Meet the director of dance mentoring young Black girls in Germantown
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- From ballerinas to tap dancers, a local Germantown dance studio is turning dance into teachable moments. On this week's Focusing on the Future, Wakisha Bailey sat down with the inspiring dancers for a real conversation.
"If you ask them a few years ago what they like about themselves they would've just said, 'I don't know,'" Eryka Lynn Waller said.
Waller is the director of dance at the Quinn Center for Performing Arts. She's also a mentor and a friend to young inspiring Black competitive dancers at the dance studio.
"These young girls are dealing with so many things that when I was their age, I wasn't even exposed to, just because of social media," Waller said.
With a background in social work, Waller spends the first half of class just checking in with her dancers.
"Some of the girls, they come in and they seem really happy and when we have these talks, like, sometimes, they have a bad day," one young girl said.
Eleven-year-old Aubrey Dunum says being a Black dancer has its challenges.
"What your hair looks like and what your body looks like and stuff like that," Dunum said. "I feel like that shouldn't be happening."
"I hope that if nothing else they take from this studio that they are loved, they are important and they matter," Waller said.
It's a studio where they can be free to express themselves through art and a place where they belong.
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