I picked up Blade in Roxbury, a Boston neighborhood.  He was a young hip guy wearing a trucker’s hat.  Blade asked to go Charlestown High School… I am not sure why he would be attending that particular school so far away.  I can’t help but think of the problems back in Charlestown in the mid seventies.  Blade said “No, I was done with high school 4 years ago.  I teach dancing now.”

I thought that was cool.  Blade starting dancing at age 7 and never stopped!  After high school, he followed his passion and found a way to teach dance to kids in the public schools.  It is a program that is rare these days and teaches both rural & urban dance forms.  Rural dance is more cultural, representing dance from different cultures in South America and Africa.  Urban dance is more current representing popping, break dancing and hip hop.  Blade teaches urban dance forms to middle school and high school kids at 3 schools in Charlestown & Dorchester.  They write grants to get funding.  AND… it is considered as a gym class, kids even get graded.  Pretty amazing program!

I just thought this was really… pretty cool, they never offered this kind of hip stuff when I was growing up.  Blade plans to continue with this for the next few years and then, put together a performance with a friend and tour.  His dream is to have his own art center one day where all arts can be represented and culminate each year with a final show that puts all the arts together to tell a singular story.  I was inspired by Blade’s passion, accomplishments and dreams.  As a footnote, Charlestown High School is buzzing along just fine these days and fully integrated.