Dancing With Purpose
What do ballroom dancing and sexual abuse prevention have in common? If your answer is “nothing,” you’ve never been to Kealoha Hooper’s ballroom classes on Molokai. While some might view ballroom dancing as old-fashioned or out-dated, Hooper is using ballroom to teach lessons of respect and start conversations about a problem plaguing many of today’s communities: violence and sexual abuse of children.
Ballroom dance classes sponsored through Molokai’s Consuelo Foundation, an organization working to prevent child neglect, violence and abuse, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) are teaching Molokai students more than how to rumba, fox trot and tango. The classes are enriching lives by improving self-confidence, communication, acceptance of others and regard for personal boundaries, said Hooper, a ballroom dance instructor who danced professionally with at Arthur Murray Dance Studios in Portland Oregon.…
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