Movement teacher's way to help kids

Dance teacher Christina Stewart asks her 3- and 4-year-old students to move big and to move small, to use a loud voice and to use a soft one, to pull in and to push out.

She uses movement to teach her students vocabulary, and in this case, about opposites. Stewart has done this once a week for the past two years at the Charleston County School District's Child and Family Development Center.

She uses the same techniques with these students that she does with the classes she holds at her dance studio, Spirit Moves. But unlike classes for adults, she teaches children's classes for free. Stewart pays an instructor to teach her studio classes while she volunteers.

Why? Because she passionately believes in the mission of the center, which serves children ages six weeks through 4 years whose parents did not graduate from high school. Parents take GED and parenting courses at the center while their children are taken care of and educated.

Stewart sees the center as working to build a better community and touching on issues such as poverty and education.

"This is changing Charleston," Stewart said.

Stewart also receives the immeasurable reward of students' love and affection every week, she said. She has a profoundly disabled daughter who doesn't speak, and the center's children give to her some of what her daughter can't, she said. "This is the best," she said. "I get the biggest charge out of this."

Patricia Scarry, the center's interim director, said students look forward to Stewart's class. Students increase vocabulary and learn about direction, movement and rhythm while they dance with Stewart, Scarry said.

Stewart helps students develop a sense of confidence and discipline, Scarry said.

Stewart also understands the center's vision for parents to realize they are their child's first and most important teacher and partner in their education, Scarry said. Stewart invites parents to join the class as a way for them to learn to play with their children.

Children show tremendous growth after a year in the program, with some students' initial scores ranking them lower than the 33rd percentile, well below the 50th percentile national average, and their final scores rising to the 100th percentile. Scarry said the dance classes play a role in children's improvement.

"They are getting so much out of it," Scarry said.

Stewart said she hopes students are more aware of and find joy in their bodies. She said she hopes students learn self-esteem and get a better understanding about who they are. She started volunteering at the center a few months after she moved to Charleston, and she said she has no intention of stopping.

"It's very important," she said. "I'm committed to this."

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@ postandcourier.com.