional approach

“A feeling of self-worth and relevance is very important for a child. This is the first step towards the formation of responsibility. First, responsibility to your friends during rehearsals and performances, then responsibility in your studies and behavior in the family. We monitor our students' progress at school very closely and are in constant contact with all our parents. We are proud that children not only dance better every day, but also study better. Our main task is not to prepare a professional dancer, but to teach a child to work. This can only be achieved in close contact with the family. This is also collective work and a collective victory!” — Valentin Usmanov talks about his technique.

He calls his guys a “star team” and believes that there are no untalented children: “For example, in ballet and ballroom dancing there are competitions and championships, where the individual skill of a dancer or dance couple comes first. There are no folk dance championships. Therefore, folk dancing is more of a team sport. We often tell our students: “You are not a team of stars! You are a stellar team! In general, there are no untalented children! Each performance is a mini-performance. Everyone in it is important and everyone is needed.”

The guys from Kaleidoscope managed to take part in many activities. Photo: from the personal archive of Valentin Usmanov

The results of this educational approach are surprising. Valentin recalls how the guys showed themselves during the Dance Parade on Broadway: “All dance groups move within three hours to the place of the performance. Only forty seconds are given for the performance itself. During the movement, one of the participants simply goes, as if in a parade, someone is dancing, and our people have danced all the way! First, it is a serious physical exertion. Secondly, they danced so fervently that they applauded all the way and their parents also started dancing with them. The parents were most surprised when they learned that during these three hours there were no learned dances. The children improvised and did it together! They felt each other! For us it was the best estimate of our work! ”

In a dance club, they really pay a lot of attention to sports activity. Each Kaleidoscope workout has four blocks: warm-up and physical training, then a classical lesson (choreography), a stunt part and a dance part.

“At the first stage, we collected the most effective exercises for the formation of muscle mass, which are used in the teaching of martial arts, and exercises for the rapid restoration of breathing, which are used in the preparation of football players. After all, we have more boys than girls, and this also makes us different from the rest of the dance schools, ”the team leader explains.

Price issue

A fair question arises: how much does the creativity of their children cost parents?

Valentin openly talks about numbers and amounts: tuition per month with classes 3 times a week costs $300 for girls and $150 for boys. As the skill of young dancers increases, the cost of training decreases (!). As for clothing for rehearsals and training, it is arbitrary, of any color and type. The main requirement is that the child must be comfortable. All stage costumes for children are free. The club very often performs on the road and, of course, there are a large number of additional expenses: travel for children, cleaning and repairing costumes after performances, food, accommodation and much more. But here sponsors usually come to the rescue - the team leader tries to establish effective work with them so that the costs do not fall on the shoulders and wallets of the parents.

Young dancers get costumes absolutely free. Photo: from the personal archive of Valentin Usmanov

For example, in the year 2016KaleidoscopeThere were a lot of performances both in New York and outside the state, but the total amount paid by parents was only 100-150 dollars for all performances. The remaining costs were covered by sponsorship.

Valentin Usmanov assures that very much in the development of children depends on the parents and on their relationship, and encourages them to look for talents in their child and develop them without imposing their opinion: “We must remember that all children are beautiful and talented. Invest your soul in them, educate them worthy people! Be sure to watch their free time, do not leave a chance for bad companies and drugs. And do not interfere with their desires. Do not give them to the dance, if the child wants to draw, or on the box, if the child wants to play football. If the child does what he likes and you, as parents, can choose the best place for this, then everything will be fine with you! Love the children! Make friends with children! Respect the children! They are the most important and most important thing that could happen to you in this life! ”

Read also on ForumDaily:

Dance group "Kaleidoscope" performed at a grand air show

Dancers of the Kaleidoscope club participated in the presentation of the youth festival at the UN

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