Columnist Susan Snyder: Dance team shows how to get busy

Friday, May 23, 2003 | 6:03 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

May 25, 2003

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

It's hard to say which portion of Valley High School's "Dance Bravo" made my jaw hit the floor first.

But it wasn't the portion that a parent predicted. The day before the school's 23-year-old annual dance recital Wednesday, an anonymous dad called and said he was appalled that one of the numbers included a hip-hop tune with naughty lyrics.

"Vulgar" was his word.

So I went to the show without telling anyone I was there.

My word for it? I have several.

Amazing. Entertaining. Energetic. Joyous.

Granted, I don't know a bling-bling from a ding-dong. Members of my generation still bicker over the lyrics to "Louie Louie."

This show was about what these students have learned since enrolling in Valley High's dance classes taught by Maaria Duff. She was aware "Get Busy," a hip-hop tune that provided the backdrop for one of the night's 23 numbers, might draw questions from parents. (Only one, it turns out.)

But another school -- one that serves some of the valley's wealthiest kids -- used "Get Busy" at the countywide high school dance competition this year.

"I thought if they used it to represent their entire school, it wouldn't be a problem," Duff said.

I read the lyrics on the Internet on Thursday morning. They referred to dancing and implied sex. But so did Elvis.

And we're not talking about 10-year-olds. These are young men and women a year or two away from adulthood. A stroll down the halls of any high school these days reminds us that young people face a whole lot more a whole lot younger.

There still are places place for Andy Hardy and Rodgers and Hammerstein. We call them classic-movie channels.

Our high school stages are venues better suited for artists such as Valley student Cynthia Rios, whose self-choreographed solo, "Mystere," was a remarkable spectacle of imagination and dancing skill.

Unico Clemente, Terance Dikson, Jean Jr. Gilles and Straphanio Solomon almost brought down the roof with their moves to "Lil Boogz."

And Emi Cattaneo showed her versatility and discipline with numbers featuring classical ballet and tap along with the modern stuff. She even conjured up an alternate routine to replace one by two dancers who were injured over the weekend. And Cattaneo choreographed most of the Dance I class' numbers, Duff said.

I'll be honest, I couldn't decipher most of the lyrics to most of the songs. I don't know what I heard.

But I know what I like.

I like seeing the arts alive and sweating in a high school auditorium at a time when arts funding is the first to hit the budget chopping block.

I like seeing "SOLD OUT" in the box-office window and a standing-room-only house packed with involved parents and supportive peers -- peers who could think of no better way to spend $4 on a Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

I like seeing young people expressing themselves in such a positive, creative way. These teenagers did something other than sit in front of television or hang out at the mall the past few months.

At $4, theirs was the hottest ticket in Vegas on Wednesday night. And there's only one word for that.

Righteous.