SHAR ADRIAS VOTED BEST HIP HOP WESTCHESTER MAGAZINE 2011 

Shar Adrias went from dancing in her living room to dancing on stage with Ludacris at the MTV Video Music Awards—and today, you can dance right along with her during her hip-hop classes. The dancer, who teaches her own original choreography and routines to young adults at the school, picks up her inspiration from the song itself. “The music tells you what to do,” she says. “I’ve been training so long that when I listen to a song, I can just envision the movement.” She describes her style as free, flowy, sassy, strong, confident, and “I’m-so-Sasha Fierce.” 

SLEEPY HOLLOW PERFORMING ARTISTS VOTED BEST HIP HOP STUDIO 2010

Hip-Hop Classes
Sleepy Hollow Performing Artists
Sleepy Hollow (914) 909 5070

This award-winning, not-for-profit outfit is so synonymous with cutting-edge, authentic, superior-quality dance instruction that it’s getting embarrassing already. Debralyn Press, SHPA’s tireless artistic director, trolls New York City for the best and most relevant talent to teach these cool classes. Press is proud that many SHPA dancers grow up to become working professionals and return to SHPA to teach new generations of top-rockers and moonwalkers. “All of our kids,” she says, “are fierce.”
 

Featured in Westchester Magazine-Best of Westchester 2009: 

Sleepy Hollow Performing Artists'    

Categories:                    

• Fitness
• Dance

Additional Information

Best of Westchester Winners: 2009

Best of Westchester - Editors' Picks:

Best Hip-Hop Dance Instructor - Debralyn Press - 2009

For tip-top hip-hop lessons, look to Debralyn Press, who’s been dancing for more than 36 years and teaching for 20. She takes hip-hop as seriously as classical dance forms like ballet, hiring instructors who have choreographed for Ludacris and danced with Janet Jackson. Today, SHPA—a not-for-profit that moved to a new 3,500-square-foot studio last year—has its own company of teen hip-hop dancers, and students even perform a one-of-a-kind hip-hop version of The Nutcracker each year.

Region: Westchester

 Hip-Hop Hoopla
Where to pop ’n’ lock in Westchester

BY: MORGAN DUBIN PUBLISHED JULY 22, 2009 AT 06:53 AM
Hip-hop—yes, it is all the rage. Just ask any young dancer. But where can you learn to pop ’n’ lock, Harlem shake, and do the Crip Walk in Westchester? Almost every local dance studio offers hip-hop classes—but which is the best? Sleepy Hollow Performing Artists, according to the scores of dancers we spoke to. Here we take a spin with Debralyn Press, the artistic director at Sleepy Hollow, who has trained with the Boston Ballet and at the Tisch School at NYU.

Q: Describe hip-hop dance.
A: I used to dance with rock ’n’ roll bands in the eighties; that was ‘hip-hop,’ but it was really jazz dance. It is a very American dance form, but today it’s become a mix of African jazz, contemporary dance, ballet, and Brazilian martial arts.

Q: Describe a typical hip-hop class.
A: First we stretch, then do isolation exercises, then crunches and push-ups. Then for forty-five minutes to one hour it’s choreography. We sweat a lot. Hip-hop is a real cardio experience. And as for what to wear? I let my students wear sneakers and baggy clothes. Many wear hats.

Q: Do hip-hop dancers need to be technically trained?
A: I’m a big believer in technique—especially if you want to dance professionally. Hip-hop is now a necessity if you want to work professionally. Look at In the Heights and Rent; there’s a lot of hip-hop on Broadway and in professional venues.

Q: Has hip-hop attracted more guys to dance?
A: Absolutely. I have a whole bunch of males at my studio. I brought them in with break-dance, but eventually they learned that their break-dancing and hip-hop would get better with jazz and ballet. Hip-hop opens doors for males because it can be a more macho style.

Q: What do you think about the hip-hop programs here in Westchester?
A: Too often, it’s not real hip-hop. I see ballet dancers shaking their butts a little bit. Someone may have all the training in the world but that doesn’t make them a hip-hop dancer.

