March 10, 2011 • Page 8A
Long Beach Times Newspaper
Amiya Alexander, pint-sized pirouetting entrepreneur FROM STAFF REPORTS
ENTERTAINMENT: SAMBA D’LUSHUS BY WILFRED M. PHILLIPS JR.
The Mardi Gras season is upon us. When we think of the Mardi Gras, we think of the several nights of partying and street parades in New Orleans, but the grand daddy of them all is located in Brazil and the Caribbean nations. In New Orleans the weather can be inclement and sometimes down right cold. But in Brazil, Belize, Trinidad, and Barbados the weather is warm. In Rio March is equal to our August. And it can be extremely warm during the day and at night. The dancers come from all points of of the city of Rio. They parade dressed in scantly with colorful costumes of Mache, and feathers. Los Angeles has a Brazilian dance troupe that performs locally and world wide. The founder is beautiful Brazilian born Guadalupae D`Lushus, who is from Sao Paulo. Her shows are Hot, Hot, Hot. She keeps the Brazilin tradition alive with her soul singing and beautiful dancing girls. She got her start in show business with the legendary James Brown. She performed with his revue for nine years, and she is noted for her background voice on James hit record “The Big Payback”. Guadalupae said she learned much about show business being with the Brown revue while touring around the world. She was the ring girl for Muhammad Ali. She also worked with Marvin Gaye, and was the opening act for Donna Summer on tour in Japan. Her troupe performed on the Gong show and Star Search, and has appeared in over 300 hundred movies. Her voice was used in three nationally commercials. She was a contender for Ms Brazil in the 90’s. Guadalupae lived in Guadalupae D’Lushus England for three years as a background vocalist for various singers and bands. She has appeared in the cast of “Bubbling Brown Sugar, The Motown Story, and The Cotton Club . She had her own show called “Voices” a version of the “Apollo Showcase”. She recorded her hit song “Pump YO Body, which shot to number one on the dance charts. After nine years overseas she came back to America and has now been dubbed as the “Samba Mama” and is currently performing her Brazilian culture show with colorful feathers & funky flair. Her shows are combined with Spanish, Portuguese, and Soul songs and dance. Her lively show will have you dancing along with her troupe in Amiya and her pink bus Harvard Medical School, and becoming an obstetrician. For now, the middle school Mardi Gras carnival style. Guadalupae D’Lushus has put together a tremendous show and will be performing student is saving for college with profits from the mobile dance studio. March 24, at the newly renovated Mavericks Flats, located at 4225Crenshaw Blvd. In her own words ... Los Angeles 90008. Call for reservations and show times at (323) 295-4179. "My goal...is to share my dance talent with younger children, focusing on unFor further information visit their web site at Mavericksflat.com derserved communities. My friends would tell me 'Amiya, you know our parents can't afford this.' So my job is to teach them beginner classes at a discounted rate. My mission is to further the art of dance in an extended cultural community which will provide dance training and community programs for all youth," Alexander wrote in a pamphlet for Future CEO Stars in 2010. What inspires Amiya? The deadline is March 18, 2011. For the criteria and application log on to "My mother inspires me for being a strong, intelligent, successful entrepreneur www.polb.com. Application is attached. and a single mother," Amiya told theGrio. "[She] had me at the young age of 20 while in her 2nd year in college at Michigan State University. She didn't give me Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, up for adoption; she worked very hard to raise me and graduated from MSU." welcomes applications for the Edison Scholars program, which supports the study "First lady Michelle Obama also inspires because she reminds me of my mother, of math, science, engineering and technology.The Edison Scholars Scholarship a beautiful, intelligent, strong African American woman," Amiya added. program is a part of Edison's long standing tradition of investing in the future by A little-known fact ... making the dream of a college education a reality for deserving students. For seriously competitive dancers, costs for dance studio lessons often add up to In celebration of our 125th anniversary, Edison has expanded the program from 75 more than $5,000 a year. A student taking Alexander's classes three days a week to 125 scholarships. In addition, they have made changes to our current eligibility could learn for $1,750. requirements. Recipients are no longer limited to attending an accredited four-year college or university within our service territory. The program has been expanded Potential competition for President Obama were in Iowa this week testing the to include attendance at any accredited four-year college or university across presidential waters. Herman Cain, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the U.S. Each selected high school graduating senior will be awarded a $2,500 former Senator Rick Santorum, former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer and college scholarship. Awards are renewable an additional three years for a total of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty attended the Iowa Faith and Freedom $10,000, provided recipients meet all eligibility requirements. The Edison Scholars Coalition forum and covered topics ranging from the economy, social issues and application postmark deadline is March 15, 2011. Please visit www.edison.com/ edisonscholars for more information. religion while stressing the need for a conservative path moving forward.
When Amiya Alexander's friends couldn't afford dance lessons, the then-9-year-old dancer decided to start her own studio. Now 12, this entrepreneur brings dance classes to children in underserved Detroit communities with a bright pink school bus that she's not yet old enough to drive. Amiya Alexander is Amiya Alexander making history ... tending to the budding dancers of Detroit. Before her bright pink mobile studio, dance classes were a dream for most of Alexander's classmates. Their low-income community lacked sufficient practice space, and parents lacked the time to travel to studios. The cost of dance training, $25 per class, made the activity all the more unlikely for Alexander's peers. Drawing up a blueprint in crayon, the youngster became determined to teach reasonably priced classes -- $11.50 each -- in her own neighborhood's parking lots. On afternoons and weekends, Alexander's pink school bus sets the stage for children ages 2 to 12 to learn beginner-level dances from the middle-schooler, who has been practicing since she was 2-years-old. Her ballet and hip-hop routines also serve Alexander's other ambition: to help kids have fun as they shimmy away obesity. In 2010, Amiya's Mobile Dance Academy generated $10,000 in revenue, making her a pirouetting entrepreneur to be reckoned with. What's next for Amiya? Last October, Alexander founded the "Rising Stars Dance With Me" program, a non-profit scholarship fund for children who can't afford her lessons. Her longerterm goals include opening a Detroit-based performing arts center, studying at
The Port of Long Beach is offering scholarship awards ranging from $1,000 to $8,000
RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE 2012