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("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) ("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) (Lively music) West Michigan Youth Ballet, founded in 2007 in Ada, Michigan, is committed to developing young people in their pursuit and passion for artistic expression through dance company members ranging in age from 8 to 18, with varied backgrounds and experience across the full spectrum of dance, come together for weekly rehearsals.

Their common goal is the desire to be part of a performing company built on a solid foundation of classical ballet.

We’re a place for youth dancers to come together, join the family, and have the opportunity to put on these productions for the community of West Michigan.

You get to meet so many new people from other studios that you never would have met.

It is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had just being with your friends and just getting to do what you love is amazing.

The Nutcracker is offered in the winter with traditional choreography set to Taikovsky’s original score.

The spring production ranges in time honored masterpieces, like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Coppélia, Living West Michigan got a look into the 2025 Sleeping Beauty rehearsals.

I’m Marisa Miller.

I’m playing Courage Fairy.

I also do Ruby Fairy, and I’m a Duchess .

My name is Mars Maiden, and I play the bluebird in the woodland scene, and I also am a duke.

My name’s Stella Gulick, and I play the Grace Fairy, I’m a Duchess, I’m a bluebird and I am a Emerald jewel.

My name is Emma Diaz-Lawton, and I play the role of the Confidence Fairy, which is this costume, and I also do diamond and rubies.

Fairy in the second act.

And I also get to play the role of Aurora.

What’s special about Sleeping Beauty?

Well, it’s just a tale that everyone knows, and so the audience comes and they know the story.

Sleeping Beauty is basically Aurora.

She goes through all these events throughout her life, and then there’s just the people around her that make up the show.

There’s all the fairies, and then there’s Aurora, and she pricks her finger from the magic spell.

Then she sleeps, and then the prince comes and awakes her.

What are rehearsals like?

We get together every Sunday for a couple of hours, and we work on different rules, running through the show, making sure everything goes smoothly, and we’re able to put on a great show.

Towards the beginning of the season, they pull us in smaller groups to learn our separate dances, and over time, the rehearsal process gets bigger, and we start running the whole thing over and over again to really get it in our brains.

You kind of just learn your parts, and then once everybody knows what they’re kind of doing, you just piece it together, mix everything, and just becomes amazing.

Do you have to change your costume for each character?

Yes, we do.

Yeah, what’s that like?

Each act, we have a different dance that we do, so we have our costume on just for the first act, which is this one, and then I will change into my other tutu for the second act.. Are each costumes made for each dancer?

Yes, so our costuming team is really amazing.

They handmake all of these costumes, and they fit them to each and every one of us.

When did you first start your ballet journey?

I started at the age of three, so about 13 years now.

I really just have a passion for it, and it’s truly, like, my favorite thing to do.

I was really young about three years old, just danced around my kitchen, and my mom put me in dance and just loved it and doing it ever since then, so.

When I was around 8, I had to make a decision between gymnastics and dance and that’s when my first studio let me do the Nutcracker, and I was very into dance at the time, so I chose ballet, and I’m so glad I did.

Now, I understand you started as a young, now that you’re getting ready to grow graduate from high school.

What’s been the staircase to your success?

Yeah, well, West Michigan has really been a great place for me getting to perform and show my strength and talent through all of these roles It really is just like a full circle moment coming in as a younger dancer and watching the older dancers, and now, like, I get to perform the lead roles, so that’s super cool for me.

Students of West Michigan Youth Ballet experience the many physical and mental health benefits of dance, including self confidence, teamwork, acceptance, discipline, and creative expression.

While more mainstream team sports receive school funding, ballet receives almost no academic support Therefore, dancers must develop and maintain their abilities outside of school.

West Michigan Youth Ballet offers students of all ages and backgrounds with the performance experience, as well as coaching, facilities, and support to pursue their passion for ballet.

For me, ballet is my outlet, I’m able to express myself and really dive into the role I’m playing and perform.

You know, actions do speak louder than words, and it is great just being able to put yourself out there through an art form like this.

It’s really teaching you how to just keep your guard up and just make sure that you’re really working as hard as everybody else in the room.

