The students were enjoying Sandy Hook School’s annual, weeklong artist-in-residency program, sponsored by the school’s PTA, with Grace Barton Harvey, co-director of the Graceful Planet Moving Arts Center and Spa in Sandy Hook.

Ms Harvey, who owns the Graceful Planet with her mother, Kathleen Barton, choreographs the studio’s varied dance programs.

Classes, ranging from jazz to hip-hop, are open to participants of all ages and levels of experience.

“I’ve worked with children ranging from 3 or 4 years old to adults,” Ms Harvey said. She said she enjoyed with kindergarten and first-grade children because they are “totally uninhibited.” Older children, meanwhile, can partake in more complex routines.

“There are great benefits to working with every age group,” she noted. 

Ms Harvey holds a bachelor of fine arts in dance from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School.  A recipient of a full dance scholarship from the Martha Graham School, she has also been honored with an award in outstanding performance from the National Foundation of the Arts.

“She works beautifully with the students,” said Sandy Hook School physical education teacher Jan Huot. “She has a lot of energy and is very positive.”

Ms Harvey tried to incorporate the students’ academic curriculum into her routines. “The teachers gave a list of the topics they were studying to the physical education teachers,” she explained. “Then, the list was given to me. The first grade, for example, is studying animals, so I talked with them about animals when we did poses such as [the downward] dog in yoga.”

Each class, she continued, did a combination of hip-hop followed by a cool-down period of yoga.

First grader Erica Bloomberg said she enjoyed doing the exercises. “It was fun!” she declared. When Ms Harvey led the class into a butterfly stretch, fingers posed at temples like antennae, Erica was excited. “I’ve done this [stretch] before!” she recalled happily.

“Wait, Erica! Don’t forget your antennae!” her classmate Brianna Baranowski reminded, pointedly wagging her fingers.

When asked how she enjoyed the exercises, Brianna admitted that, though fun, they were “tiring.”

Another first grader, Jonathan Sherman, said he liked doing the animal poses. “It’s great to move around and stuff,” he said. “I like it.”

 “This is the first time we’ve ever had this kind of a [dance-centered] artist-in-residency program,” said Ms Huot, surveying the first grade class. “It looks like the [students] have really enjoyed it.”

“I’ve had a lot of fun doing this program with the children,” confirmed Ms Harvey. “I was more than happy to do it!”

To learn more about the Graceful Planet, visit www.gracefulplanet.com or call 426-8215.