Dance Sensation

A year ago, the only dancing at Manual Arts High School was in the hallways right after the final bell sounded. These days, now that professional dancer Denise Cook is on the faculty, dance class is among the most popular on campus.

Tonight, the dancing will reach a crescendo when the school holds its second annual Winter Dance Concert, titled “The Wonders of Christmas.”

Cook, 38, who earned a degree in dance and a teaching credential at UCLA, started the dance class when she was hired at Manual Arts in 1995. Many at the South-Central school say she has given students a jolt of school pride.

“She has got the spirit of this place way up,” said Roseana Dyas, 17, who will be among the dozen male and female students performing tonight. “She has this glow to her face that radiates. And when there is something wrong, she is like a second mother to us.”

Cook likes to tell her students that they “can go beyond the five-mile radius of the neighborhood where many people spend most of their lives.”

She should know.

Raised in South-Central and Pasadena, she toured Europe five times in the 1980s with the Chester Whitmore Dance Company, a troupe of black dancers, and taught in the Los Angeles area between stints.

Today, Cook, married and the mother of two children, is solidly back in the neighborhood, having bought a home about a mile from the Coliseum-area campus. She says she has never been happier.

“I used to be ashamed to tell people I was a teacher. I would always tell them I was a dancer. But teachers are in a very powerful position. You never know who you are going to teach. They could end up to be the president.” One of Cook’s star dancers is Christine Lynks, 18, who has been taking tap, ballet and modern dance classes since she was 5. Lynks, who tonight will perform a modern dance with gospel music, says that if Cook wasn’t at the school, she would beg her mother to transfer her to another school.

“Miss Cook is absolutely crazy,” Lynks says with a laugh. “She is the type of person that lets you have fun, but when show time comes, it gets real serious around here.”

Tonight’s concert begins at 7:30 in the school auditorium, at 4131 S. Vemont Ave. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children under 18 or anyone with student I.D.

In the middle of rehearsal at the auditorium Thursday, there was a long break for something more important then dancing. One of Cook’s students, Michelle Hoard, was crying. Her uncle had been murdered the night before in Lancaster.

Cook sat on the edge of the stage, her elegant dancer’s legs dangling. The student, standing before her, whispered into her ear for minutes. Cook, her arms embracing the girl, said nothing.

“I was just listening and loving her,” she said later. “Sometimes there is nothing you can say.”

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The student went to sit alone, four rows behind everyone else. Softly, she said she would try to dance the following night.

“A lot of the girls know it [the routines] better then me right now, but I’ll try,” she said. “Maybe it might get my mind off things.”

After comforting the student, Cook was back in action, ever in motion.

“I think if I ever stop moving, I’ll die,” she said as she leaped up and performed a pirouette.

KNXT reporter Larry Carroll recalled when Cook was his assistant for an independent production company he owned in 1984.

“She was one of the most--no, let me think--she was the single most energetic person I have ever known,” Carroll said. “She was the glue that held the company together. I have never seen anyone cover so much territory.”

Even students not interested in dance have been moved by the power and the heart Cook puts into her class.

“When this is all over, I want her to teach me how to square-dance. She even knows how to do that,” said Sharon Harper, an office assistant.

“She is a teacher/friend to the students,” said Principal Wendell Greer, who credits Cook and the drama, band and choir teachers with providing Manual Arts with a performing arts renaissance. “We used to be just known just for our athletics.”

As Cook is found of saying, “We are just bringing the arts back to the Arts.”