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Kabuki Dancers Artists with a message By Jude Romero
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iscovering that you have a talent is an amazing feeling. Especially when you can use that talent for change. If you would have told me 20 years ago that I would be using dance to capture the attention of thousands of kids to deliver positive messages ranging from never giving up to anti-bullying, I would have said, “Sorry, but you got the wrong guy…” I mean, the thought of getting up in front of one person, much less a crowd of people to speak AND dance would have been enough nightmare fuel for weeks!
Students presenting a robotic solution
The Double Take
Novel robotics club teaches perseverance and team work By Sevie Zeller
M My name is Jude Romero, original member of Kabuki Kru and performer for Kabuki Dancers. I began b-boying (breakdancing) in 1998. Back then, all I wanted was to make a few new friends, learn some cool moves, and just MAYBE impress someone along the way. Some of us excel at sports, school, or business, but I always had an interest for unconventional things. The kind of things your parents would tell you to stop wasting your time on. And they did. Luckily, I was able to find some other “time wasters” that shared my love of unconventional interests and a bond was formed. Kabuki has had many members over the years. Early on, the focus was purely on getting the next big move or competing with others to prove who’s the best. That focus would last for the majority of my dance career. It wasn’t until fairly recently, when I started performing alongside some great people in the public library and school systems, that focus would change. Currently I work with Terrance Morgan, Torrez Hypolite, and Collin Galyean to create and perform our programs for kids of all ages through the state. Together we use dance, drums and spoken word to uniquely entertain and spread positivity to our audience. I am amazed at the impact we have been able to deliver and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Torrez Hypolite, Jude Romero, Terrance Morgan & Collin Galyean
I would like to thank everyone on behalf of Kabuki that has supported us. You allow us to do what we do, and we are exploring ways to reach even more with our work. kabukidancers@gmail.com or @kabukidancers on all social networks.
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organ Mercado and Taylor Wallace are two south Louisiana teachers who are used to garnering attention. They are identical twins, after all, who both teach at the same school and run the fun social media handle @doubledutyteachers. Lately, however, the attention hasn’t been on which twin is which. It’s been on the forward thinking, innovative work the duo has done in launching Woodvale Elementary School’s Robotics Club (with a huge helping hand from Jorey Krupa of Barnes and Noble). The gist of novel engineering is that the students will read a story and then use coding, engineering design and robotics to solve problems for the characters they read about. The work over the course of six weeks culminates in a presentation about their “client” and the solution to their problem. It’s quite impressive. The two core values Mercado and Wallace instill in robotics club are perseverance and teamwork. “At the end of the day, no matter what career path our students choose, we want them to know how to encounter a problem and overcome it without giving up. And we want them to be able to work graciously with people.”
The sisters continued, “A bonus is that through coding, we’re able to introduce them to a career option they may have never considered before. Coding sounds hard to the average kid, but when we break it down, give them the resources, and let them explore - they really surprise themselves. Coding is a “language” that’s becoming more and more common. Exposing our students to these ideas now gives them an advantage in the future.” One can’t help but feel hopeful when talking to top-notch educators such as Mercado and Wallace. They truly see a future that starts with the amazing kids in their classrooms. “We want them to be able to take risks and “fail” safely. That way we can encourage them to try again. And they will try again because someone believed in them and said they could do it. It’s never too early for that to happen, and if we can help make it happen in 4th grade, we’ve done our job.” Robotics clubs are an empowering experience that is catching a lot of attention. Area schools have kits and Dash robots available and can contact Jorey Krupa at crm2730@bn.com for more information.
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