Exciting developments are happening for the dance and art departments at Grier School, starting with new dance teacher, Jocelyn Labriola, who brings a repertoire of experience with her.
\nOriginally from Altoona, Labriola graduated from Point Park College in Pittsburgh with a Bachelors in Dance. She then moved to New York City to perform with well-known dance companies including the Maxine Sherman and Virginia Steer Companies.
\nWith her NYC experience, Labriola traveled the seas for five years as a cruise ship dance performer and worked for Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean.
\n\u201cWhen I came here, it reminded me of the ship, all of the different cultures,\u201d said Labriola of applying for the dance position at Grier. \u201cOn the cruise ship it was just like here because it\u2019s a little world onto its self.\u201d
\nThe 300 acre campus houses 180 students from 20 U.S. states and 19 foreign countries.
\nLabriola also teaches at the Hollidaysburg School of Dance in the evenings. At Grier, she teaches choreography to students ranging from the beginner to advanced.
\n\u201cA lot of kids come in and make up steps around what they can do instead of making up what other people can do,\u201d she added. Labriola\u2019s job is to instruct the students on how to create choreography that everybody can follow.
\nThe dance competition that her students will be competing in is held by The New York City Dance Alliance. It is comprised of a group of teachers that Labriola once worked with on Broadway. These skilled instructors are from NYC but take this competition on the road so that even if students cannot make it to New York, they might be able to go to a city where the competition is being held.
\nThis year\u2019s competition is Feb. 7-10 in Pittsburgh. Labriola will take a group of talented dance students. Some include: Reina Shiwaku, performing a rhythmic gymnastics solo; Raven Barnes, performing a dance solo; and Jihyun Lee, who choreographed a dance duet.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve become stronger as a team. We know how to work with each other,\u201d explained dance students Raven Barnes and Brittany Morgan on preparing for the competition.
\nStudents will take classes during the day and sample a variety of dance styles including: modern, tap, ballet, and jazz. Then the teachers will become the judges for the evening competitions.
\n\u201cThey come from all over, from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York,\u201d said Labriola of the other competitors. Grier School is unique because it is one of the only private schools going. Most of the other dancers will come from after-school dance programs and academies.
\nHowever, the choreography is just one aspect of the competition. Labriola works in conjunction with Laurie Cave, art director at Grier, to create visually stunning costumes for the dance students.
\nCave has three costume classes throughout the academic day, with approximately 4-8 students in each class.
\nLabriola brings her ideas to Cave for the dance costumes. Then, the work really begins. Cave\u2019s students hand-make them from scratch starting with the sketches, measurements, patterns, and then the piecing together of materials.
\nCave added, \u201cAll art classes here are taught with the idea that we\u2019ll have all ages and all levels at our tables.\u201d
\nThat means the costumes are created by the beginner to the advanced student.
\nThe students are always busy at work, creating different costumes for different dance shows throughout the year.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the process that we\u2019re after here,\u201d said Cave, so that the students are constantly changing and perfecting the costumes to see what works best.
\nFor the dance competition in February, the student-made costumes are up for awards such as originality or effectiveness in costume. They will be judged during the dance competition.
\nCave\u2019s hard work in the classroom has paid off since four of her students are now studying at FIT, and two are at a Chicago Fashion Institute, among other students after graduation.
\n\u201cThey need an art class. Then they get hooked and see that they have good, solid skills that are marketable,\u201d said Cave about the practicality of her costume classes.
\nAfter the competition in February, both the dance and costume students will begin work for the dance show scheduled for May at Grier School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exciting developments are happening for the dance and art departments at Grier School, starting with new dance teacher, Jocelyn Labriola, who brings a repertoire of experience with her. Originally from Altoona, Labriola graduated from Point Park College in Pittsburgh with a Bachelors in Dance. She then moved to New York City to perform with well-known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}