That’s definitely super hard to maintain being a high school student, as well as being here every single day, but we do what we can to make it work.

How cool is it to look up to your artistic directors, your executive directors, those who have dance experience that have lived this experience?

Yeah, it really does make a big impact on us, knowing that these people have lived that life of being a professional dancer, which is personally my dream.

So I really do think it’s cool to look up to them and know that they have so much knowledge about this.

I think since around the age of 12, I knew that this is something I really do want to do, and I know it’s a really hard thing to get done, but I want to keep dancing after high school, for sure.

What are you going to be when you grow up?

I.

A dancer, a ballet dancer.

Well, you keep dancing forever?

Probably, yes.

(Music) (Music) All right, let’s go running!

All right, oh, you do more than that.

What’s your club all about?

Yeah, so the whole club is actually about movement and being together.

Yes.

We have people who are just in strollers and are just out, you know, for the day.

People people who are starting to run, and they want to get into a 5K, and then we’ve even got folks who come with their canes, and they just want to be together and move their bodies.

When I was younger, I had some body issues, so I was struggling with my weight and actually, my mom recommended me to do the running club, but I think it helped more mentally, with me to be satisfied with how I was.

So I think that’s the more focused part is actually mentally and just making sure that I’m doing good and running is able to help me out in that way.

Well, I was one of the haters.

’cause I was like, "What’s the point?"

Like, okay, like, you run, like, 5K, like, 10 miles, whatever.

Like, what’s the point?"

But after I joined No Surrender, I was like, "Oh, like, you know, it kind of gives you that, like, good feeling about completing something, you know, like, after you’re done, like, certain races, you’re like, "Wow, like, I actually did it," And it kind of like, works as a motivation.

Whenever I run at this park, um, just, like, random people, like, cheer for me, and that’s, like, so nice.

So, we have a whole group of adults who have volunteered to be mentors.

They will pace and run along with some of the kids, or at least just to be around to keep us safe and to encourage each other.

Megan, she’s her first, like, adult leader and that I met, and when I first met her, she was, like, really friendly.

She was so welcoming, and she was like, "Oh, like, since you’re a new member now, like, you get free shoes."

And I was like, "Wow, like, they’re so nice."

Is it easy to set some goals and achieve them?

It’s easy to set or harder to achieve on what you want to achieve.

So let’s say you want to run a 10 mile.

It’s easy, you know, to say, and you know, you got to put in the work, so that’s what all of us are here for.

A 5K, it’s a whole routine.

I think it’s, like an event itself.

You have to practice, beforehand, you know, obviously, we do our practices from, like, a month or so beforehand, but I think after running a few fiveKs, it’s become natural to me, and even a mile, it’s not that much anymore to me.

It’s really great to have safe adults in your life who will be able to kind of talk to you about goal setting.

We know that the sport of running and just moving your body isn’t just where it ends.

It’s a way for us to start thinking about goal setting, how to have a healthy lifestyle.

What do we want to do with our education?

So it’s really important to have a grown up who’s had a little bit more life experience.

to be able to just, you know, be part of the group and encourage us and be able to answer questions or just offer advice from time to time.

The youth Board helps with the no surrender through organizing races.

We volunteer at other races to get extra funding so we get better our club for the people that are in the club.

I have a lot to brag about the youth board.

This is, I think we’re on our second year of this initiative.

It has been a really great experience because many of them have been part of the club since they were quite young, and so they have true investment and passion for the club.

They’ve been able to do so many different things.

They’ve been able to speak, they’ve actually applied for, and won grant money.

They’re working on a variety of different things that just really brings attention to the program, and they’ve been able to give their point of view and to what are some of the things that we find to be important and how to, you know, just move forward with those.

The youth board is a very amazing opportunity.

It’s helped me very good socially.

I think I’ve been so much more outgoing because of it, the youth board in general general is very productive.

We’re very progressive as well.

We’re trying to make sure the community comes together and running and just have people understand what it means to be a runner as a young person.

What does your shirt say, "Follow the storm?

So we kind of are the storm, right?

