THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994 TAG: 9406150188
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940616 LENGTH: WINDSOR
Braswell, 21, works with children for Richmond's Department of Parks and Recreation and at the Windsor School of Dance, and with all age groups at the Contemporary Ballet Theater in Williamsburg, where she is starting a modern dance program.
{REST} ``Contemporary has a strong ballet program, but they had no one to teach modern dancing,'' Braswell said.
She also tours Virginia, teaching aerobics to state agency employees.
When she is not teaching or dancing, Braswell is working on bringing dance home.
She has no desire to join a dance company in New York, Braswell said. Instead, she would like to organize a group in South Hampton Roads.
``Going to New York is not progress as far as people needing arts is concerned,'' she said.
Braswell started dancing at 4. She is a graduate of Windsor High School and the Governor's Magnet School for the Arts.
She has a bachelor's degree in fine arts in dance and choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she was on the Dean's List.
A video she made about cancer is typical of the intensity Braswell brings to her work.
She choreographed the dance, ``Without Warning,'' for a Richmond cancer patient, calling it ``the most amazing experience I ever had.''
``One dancer portrayed him - the other, his wife,'' Braswell said. ``It's a dance about the patient not wanting his wife to help him.
``When it was over, the room was completely silent,'' she said. ``I was worried.''
No need. The patient and his family gave the video two thumbs up.
Initially, ``he didn't understand how movement can relate ideas and the emotions he felt,'' Braswell said. ``When the video was over, he said I was on the right track. He told me he never saw such intense emotions.''
The cancer video was inspired by Braswell's work with the Survivor's Support Group of Johnston-Willis Hospital in Richmond.
A $350 undergraduate research grant from the state helped fund the production, which netted her college credits for choreography and editing at Virginia Commonwealth.
Onstage Braswell - whose style is impressionistic, ``like a painting,'' she said - is loose-limbed.
Offstage, she is intense and philosophical as she talks about dance.
``I feel strongly that parents should not have to pay for dance lessons,'' Braswell said. ``I'd like to see them as part of the school curriculum, like drama and art.
``Dancers know how the body works,'' she said. ``Too often, physical education teachers use incorrect techniques. Dancers create movements the way God intended the body to move - not by some preconceived form.
``I teach how to use the body properly,'' she said. ``I make it fun and games. I spark the creative urge.
``I don't prepare you to dance. I prepare you to move.''
by CNB