First Dance Studio gets financial lifeline for arts preservation

WESTERN BUREAU:

MONTEGO BAY’S First Dance Studio, which has been on a mission to uphold local arts and culture in western Jamaica since 2013, was on Monday presented with a $350,000 donation to help finance their operations.

The donation, which was made at the studio’s location at the ATL Plaza in Bogue, saw $250,000 coming from the Jill Stewart MoBay City Run Foundation and $100,000 from Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon.

Jody-Marie Smith, a co-founder of the First Dance Studio, was delighted with the financial contribution, which is a major step towards the US$25,000 (J$4 million) the studio hopes to raise by September 30 to finance scholarships, training equipment, and other initiatives.

“I am feeling very happy and hopeful. I know that this donation is just a start, and today was precisely that, a public presentation intended to be a call to action for persons to be part of this movement,” said Smith.

“I am excited about this start, and we are looking forward to meeting and exceeding our targets. Right now we have over 200 students active in our programmes, and we are on our goal of Spartan 300, which is an initiative to get 300 students for this upcoming term,” continued Smith. “We want to be able to impact even more lives as we go on, especially in our community outreach programmes.”

Her younger sister and co-founder, Sheri-Lee Smith, said that their studio, which teaches dance, gymnastics, yoga, and karate, arose from their past experience with the Western Jamaica Movement, a programme conducted under the now-defunct Fairfield Theatre.

“Both Jody-Marie and myself grew up in the arts; in dance, acting and music. Because of the impact that experience had on our lives directly, we decided that it was important to spread that impact to others,” said the younger Smith.

“The studio was Jody-Marie’s dream, and when she said it to me, I decided, ‘Yes, this is something that we must do,’ because our community in western Jamaica, even though it is the heart of the tourism industry in Jamaica, it was lacking in that area.”

Meanwhile, Janet Silvera, chairman and founder of the Jill Stewart MoBay City Run, said that her organisation’s donation serves as an extension of its mandate to support education for young people in western Jamaica.

“Education is not limited to books and the classroom; education also happens through the arts. It is through dance, music and theatre that children discover their voice, their discipline, their confidence, and their creativity,” said Silvera. “The arts matter just as much as academics, and the future of our children depends on a balance of both.”