We are a change in the atmosphere, in the environment, and wherever we go, we kind of bring that energy, like lightning and wind and all of that.

This club is amazing, honestly.

I think one of the main important things is that if you’re doubting yourself, whether you think you can run or not, just come and take one, practice to yourself see how you like it, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to come back, but we encourage it.

But mainly, we’re just very comforting and making sure that everybody likes what they’re doing and opening up them as well to new opportunities in running.

So how how does it work?

How does one become a member of the club?

They can go online and sign up.

They can also just come to Garfield Park.

We meet on Mondays and Thursdays, and that’s it.

It’s free.

It’s liberating, in a way to where you just get to run with all these people, you all have to learn goals, just reach the finish line at the end of the day.

(Radio static) (Music and tap dancing) Oh!

My name’s Jennifer Smith, and I’m the owner and creative director of Over the Top Academy of Dance in Alger Heights.

You’ve been doing this a long time, and the funny full circle piece of this is that you actually were a student here.

Yes.

And now you own... over the top.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s pretty incredible, even when I think about it.

So I started dancing here when I was four years old.

My dad dropped me off and I really did fall in love with it, the community, the space.

I was one of those kids that wanted to be on stage and enjoyed the challenge of learning your body and dance and movement.

My teachers approached me when I was 18 years old and said, "Hey, we’re gonna retire and would you like to possibly own the dance studio?"

And I was like, "Yeah."

And such a young age age, too... to have that opportunity.

Yeah.

I really was passionate about kids and community and teaching, so when the opportunity came dance teachers sounded like the best fit.. And you have been here since when?

21 years now.

Good for you.

Congratulations.

Thank you that.

And so I noted on your website, one of your coats, it’s so much more than dance.

What do you mean by that?

It’s really the things that are in between that make dance so special.

You know, yeses, we’re coming and learning routines, but it’s the aspect of growth that’s in there and every step of the way.

You know, two year olds come in and we learn about togetherness and rhythm and balance and body alignment, and then all the way through the adult that walks in and is revisiting something that they may be wanted to do.

So that confidence building part of dance enriches every part of your life, because it encapsulates how you become a confident person and carry yourself throughout the world.

At school, kids are taught in a very structured way to learn material that’s important for a different side of life, and dance teaches the in between things, like the friendships, the exposure to music, the exposure to culture, the exposure to ideas outside of a classroom.

You know, you think differently around the world when you’re around different people, and with our dance studio being so diverse, we have so much representation in our community which makes it so enriching for the families, so enriching for the students.

So dance class puts them in community, gives them a purpose to grow as a team, and it’s amazing.

It’s an amazing experience for everybody.

So you teach a lot of young dancers, young students, but are you ever too old to dance?

Never.

Never.

Never.

It’s never too old because your body is always evolving.

At most times, we get old because we don’t dance.

We don’t enrich those parts of our brain and our stimulation to feel expressive in our own body.

And so dance is one of those places that kind of encapsulates it all, and you find your real tribe, I feel like, by moving with creative people.

A lot of people say, like, dance is an escape, and I definitely think that, because whenever you’re having a bad day, I just know that I’m going to dance class, and I don’t have to think about my bad day for that one to three hour period of me doing what I’d love to do.

It’s safe to say that you kind of are following in your mother’s footsteps, in a way.

She kind of grew up doing exactly like what I did teaching in first preschool classes, and then becoming a teacher of her own class, and then my mom was like, "Do you want to choreograph a dance with me?"

And I was like, "Heck, yeah, I do."

You two have been dancing since you were at a young age.

And then now you’re teaching.

Tell me about that.

I love the way how I started dance at one and a half, so I’ve literally grew up my whole life doing preschool classes, competition, everything, and once I became around 13, 14, I wanted I saw what other dancers were doing helping out classes, and I thought it’d be pretty cool, and I just decided to do it, to have little dancers that look up to you, just like how I used to look up to the big kids at this studio is really empowering.

I want to go to university and my dream is to become a doctor, so I hope to do that, but I always want to keep dance within my life.

I just really love teaching here.