Candy Canes and Cavaliers Meet Icons of the Hour
By Iris Hickey Arno

There’s Clara, and the Sugar Plum Fairy, and dancing snowflakes, break dancers, unicyclers, Brittany Spears, Dora the Explorer and…say what?  That’s right—all those characters appear in The Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center’s version of “The Nutcracker”—here dubbed “Nutcracker Now 2008”—which opens tonight (Dec. 12) at the Irvington Town Hall Theater and continues with two show tomorrow.

Although not completely dispensing with ballet dancers on pointe or Tchaikovsky’s lush score, this non-traditional version of the perennial holiday favorite also makes room for modern dance, jazz, hip-hop, pop songs, and lots of dialogue.  Debralyn Press, the founder and artistic director of the Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center (SHPAC), wrote, directed, and choreographed the show along with company director Annie Doss.  Many in the cast of more than 50 students aged 7-18 added their input to the final product.

It all began about eight years ago, when Press and Doss (once one of the Press’ students, now a dancer, choreographer, and teacher in her own right) were fantasizing about what a modern “Nutcracker” would look like.  “It’s a fantasy so, in ours, Clara really wants a laptop and her stepbrother wants an iPhone,” Press said, explaining that the company has performed the show four times in the last eight years, each time making changes to keep it up to date.

“The themes this time around are blended families and teenage obsessions with commercialism and being popular,” she said.  Clara is initially disappointed with the large nutcracker doll she receives in lieu of a computer but, after it comes to life as a prince and takes her and her six Barbies (who come to life as real-life pop singers and speak in the lyrics of their hit songs) on a trip to the Enchanted Land of Sleepy Hollow, Clara learns some important lessons about happiness.

From Mouse to Boss

As a child and teenager, Press, now 45, progressed from mouse to angel to snowflake and on up the line with the Boston Ballet’s “Nutcracker.”  After earning a BFA in dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she went on to be a principal dancer with the Ballet of Contemporary Arts at Harkness House and the American Dance Machine, a company specializing in Broadway-style repertoire.  She also choreographed, directed, and performed in television, stage, and film productions.  “It was in the ‘80s and it was a really interesting time,” she said, remembering the days when she worked with the likes of  Billy Idol, the Rolling Stones, and Madonna.

In her late 20s, she earned a dual master’s degree in social work and dance therapy at Hunter College and spent five years working in the New York city school system, choreographing a show that toured 100 city schools and working in crisis intervention at Lehman High School in the Bronx.  “That was hard,” she said, “and I wanted to do something a little bit more fun.”

So, in 1995, Press moved to Sleepy Hollow and began teaching in various dance schools in Westchester.  In 1999, she founded SHPAC.  “I wanted to create the place I wish I’d had as a kid,” she said.  “I had a vision of a place that would look at the person as a whole and train technique and artistry with no loss to the student’s self-esteem.  When I was trained, I was really somebody else’s canvas, somebody else’s clay.  I didn’t have a lot to contribute as an artist.  In this place, the students are able to be part of the creative process.”

Press said that what she finds especially inspiring about teaching is, “You can really affect the kids’ lives in positive ways.  A lot of people have talent but, if they’re not trained well, it doesn’t go anywhere.  It’s wonderful to train that talent and help the person to grow at the same time.”

A ‘Culture of Kindness’

Aside from teaching classes in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and musical theater, and overseeing the school’s numerous performing companies, Press, who has lived in Irvington since January, works hard on the overall ethic and atmosphere of SHPAC.  “There’s a culture of kindness among us.  We don’t allow any mean behavior among our young artists here.  They all have to accept everyone and work together as a group,” she said.  “Meanness is an issue that we work really hard with and magical things happen.:

Daisy Gumin, an Irvington sixth-grader, has been studying at SHPAC for two years and is playing the role of Clara.  “I love how everybody is nice to everybody else here,” she said.  “It changed me.  I used to be not as open—I’d be scared to sing a song—and this brought me out of my box.  Now I’m more open to meeting different people and more comfortable as myself.”

