Opening Doors With the Arts

Joey Matthews was in trouble with the law and doing poorly in school when he auditioned for a children’s musical and made the cut. Six weeks later, life looked different to the youth.

“He’d never taken a dance class,” said Broadway actor Hinton Battle, who starred in the musical in Colorado and witnessed the transformation over a month of rehearsals.

“To see this kid’s self-esteem turn around,” Battle said, “to see him frustrated [learning the choreography] and really work it out and prove to himself he could do it was really cool. Whether he’s going to be a great dancer or not, I don’t know, but the love and the desire was there. I gave him a dance scholarship.”

Battle and Matthews, with 50 other youths, performed “Pepito’s Story” earlier this year for Imagination Celebration, the nationwide youth arts festival that comes to sites throughout Orange County from April 26 through May 11.

Battle will narrate and sing in local performances of the same dance-filled show, to be staged May 6 and 11 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with 50 O.C. children and teens.

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The 12th annual festival, sponsored by the center and the Orange County Department of Education, will offer 50 events at museums, schools, libraries and malls. Storytelling, symphonic music, plays, painting lessons and an archeological dig are on the agenda, as well as a new, daylong Invitational Dance Festival of performances by Southern California dance students.

“Pepito’s Story” was commissioned by Washington’s Kennedy Center, which created the Imagination Celebration to encourage youth creativity. The tale of a poor boy who loves to dance was conceived by Debbie Allen (“Fame”), its choreographer and director, and trumpet player Arturo Sandoval, who composed the music.

Allen and an assistant will conduct a month’s worth of rehearsals here. Battle, a three-time Tony Award winner who lives in Los Angeles, will participate during the final two weeks.

“We felt this was a terrific opportunity to allow local kids the experience of working with professionals like Debbie Allen and Hinton,” said festival executive manager Jim Gilliam, who watched the show take form in Colorado.

“Hinton was such a charismatic presence in those children’s lives, day in and day out during rehearsals, that it made a profound impact,” Gilliam said.

Most Imagination Celebration events are free; the top ticket price to any presentation is $6. All but in-school performances are open to the public. (714) 556-2122, Ext. 888.