We can dance if we want to

Event joins kids, professionals to benefit homeless shelter

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by Timothy J. Carroll

Reporter staff writer

05.30.09 - 11:03 pm

ON THEIR TOES – The dancers – young and old, amateur and professional – come together each year to raise money for the Hoboken Homeless Shelter. This year’s dance benefit evening is Friday, June 5. Picture by Meems Images.

FRONT AND CENTER – At last year’s event, Todesco (center) and her students wowed parents who weren’t expecting such a top-notch performance. Picture by Meems Images.

Parents are raving about Francesca Todesco. She is teaching their kids grace, determination, and confidence while she teaches them how to dance.

Todesco is a modern dance instructor with five classes of young dancers, ages 3 to 12, in Hoboken. Her one-woman operation is called “Creative Movement for Children,” although she is in the midst of reorganizing and renaming it.

On Friday, June 5 they will perform alongside professional dancers to raise money for the Hoboken Homeless Shelter. The benefit will be held at 7 p.m. in St. John’s Lutheran Church, 300 Bloomfield St., directly above the shelter. Admission is a $15 minimum donation to the shelter and no reservations are necessary. Children are free.

Last year, two dance benefits held by Todesco’s group netted $1,600 for the shelter. Jacklyn Cherubini, the shelter executive director, said the money was well spent on food and housing for the less fortunate. Her group also makes a monthly donation to use the space in St. John’s for dance practice.

Matching dance to music

Todesco lives in Queens and works in Manhattan, but she said Hoboken will be her home sometime in the near future. She is affiliated with the Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble in New York City, and invites some of the dancers to perform at the shelter benefit every year.

She is a disciple of Isadora Duncan, the mother of modern dance, especially regarding Duncan’s preference to match dance to previously recorded music, rather than creating music to fit a certain dance. Duncan, she said, inspired her to become a dance teacher.

Todesco likes the interpretive process of putting bodies in motion to music. She started teaching in 2004 and her classes have grown, mostly by word of mouth. The groups moved into the space at the church in 2006. She teaches 25 students now in five classes and is hoping to expand soon.

She said the benefit is a great opportunity, not just for the beneficiaries, but for the students.

“It’s a win-win,” she said. “It’s so great for the children to see professional dancers perform. It’s a unique opportunity.”

Parents are impressed

Lisa Chernick’s two daughters, Charlotte, 7, and Juliet, 3, are in Todesco’s groups. Chernick said she’s looking forward to seeing the children perform in front of a crowd.

“They do mini-recitals at home,” Chernick said, “and we all sit in silent homage. But [at last year’s benefit] I was taken aback at how beautiful it was. It was so much more than a typical [dance] performance.”

Joanna Weintraub’s child, Rebecca, 7, is also in Todesco’s class. “I was so impressed that Francesca was able to pull strength from their bodies,” she said.

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“Mom, these are the people we dance for.” – Sylvie Foligno

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Before her first performance last year, Rebecca told her mom that the benefit was for the shelter. Weintraub commended her and Rebecca said, “Yes mommy, the best thing you can do with your art is to use it to help other people.”

Todesco admitted she picked up that sentiment from her. But that doesn’t stop the parents from gushing.

Laura Foligno, who also has two daughters in the dance classes, said even the younger children understand the importance of the benefit, like her 7 year-old Sylvie.

Last year, as she and her daughter walked past the line of homeless people outside the shelter on Bloomfield Street, her daughter said: “Mom, these are the people we dance for.”

The shelter serves warm meals to more than 80 people each night, and provides beds for more than 30. There are strict rules for guests, including which hours they must be inside and which substances they may not use. They are offered job training and various activities.

For more information about the benefit, e-mail Todesco at francesca@everylittlemovement,com. For more information about the shelter or to donate, check out www.hobokenshelter.org.

Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.

© hudsonreporter.com 2009

© Every Little Movement