Jarette Seligman, an Irvington eighth-grader, remembers being a mouse in “The Nutcracker” when she was 5.  “I watched the big girls and wanted to do everything they did,” she said.  Now, Jarette is a fairy, a snowflake a candy cane and singing in several numbers.  Parts are given out after an extensive audition process but, Jarette explained, students are encouraged to make the most of whatever part they are assigned.  “Something Debralyn teaches us is that, no matter how small your part is, the more you act it, the better it will be,” she said.

Sophia Harris, a fifth grader at Springhurst in Dobbs Ferry, agreed.  “In the last show, I had a tiny part—only one line in the whole show—but here, even though you have a small part, it will be amazing,” she said.  “Whatever you do, it’s extremely fun, because all the other actors are so great and it’s so fun being with them and dancing with them!”

Giving Something Back

Irvington High School students Kayla Frimer, a junior, and Katie Ferguson, a senior, have benefited from the increased responsibility that is part of the SHPAC experience.  Both have taught dance classes and taken a leadership role in choreographing and directing.  In the current production, Frimer plays the evil Mouse Queen, belting out a bluesy number complete with jazzy choreography.

Ferguson, who is portraying the Sugar Plum Fairy and on of the Star Dolls, is contemplating her high school graduation this spring with mixed feeling.  “In some ways, I’m so ready to go to college,” she said, “but this place has been my life for as long as I can remember and it’s going to be really, really weird to leave it.  Everyone here has backed me on everything and supported and pushed me to be the best I can be.  Debralyn is like my second mom, and one of the best parts of growing up is having her listen to you and respect your opinions.  It’s a lot of responsibility and a lot of fun.”

SHPAC’s mission goes beyond establishing a self-contained community of artists and extends to providing scholarship assistance and sending groups to perform frequently at local schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and shelters as well as at street fairs and festivals.  “Our community service aspect allows children to have more opportunities to perform, while it also involves the community and spreads a lot of joy and happiness,” Press said.

And speaking of joy and happiness, she anticipates plenty at this weekend’s performances of “Nutcracker Now 2008” which she described as “a happy, upbeat, exciting show with some beautiful ballet and a lot more.”

IEF Dance Contest a Winner from Step One
By Colleen Michele Jones

Call it Dancing 101, but this time it’s the students—not the teachers—who are at the head of the class.

More than 20 faculty members brave enough to volunteer will showcase their footwork skills in the Irvington School District’s first-ever “Dancing with eh Teachers” competition October 25.

Billed as a fundraiser for the Irvington Education Fourndation (IEF), over the last four months of planning the event has become much more than just the district’s take on the hit television show “Dancing with the Stars.”

For one thing, the teachers who agreed to strap on their dance shoes for hip-hop, ballroom, and even break dancing did so not knowing that some of their own students would be teaching.

Debralyn Press, a professional dancer who runs Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center, has many dance students who attend the Irvington schools.  So when Press agreed to be the show’s artistic director, she turned to her own students to help choreograph it.

In a real reversal of roles, a dozen middle and high school students have helped Irvington teachers master their moves since rehearsals began in lat August.

Irvington Middle School music teacher Stephen DiGiovanni, who is taking instruction from a former student, sophomore Michelle Graham, for a jazz number he is in, said, “It’s so weird to see them on the podium and for us to be at the desks, so to speak.”

And with students as the taskmasters, they’ve even had to warn their protégés to refrain from talking during lesson time.

Irvington parent David Scott first pitched the concept for the show to IEF leaders last spring.

“We thought it was a great idea, but we wanted to see how we could pull it off,” said Susan Kasarsky, a former president and now a member of the IEF.

So Scott did one better by offering to produce the show with help from Kasarsky.

“He came in with enough energy to make it work,” said Kasarsky of Scott, who has more than a little experience in putting shows together.

For the last 12 years, Scott has been the executive producer of “The People’s Court,” which was nominated for an Emmy Award last year.

Scott and his wife, Cyndi, have three children in the school district: Jake, a fifth-grader at the Main Street School; Steven, a year behind his brother, also at the Main Street School, and Camryn, a first-grader at Dows Lane.  All the members of the family are helping Scott behind-the-scenes with the show.