Seeing the amount of kids that have come through our program, whether they are starting in it as actors and then become counselors and helpers in the program to kids who are just doing the program and just being performers we’ve seen this program grow and cultivate into so much more than I think even we expected.

We really talk about having our kids being trained as everything, like getting into everything to be better performers and better people.

We really work to uplift them, to sing out, sing it strong, even if it’s wrong, because then we can fix it and we can help them.

And it helps them build the confidence to go, "Okay, now I can sing by myself, and I can actually figure out how how can my part when it comes to voice play to, the show or the production or the class?

So it gives them a space to try something new and eventually find more about themselves and find a passion for themselves, whether it stays here or not.

People say, "Well, can two year olds really dance and learn anything?"

And I think, "Well, there’s a reason you read to kids before they can speak.." There’s a reason you show movement to kids before they can do a full dance or balance, because those patterns will model onto them, and they will fully learn that language and be more confident in themselves as they move through the world.

With our preschoolers, you’ll see the really beginning basic steps of enriching these, you know, two year olds, how to do a dance.

They haven’t memorized, you know, some of them can’t even form full sentences, but they can remember these coordination things, which is really patterning their brains to be fully connected to their bodies, so they’re more enriched.

It’s really amazing.

Whoa, our train is going so fast.

Keep going.

You have a diverse group of kids, and that’s important, I mean, because, again, community is seemingly very important to you.

Yes, yes.

And having space where you can find your community, people can come in here no matter the age, no matter their relationship with dance in their past, or access to dance.

That’s something that’s very, very important to me.

So making sure you know, our pricing is fit, making sure we see the needs of the families that are here, making sure we give grace to families that are in need and finding space so everyone can be enriched by the art form.

Jennifer, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Bye.

Hello, West Michigan.

Welcome to Melina’s free fun forecast.

I’m Melina.

Today, we’re predicting perfect weather for adventure, all at no cost.

Let’s check the map for today’s top picks right here on Melina’s Free Fun Forecasts, where the fun is always free and the weather is always perfect.

(Music) So the Grand Rapids Original Swing Society is an organization that started 20 plus years ago and it was when someone who I thought was really cute asked me to dance, and I taught her and I thought wait, I could teach other people this.

So I started teaching us at a local school, and then a local community, and then we started getting bigger and bigger, and eventually we took over Rosa Park Circle, and we take over the public museum in the winter.

(Music) 7:00 p.m., we always begin with a little lesson.

It’s free, it’s fun, because this organization keeps getting biggerger, we actually have halftime shows of other things, like sword fighting to tap dancing.

Sometimes we have live bands, and then we have instruction going on the rest of the night.

And it’s just an opportunity for anyone to come down and to appreciate swing dance music, to be social, to be fit, and to have a lot of fun.

I’ve been coming to the Grand Rapids Swing Society now for about three months.

It’s a very positive community.

A lot of people are like, very supportive of new people coming in, like, some of the regulars, they’ll come, they’ll pull you in.

One time, I was like, oh, I don’t know this move.

Like,Hey, can you show me?

Someone randomly just like, "Yeah, I can help you out."

and taught me, like, a brand new move that I never knew before."

Everyone started out somewhere.

Everyone understands if you’re just learning.

And this is an organization built on the idea that you should be able to go up to anyone out there and say, "I want to learn something, can you show me that move?"

And everyone will say, "Yes, absolutely So that whole awkward phasease of like, "I don’t know what I’m doing.

There’s 200 people here that want to show you.

I was horrible my first time, and it took me, like, three sessions to unlock my rhythm fully.

So don’t be scared, come, meet people.

You’ll have a lot of fun.

What keeps people coming back is there’s a sense of joy and fun, and it’s not something you can just do at home, right?

People are here to learn to dance.

They’re not using their cell phones.

So it’s a chance to, like, meet strangers, because that’s one of the things that’s kind of been missing in a lot of our lives, when everything’s online, when we’re not even showing up in classrooms anymore, because it’s all virtual, like, this is connection.

We’re disconnecting from our phones, and we’re connecting with people.

That’s amazing.

How was that?

That was awesome.

Sorry, Half of them were the dance, then I was improvising.

("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) Have a good day!