May 19, 2005

LDS dance festival keeps teens moving in right direction

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Hundreds of teens from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gathered at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale April 30 to share their love for performing and showcase their talents.

Several hundred 12- and 13-year-olds on the field to practice the Charleston.

The theme, “A Chosen Generation,” led the audience through the generations of dance beginning with an 1840 hoe down and ending with a lively version of hip hop.

The 700 young people participating, ages 12-18, were from San Jose, Fremont, Santa Cruz, Los Altos, Santa Clara and Los Gatos. They had been practicing weekly to prepare for the event. They come from six stakes or regional church areas in the Bay Area.

Event coordinators aimed to attract not only church members but also non-members to the performance in an effort to reach out to the community and raise awareness about the church’s strong youth programs, which aims to teach young people high moral standards. The church teaches them to focus on developing a strong faith and to avoid alcohol and drugs. Its leaders have also joined many other religious denominations in denouncing the dangers of pornography, gambling and other society ills.

16 kids perform the “Telephone Talk” from The musical “Bye Bye Birdie.”

Similar celebrations are taking place across the country as church leaders encourage youths to participate in a broad spectrum of cultural activities with a minimum demand on time and travel for families and to provide a sense of unity and opportunities to develop friendships among the youth. Dress and behavior for the events exemplifies church standards, organizers say.

Three years in the planning, the choreographers, creative directors, costuming and business experts from the church combined their talents to produce the largest youth event in the Bay Area since the late 1980s, according to Nan Hunter, a longtime Almaden resident and founder of Almaden Country School who helped coordinate the event.

Her husband, Church Stake President Richard A. Hunter, has encouraged such large-scale activities. “It’s wonderful for youth to discover a critical mass of 700 youth who can join together in a really fun production. It doesn’t happen very often,” Hunter said.

Two couples from the Fremont area practice their swing number.

A technical crew from LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, drove a semi-truck full of state-of-the-art equipment for sound and special effects.

The church magazine for youth “The New Era” will carry an article on the festival in a December issue as the Church is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founder Joseph Smith’s birth and the 175th anniversary of the organization of the faith.

In the meantime, it was all about the music for the kids attending the event as they enjoyed exciting specialty numbers between the dances including professional fiddler Jim Shupe, dancing by Polynesians from many islands, a youth blues band and a local swing team.

An original anthem with music composed by 16-year-old Kristopher Koelzer brought the popular dance festival to a close.