THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508120150
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
You can hear the tap, tap, tapping. It resonates outside the storefront in a small, dusty shopping plaza on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk.
You hear a stern voice that can only be an instructor's: ``Pi--vot. Turn. Pi--vot. Turn. Pause. Pi--vot. Turn. . . '' It's followed by the rhythmic tapping of the teacher's seasoned toes against tile.
Just inside the door, decked in white sailor suits and turning in taps shoes are three boys. One Filipino, the other two biracial.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, a freckled-faced boy with stormy blue eyes studies a script.
``We're next, we're next,'' whisper pretty little girls, two black and one white, all thin as wisps in lavender tights.
To the bar marches artistic director S.L. Roundtree. He's studied under Norfolk's finest and beyond. His students are poised in position even before he issues the delicate command: ``Now plie for me.''
At the Dance Theatre of Norfolk, all kinds of kids are learning all kinds of dance - tap, jazz, modern and beautiful ballet.
Under the artistic direction of Roundtree - who teaches for Norfolk public schools - and assistant director Brenda Williams, the troupe has taken first place in a statewide competition three years in a row.
Its annual spring dance recitals are held at Maury High School. People still talk about its imaginative productions of ``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and ``Fiddler on the Roof.''
Roundtree does it all out of a studio half the size of a 7-Eleven, where show posters of ``Phantom of the Opera'' and ``Les Miserables'' adorn the walls.
This is a place where youths are learning to dream in the tradition of the troupe's namesake, the famed Dance Theatre of Harlem.
But they aspire not necessarily to stage and screen stardom. Rather, they seek to master the how-to of seeing any dream through.
And if you listen closely, you will hear other lessons being learned, another dream being pursued.
``When we are working together, we don't think of each other as different, we're just trying to do our best,'' says Ivan Ziglar, 11, of Virginia Beach, in answer to a visitor's question.
Patrick Doherty, from Azalea Middle School, is the boy studying the script. He's preparing for the part of Alligator in ``Really Rosie.'' His mom looks on in approval.
The students are at once aware and yet wonderfully oblivious to color and its consequences. The play is what matters.
``I hang out with people that are nice and Curtis is nice to me,'' says Patrick, hugging his script.
Curtis Williams, his biracial pal, pats him on the shoulder and grins as if to say ``You said it!''
Their heads return to the script. A clear indication that they are more interested in working together than sitting around talking about working together like adults tend to do.
In the door come Norfolk Dance Theatre board members and all-purpose volunteers, Don and Debbie Oznick of Norfolk. ``This teaches kids not to judge people on how they look,'' said Don Oznick. He and his wife, Debbie, enrolled her sister for summer classes.
``I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. . . '' beckons the tap dancers to the floor again. Up they go. Tap, tap, tap tap. MEMO: Registration will be held on Aug. 16 and 17, 5 - 7 p.m. at 5329
Virginia Beach Blvd. CAll 461-7790
by CNB