Dance Company Gives Youths a Chance

Dozens of Ventura County’s abused and neglected children soon will learn the moves of Janet Jackson and other top entertainers as part of a therapeutic dance program being developed by a local ballet troupe.

The Ventura County Ballet Company was awarded a $5,000 grant last month to provide therapeutic ballet and hip-hop classes to children who live in foster care or at Casa Pacifica, a Camarillo facility that provides residential treatment for abused, abandoned and neglected 11- to 17-year-olds and an emergency shelter for such children from birth to age 17.

“Most of these children have never experienced the things that we take for granted. They haven’t gone to ballet class or soccer,” said Vicki Murphy, director of fun development at Casa Pacifica. “They have been stripped of most of their childhood, so we try to bring back child events.’

The outreach program will offer ballet classes to children ages 4 to 8 staying at Casa Pacifica’s temporary shelter and hip-hop classes to teens living in its residential program.

Additional ballet classes will be offered free to about 20 foster children between ages 8 and 12 at the Ballet Ventura School, the for-profit arm of the dance company on Main Street.

Organizers hope to begin the classes this month.

“It’s a great opportunity for our children to have this ability to express themselves and be empowered. It will affect every area of their lives--their personal lives, their careers--not just dance,” said Trish Cavanaugh, foster care program administrator for the nearly 300 children living in foster homes in Ventura County. “The odds are they probably wouldn’t have the chance to experience this at all otherwise.”

The physical exercise of dance is designed to give children an outlet for their energy. It also teaches them grace, poise and discipline, and it develops their self-esteem, said Kathy Noblin, executive director of the ballet company.

Noblin, who received a degree in nursing from UCLA, worked as a recreation technician before opening the dance school in Ventura 10 years ago. She formed the Ventura County Ballet Company four years ago, when it split from the Channel Islands Ballet Company.

“This would profit these little youngsters who have had such a horrible beginning and could use the ballet and hip-hop to act out some of their anger,” Noblin said.

“Their lives are fragmented, and we’re hoping this can give them something to hold onto--something that is theirs that no one can take away,” she said.

The grant for the outreach program came from the Women’s Legacy Fund, one of the several endowment funds managed by the Ventura County Community Foundation.

The foundation distributed $62,000 in September to nonprofit groups and government agencies that focus on helping women and girls.

The initial funding to the ballet company will cover dance classes for about six months, but additional funds will be necessary for the program to continue, Noblin said.

The ballet company also is working to arrange corporate donations of dance shoes and leotards for the children from companies such as Capezio Dance and Adidas.

“They will provide clothing--the ballet slippers and little leotards. Just slipping into a costume lets them forget for a little while,” Murphy said.

It will also mean a chance to learn moves from Oxnard choreographer Anthony Thomas, who will instruct the Casa Pacifica teens in “locking”--movements that require arm strength and knee drops to the floor in time with the music, made popular by pop artists such as ‘N Sync and Janet Jackson.

Thomas, who choreographed several of Jackson’s videos and her 1990 “Rhythm Nation” tour, is now working with Wynonna Judd.

“When I was young, all I did after school was dance. I started at 8 years old, and the passion never stopped,” said Thomas, 38. “I was introverted, and dancing allowed me to have that outer expression that I wasn’t comfortable doing in other forms. Dancing provided an outlet to speak. That’s what I’m hoping will happen with these kids.”

‘These little youngsters . . . could use the ballet and hip-hop to act out some of their anger.’