About Miss Helena
Helena Doohovskoy has danced all her life, and started teaching "creative dance" to little children by happenstance in 1995.
Doohovskoy's inspiration was a class she taught called "Oh My Aching Back" for adults where one of the member's daughters accompanied her to class and began moving to the music in such an intriguing way that Doohovskoy got the idea for a formalized weekly program.
Now she offers classes, birthday parties, and various programs at 51 Walden, the Center for the Performing Arts in Concord. She has tots as young as 2 up through about nine years old.
Doohovskoy likes to read a favorite children's book and set it to dance, all the while allowing the child to freely express him or herself. She has read "Swan Lake," "Firebird," and of course, "The Nutcracker."
But there are few rules to the performances. During the last five minutes of every lesson, Doohovskoy has her students dress up and perform for their parents. She has teenagers act as her assistants. The older students can get community service hours at Danceart, Doohovskoy's program.
In her version of the "Nutcracker," she has the children "looking for the Christmas party," Doohovskoy said as she dug costumes out of a box and hung them on hooks in the dressing room. The dance floor is lined with mirrors and a ballet barre.
"My whole way is improvisation," said Doohovskoy who feels a child's creative impulses can too easily be squashed by rigid dance discipline.
"I use music, they do the movement," she said. "It comes out of their hearts."
She just finished up creating a program around "Little Red Riding Hood," although she tamped down the scary parts with the big, bad wolf.
"They learn sequences of movement; they learn to follow direction and their hearts are free," she said, by watching the teacher and adapting the movements.
"It always looks like a performance," said Doohovskoy, even though there is not a planned choreography.
Doohovskoy still takes ballet lessons three times a week to keep in shape.
"My philosophy is that I am very organized and I know exactly what I want to do but the kids don't know it," she said. "They have a sense of freedom. They are not in a box. They learn by osmosis. Teaching is an art."
- Betsey Levinson (Concord Patch, July 4, 2010)
Doohovskoy's inspiration was a class she taught called "Oh My Aching Back" for adults where one of the member's daughters accompanied her to class and began moving to the music in such an intriguing way that Doohovskoy got the idea for a formalized weekly program.
Now she offers classes, birthday parties, and various programs at 51 Walden, the Center for the Performing Arts in Concord. She has tots as young as 2 up through about nine years old.
Doohovskoy likes to read a favorite children's book and set it to dance, all the while allowing the child to freely express him or herself. She has read "Swan Lake," "Firebird," and of course, "The Nutcracker."
But there are few rules to the performances. During the last five minutes of every lesson, Doohovskoy has her students dress up and perform for their parents. She has teenagers act as her assistants. The older students can get community service hours at Danceart, Doohovskoy's program.
In her version of the "Nutcracker," she has the children "looking for the Christmas party," Doohovskoy said as she dug costumes out of a box and hung them on hooks in the dressing room. The dance floor is lined with mirrors and a ballet barre.
"My whole way is improvisation," said Doohovskoy who feels a child's creative impulses can too easily be squashed by rigid dance discipline.
"I use music, they do the movement," she said. "It comes out of their hearts."
She just finished up creating a program around "Little Red Riding Hood," although she tamped down the scary parts with the big, bad wolf.
"They learn sequences of movement; they learn to follow direction and their hearts are free," she said, by watching the teacher and adapting the movements.
"It always looks like a performance," said Doohovskoy, even though there is not a planned choreography.
Doohovskoy still takes ballet lessons three times a week to keep in shape.
"My philosophy is that I am very organized and I know exactly what I want to do but the kids don't know it," she said. "They have a sense of freedom. They are not in a box. They learn by osmosis. Teaching is an art."
- Betsey Levinson (Concord Patch, July 4, 2010)
