Compton Dance Theatre Foundation helps youth
Dance to the top
The Compton Dance Theatre Foundation is a non-profit organization comprised of a training program and a community dance program. Its mission is to provide training in classical, contemporary, and cultural dance forms to residents within the City of Compton and its surrounding areas, especially “at-risk” youths between the ages of 8 to 18.
The foundation recently expanded and now caters to children and adults ages 3 to 30, said founder Carol Bristol-Henry, who formed the organization in December 2002, while working as a dance instructor for the Compton Unified School District.
“I was only supposed to be helping out for a few weeks, but somehow it became more. I recognized there was a need to create a program that was a positive after-school alternative for the students. Some students started hanging around in the class after school to avoid fights,” said Bristol-Henry.
Eventually the numbers grew, because students started inviting friends and family and word of mouth truly worked in the foundations favor, said Bristol-Henry. The group initially formed a dance troupe on Compton High’s campus and soon students from other places like Lynwood and Long Beach became interested.
In order to accommodate everyone, the company moved off of Compton’s campus and into the community, where it could make an even bigger impact and soon became its own foundation. Some students who joined were even transplants from as far as New York and Washington, D.C.
The dance theatre’s main supporter is the City of Compton, and at times has also had help from Lynwood and Los Angeles.
Like most arts organizations, that help has been cut back quite a bit because of the economic downturn, but Bristol-Henry with additional support from private contributors, has managed to keep the doors open.
“We have experienced hardship with funding but we are determined to keep it going. We’ve been going for nine years, and we don’t plan to stop,” she said.
The foundation, which mainly works with African American and Latino students and has put on assemblies which over the years have performed before more than 800 students, has currently enrolled, also struggles to keep its enrollment high. Because of budget cuts, the group will work with 25 to 100 participants, and even that is a constantly fluctuating number.
But despite the challenges Bristol-Henry said the organization continues offering its youngsters amazing opportunities. For example, recently the Compton Dance Theatre traveled on tour to Washington D.C to perform at Howard University, where they were very well received and have been invited back to do an encore in two weeks.
Additionally, one of Bristol-Henry’s most memorable moments is, when one of her students was accepted into the Colburn School of Performing Arts this year.
“I feel really good about the work that we have done. It has been a wonderful ride. I hope that we can continue on and reach more youth and give them the opportunity to have access to the arts as well,” she said.
In the near future, the foundation has many other ambitious plans such as incorporating a foreign exchange program with Mexico and South Africa, and hopefully more tours.
