Meet Charlotte | Binford Dance Company Feature | Year Six
The Binford Dance Company was established in 2016. It is an audition-based student dance company from Binford Middle School, an arts integrated school located in Richmond, VA. Company members study Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Improvisation, and Composition within the Binford dance program. The company has performed throughout the community including: The 2019 Superintendent’s State of the Schools Address, Generation Dream, Richmond Public Schools Fine Arts Festival, Strawberry Street Festival, Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology, Petersburg Home for Ladies, and Cedarfield Retirement Community. The company also had the opportunity to perform in the music videos “Have It All” and “Love Is Still The Answer” by Jason Mraz. The Binford Dance Company inspires students to find their own voice through performance and choreography while learning valuable skills in the rehearsal process including collaboration, respect, and confidence.
This year the company dancers met at the VMFA and chose their favorite spots to showcase their movement and choreography they have learned through this year’s dance curriculum.
MEET charlotte
CHARLOTTE - 7th grade
I haven’t been a dancer for long. I mostly spend my time reading or in musicals. However, dancing has always been something that I love to do. Besides the dance classes here at Binford and camps and classes when I was younger (more like spinning in circles and leaping across the room) I have never really taken a professional dance class. Unlike some people who have been dancing their entire lives, my dance experience is of very little. In spite of my lack of experience, I don’t perceive that as a bad thing. I think that I have had a better time dancing this year than I would have if I had been dancing my entire life. The thing I truly love about dance is how inclusive it is and how anyone can become a dancer at any time. Sure, that doesn’t mean that becoming a dancer is easy, you still have to learn rhythm, moves, and choreography, but anyone is capable of dancing. Dance can mean so many things, but to me it is a way to create feeling in emotion with my body while others can feel that energy and emotion from the movement and music. Anyone can dance, they just need to find a reason to. (Or not technically, you don’t need a reason to dance!)
