Allan Appel Photo
The Southern Connecticut State University Fighting Owl T‑shirts hung big on the shoulders of (in the front row) little Samia Virga, Alberto Cosme, and Melanie Peralta.
That was precisely the point: To grow into them.
Friday morning those kindergartners — and all of the 817 kids at the Fair Haven School — danced to a rousing Billboard 100 tune. In the case of the little kids “Best Day of My Life,” by American Authors.
Then, wearing the regalia of one of ten area colleges, which each grade had adopted, the kids formed up on stage like a cheering section in the bleachers and hurrah-ed out their selected school’s fight song.
Meanwhile the SCSU owl, or the Quinnipiac University’s bouncing bobcat, the Yale University bulldog, or the University of New Haven charger, or Leo the Lion from Gateway whooped up the auditorium full of kids, staff, and parents.
Click on the play arrow of the video to see the Fair Haven School sixth graders cut a rug to “Fireball” by Pitbull.
It was the sixth annual rousing “Snowball” dance extravaganza at the Fair Haven School on Grand Avenue, a partnership between the school, which has become the launching pad for new arrivals from foreign countries in town, and New Haven Promise to motivate the kids at an early age to think college is in their future.
It’s a ball, because the dancing gets the pulses running faster. And it’s snow because it takes place in the winter, said Principal Margaret-Mary Gethings (pictured with first-grader Joshua Harreha, a little nervous before his group’s performance). Gethings launched the idea six years ago after she saw Mad Hot Ballroom Dancing, a documentary about ballroom dancing programs in the New York City schools.
“We have two kids who were in the Congo a few weeks ago and now they’re [here] dancing to ‘We Could Be Heroes,’” marveled gym teacher Carl Lupoli, who helped organize the event.
Fair Haven is the “receiver” school for newly arrived immigrant kids and their families to the city. About 45 kids are in the specialized newcomers classes. Another 140 have graduated and are distributed now in all the grades of the school, said Gethings.
Click here for a previous article about how the school transitions newly arrived kids and their families.
Pre-k-er Yesenia Martinez, in New Haven from Chile for less than a year, clapped to “Happy” by Pharell.
They all were dancing away Friday morning and proclaiming the school’s mantra “EA all the way.” That stands for “exercise and academics.”
Once each grade was assigned a school, phys ed teachers, including 22-year veteran Sharon Arnold and third-year teacher Frankie Labbate, taught the kids the steps as well as showed videos of the school. The teachers helped research with the young dancers which school, for example, has a certain kind of major and which just might send you to Tuscany for your third year abroad.
Sixth-graders Victor Calvillo and Madelin Melendez (pictured) helped lead the way dancing to “Fireball” and also carrying on with Frankie the Falcon, the mascot from Albertus Magnus College.
After their rousing performance, the kids returned to their seats in the audience to watch the seventh and eighth graders strut their stuff.
In a brief and breathless interview, Madelin said she wasn’t sure yet what profession she might want to pursue when she grows up. She embraced the prospect of trying to discover that in the college whose T‑shirt she was wearing.