Cypress Edition | May 2023

NONPROFIT

BY JOVANNA AGUILAR

DANCE CLASSES OFFERED The Cypress Dance Project oers a range of dance education opportunities. POINTE A ballet dancer supports all body weight on the tips of fully extended feet within pointe shoes. JAZZ High-energy instruction on jazz methods features big leaps, expressive footwork and quick turns. TECHNIQUE Cypress Dance Project 12358 Jones Road, Houston 281-469-4882 www.cypressdanceproject.com Hours: Mon.-Thu. 5:30-8 p.m., closed Fri.-Sun. Dancers learn how to hold their bodies, point their toes, and position their feet and arms appropriately. BALLET Dancers develop coordination, exibility, balance, discipline, proper posture and grace. TAP Tap combines ballet and jazz motions with tap shoes clattering on the oor as a form of percussion. HIPHOP This course teaches the fundamentals of breaking, popping, boogaloo and locking. COMBO This class introduces younger students to ballet techniques in a fun, creative environment. CONTEMPORARY Expressive dance combines elements of genres, such as modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet.

The dance studio oers lessons in various dance techniques. (Jovanna Aguilar/Community Impact)

April Coghill combined her background in dance and social work to launch The Cypress Dance Project.

COURTESY THE CYPRESS DANCE PROJECT

The Cypress Dance Project Local nonprot reimagines conventional dance studio A pril Coghill, a professional social worker and the dance program director at The Cypress Dance Project, found her passion

Coghill said she envisioned a studio where kids were instructed in proper technique with active parents and a community-oriented environment. In 2011, she said she shared her vision with seven other parents who invested in one year of dance training. With the help of these families, she said she leased the space for the dance studio and started the nonprot dance organization in 2012. Classes at The Cypress Dance Project today include ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, contemporary and pointe. Coghill said she continues with her social work profession while expanding The Cypress Dance Project as the director, an instructor and a dance mom. She also distributes two scholarships every year, which cover tuition for the recipients. “It’s a project, so I would say that it’s getting very close to what I dreamed of when it started,” Coghill said. “But now that it’s there, it’s taking on a whole other life, and there’s so many big things to come in the future.”

for dance when she was 3 years old. “My mom was a single mom, and she couldn’t aord dance classes. I would tap in my little church shoes, just loving it, and she asked the stu- dio next door if she could clean for me to dance,” Coghill said. About 13 years ago, Coghill worked at a school as a social work counselor for at-risk youth and would pick up her daughter from day care after work to take her to dance classes. After dealing with the struggles of social work, she would see other children in traditional dance studios live with privileged circumstances and became determined to start a dance organization that made dance more accessible. “I just couldn’t deal with the dichotomy of the lifestyle of children seeing how some have so little and some have so much,” Coghill said.

C Y P R E S S N O R T H H O U S T O N R D .

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CYPRESS EDITION • MAY 2023