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Hip Hop is his stomping ground
By Shelley Doggétt, Staff Writer
Battling the attention span of 6-year-olds is a daunting task for many adults. As girls and boys file into the studio space for 16-year-old Nick Alter’s hip-hop class at Dana’s Studio of Dance in Southlake, the level of energy is high.
As Nick starts the music — a track from “High School Musical” — for warm up and stretches, one girl exclaims, “My first hamster died!”
Another raises her hand eagerly and says, “Can I ask a question?”
“I love Christmas!”
“That’s not a question.”
When he was 10 years old, Nick saw a hip-hop dancer perform at his school and knew he wanted to not only learn how to dance, but share the experience and teach other kids as well.
Then, at eleven, Nick was diagnosed with Tourrette’s syndrome — a disease which causes involuntary tics.
Tourrette’s syndrome often arises during adolescence and is commonly associated with obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorders according to the National Tourette Syndrome Association. The symptoms can vary in severity. After a long struggle with the disease, Nick began home schooling and also realized that dance seemed to be the perfect therapy for him he said.
“Dance was a motivation to work through my issues. It helped with my confidence and self esteem,” Nick said.
Nick’s mother, Linda Alter, said she can’t imagine how much harder things may have been if her son hadn’t been introduced to dance.
“I don’t know how he would have made it through and come out like he did with out dance as his medicine,” she said. “Hip-hop seemed cool to me, and he was always a very determined kid.”
With the hardest part seemingly over, now, Nick doesn’t exhibit most signs of the disease in day-to-day life, Linda said. Now, his focus is on getting the kids he teaches to pay attention to him and improving his own dancing skills.
Two years ago, Nick began teaching girls from the neighborhood in the family room of his house for $1 per class.
“We would move the furniture around once a week for a group of five girls or so,” Linda said. “Then eventually we decided to set up a studio in the garage.”
The Keller resident now teaches approximately 100 girls and boys three times a week at Dana’s Studio of Dance in Southlake. The class sizes vary from five to 20 students at one time.
As they walk through the steps, Nick reminds them to keep their feet together, or their arms straight on certain moves.
After a couple run-throughs, it’s time to turn up the music, and the pace is a little quicker.
Any time he sees a confused face, or a missed step, Nick offers encouragement and patience.
“We didn’t do this,” one girl points out as she strikes a pose with her arm down.
Others move onto the next step as Nick backs up to go over the beginning steps again.
“I’m already on the ice cream scoop,” one girl brags.
“Shh, we’re not there yet Olivia,” Nick replies.
Countdowns in dance are pretty standard, but along with the traditional 5,6,7,8, Nick begins counting backwards from five to get the girls to focus and quiet down. By the time he gets to zero, the girls are ready for the next steps.
“I like teaching kids and seeing how hard they try, or how they react to different challenges,” Nick said. “If they have something holding them back — confidence level, trouble focusing — I try to help them with that. I want to help them succeed and meet their goals.”
Studio owner Dana Bailey said Nick’s ability to reach the kids and get them to listen to him trumped his age when deciding to give Nick the opportunity to teach.
“I usually don’t let kids as young as Nick teach, but he’s very mature and good with the kids,” Bailey said. “They respond very well to him.”
In addition to his classes at Dana’s, Nick also visits elementary and middle schools in Southlake and Keller to talk about dance and show them a few moves.
“I think it’s such a wonderful opportunity to expose children who maybe wouldn’t have ever set foot in a studio to something new,” Bailey said.
While visiting with hundreds of students, Nick said he appreciates the ability to reach out to kids and help give them a direction or focus.
“Here, they focus on dance, which is different than focusing on school work. But, it helps them with the same muscle,” he said.
While Nick’s teaching allows him to choreograph and come up with his own material, he enjoys performing in shows around the Metroplex as well.
Balancing his love of teaching and his love of performance can be difficult sometimes, but it’s an important lesson Linda said.
“Seeing him perform on stage makes me really proud. He’s such a natural,” she said. “But he is so gifted with the children as well. He has such a way of reaching these kids and motivating them. He’s learning the importance of commitment as well as how he can influence people’s lives directly.”
That influence is something Bailey appreciates and she values Nick’s ability to teach while maintaining one of the most important aspect for kids.
“Bottom line for kids is he keeps it fun. They learn something while having fun,” Bailey said. “Parents and kids love him. He’s given the children a lot of different styles of hip-hop.”
Contact Shelley Doggétt at 972-628-4076 or sdoggett@acnpapers.com
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