Dancin' it out: Oakland Arts Center helps teens cope.

FROM THE OUTSIDE, Destiny Arts Center (De-escalation Skills Training to Inspire Nonviolence in Youth) is a splash of color on an otherwise gray, sidewalk. Occupying three small storefronts on San Pablo Avenue, one of the busiest thoroughfares in Oakland, California, Destiny Arts Center greets visitors with a bright photo collage of youth dancing, doing martial arts, creating art for peace, competing in tournaments, performing, and participating in outdoor adventures.

Inside, the Center contains a diversity of races, ages, body sizes, music, and dance styles. One studio is full of young children ages 3-6 demonstrating karate exercises for their instructor. Next door in a hip-hop class, students ages 7-12 concentrate every muscle and fiber of their bodies on keeping up with the rhythm and pace of a new routine. Down the hall, another class learns samba moves.

Behind the dance studios, children mill in and out of the Center's office in need of Band-Aids, ice, or someone to talk to. There is a room set up with a long table for homework and studying. The atmosphere resembles that of a performing arts boardinghouse. Children stretch in the hallways. Voices blend with karate calls, steady beats, claps, laughter, and feet tapping on wood floors. A student announces a trip that evening to bring flowers to an injured Destiny dancer, stuck at home on the couch.

Destiny Arts Center offers arts education and violence prevention for children ages 3-18. Executive director Sarah Crowell says that most youth violence happens between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. It is her belief that meaningful after-school programs, which invite the exploration of an individual's creativity in a group setting, help to keep young people out of trouble. "This is extremely important when it comes to helping youth stay in school," she says. "If they feel both confident in themselves and valuable in a group, they are more able to find their value in the school community and thus succeed there."

Based on that philosophy Crowell, who trained in ballet, modern, and jazz and who performed professionally in Boston and the Bay Area, in 1992 co-founded (with Kate Hobbs, Destiny Arts Center founder and black belt martial artist) the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPAC). Company size fluctuates from year to year, and in 2003, had twenty-five members--twenty-three girls, and two boys.

"VIOLENCE OFTEN stems from pent-up emotions and feelings of anger. Dance is physically cathartic. It gets youth moving, and expels those tough emotions," says Crowell. "While they are dancing, they are also expressing their whole selves, mind, body, and spirit. Youth often say that dance is one of the most important ways they find peace in themselves."

"I think that part of the reason people get violent is because they have no other vehicle to express themselves with, and the anger gets bottled in," says DAYPAC company member Caitlin Hutcherson, 18. "At Destiny, you can come in after a bad day and work it out through dance."

Zeneta Johnson, 17, agrees. "I find myself not thinking about other things when I'm at Destiny," she says. "There's too much going on, plus you have to remember all these steps."

At Destiny Arts Center, the students are 35 percent African American, 30 percent white, 20 percent biracial, 10 percent Latino, and 5 percent Asian American. DAYPAC members also learn a diversity of dance styles, including hip-hop, modern, jazz, Afro-Haitian, and aerial dance.

"One thing that's unique is that the people are from all over," Zeneta says. "And you have to get to know each other. It helps when you go back to your own community to not judge and to understand differences."

"You stop tolerating things like racism and homophobia," says Alexa Maremaa, 18. "It changes you and how you treat other people."

Company members take dance classes and scriptwriting workshops, create and learn choreography, and are exposed to issues of social justice and nonviolence through conflict resolution workshops and youth leadership training. Once a month the watch a movie and discuss media representation of youth violence. On Saturdays they meet for scriptwriting sessions that involve, as Alexa puts it, "talking, writing, brainstorming, jumping around, and working with the group."

"The main difference between this company and others is that DAYPAC is more about everyone getting the chance to put themselves into it," says Alexa.

Zeneta describes the company as a big family. "it seems like in other companies people are more serious about dance in a competitive type of way," she says. "We're not like that. A lot of kids grow up at Destiny. We try to work more for the community. It becomes a big part of our lives."

EACH YEAR, the company members, together with Crowell, create shows that deal with issues adolescents face coming of age in contemporary American society. The performances blend hip hop, modern dance, spoken word, monologue, and fictional characters with dramatic scenes and stories taken from the dancers' personal lives.

The 2002 production incorporated stories of incarcerated youth. The 2003 show, "Environment and the Future," began with a teenager crossing into the future and returning to the present to search for "dreams shapers," or other like minded youth who envision a future without racism, violence, or fear.

For the young company members, the experience of being heard, and sharing their gifts and ideas with one another and on stage in front of hundreds of people, is life changing. Caitlin remembers the first time she saw the company perform. "I was blown away by all these young people who could say what they felt about world issues," she says.

The message is that each person has something unique to offer, and that a "good" show must incorporate each voice. Alexa says that being a part of the company makes her feel like she can do anything. "I've learned that everyone has their own story, and it's not only for yourself but it's important to tell somebody," she says. "It's really important to share your story." www.destinyarts.org

Madeleine Rogin graduated from the University of New Mexico master's program in dance. She leads dance workshops with Breaking the Cycle, a UK-based violence-prevention program for youth.