As he sketched out plans for Irvington’s first “Dancing with the Teachers,” Scott wondered just one thing: “I had no idea if anyone would want to get up there and try to learn to dance,” he said.

But want to-and try to-they did.  The IEF go 40 responses to an e-mail sent out last spring asking if teachers were interested.  Thirty-five showed up to auditions in June, and 23 were finally chosen for the show.

Scott has been documenting the teachers’ progress, videotaping the twice-weekly rehearsals and also interviewing the teachers for a series of vignettes that will be screened that night.  The segments tell the story of the group’s evolving skill, something Press said has grown steadily in recent months.

“They’re working so hard, they’re so enthusiastic,” said Press, an Irvington resident.  “A lot of them have never danced before and they’re rehearsing like maniacs.”

Others, like DiGiovanni, already had some dance experience.

“I have a background in musical theater and I am doing a dance from ‘Chicago’ so it wasn’t hard to learn the steps,” said DiGiovanni.

Main Street School art teacher Nina Rossi, who was learning a hip-hop number to a Janet Jackson song at a rehearsal last week, said, “I think they’re going to be amazed we’re so hip.”

And that was part of the thinking that inspired Scott.

“The students are getting to se their teacher in a totally different light,” said Scott.  “It’s a chance to really let their hair down.”

The teachers come from all four schools in the district, and represent all kinds of personalities, body types, and ages, from early 20s to 60-plus.  For the show, they will be sporting professionally done hair and makeup and stage costumes.

Kasarsky said that the IEF always tries to include teachers in its events.

“And this is an event that celebrates the teachers,” she said.

IEF co-vice president Dana Vogel added, “It’s a real coming together of the two components of how the IEF focuses its mission—on teachers and students.”

Fifteen of the teachers will compete in featured numbers as a group, while the others will perform in just the opening and closing acts.

But don’t expect the same process of elimination seen on the television show.

One final winner will be chosen by a panel of three judges.  Two of the judges—a record producer and a professional dancer—were landed by Irvington parents with connections to the arts.  Organizers are keeping the identity of a “mystery judge” secret—just one of the many surprises of the night.

Each of the district’s four principals will make some sort of cameo appearance.

And the event will be hosted by “The People’s Court’s” Curt Chaplain, the man behind the voiceover intros at the beginning of the show and heard in the hallway interviews after each case.

“I don’t think the community has any idea what they’re in for,” said Kasarsky.

IEF leaders envision a good night of family fun that the entire school community can enjoy.

Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 for students.  As of press time Wednesday, the show had sold out.  The IHS campus theater hold approximately 700, and about 100 people have been placed on a waiting list.

“It’s been a great response from the whole community,” said Kasarsky.

The show’s organizers are considering arrangements to accommodate the overflow crowd, for example, by setting up a closed-circuit television in the gym so more people can watch the performance live at a discounted price.

When asked if she’d venture a guess on any front-runners in the contest, Press said, “I think the audience likes break dancers, and we have profession break dancers with them [the teachers], but I think it’s anyone’s guess…I’d like them all to win.”

And if the excitement surrounding the show is any indication, Irvington may have to consider an encore next year.

The Hudson Independent
March 2006

A Child of the Community

Senior Ronnie Bencosme earns recognition as a 3-sport athlete and professional dancer

Wayne Coffey for the Hudson Independent

The wrestling room at Sleepy Hollow High School is a rectangle of greatness, a place with red mats and red walls and a thick smell of sweat, an arena which has produced three state and 24 Section I champions in Coach Brian Tompkins’ 30 years.         

It has never before, however, had an athlete like Ronnie Bencosme, a kid with cables of muscles and lightness in his feet – Baryshnikov with protective headgear.

Bencosme is an 18 year-old senior at Sleepy Hollow, and a village story to the core, a true child of the community.  He was born in Phelps Memorial Hospital, lives in a Beekman Avenue apartment, and may be the only athlete in the country who stars in three sports, and dances professionally on the side.

Ronnie Bencosme, home from Ithaca, performs with
Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts in Ossining's Market Square, 2007

“He gets hungry for something, and then he goes after it,” Tompkins said.
Bencosme’s dancing mentor is also full of praise.  “He is an amazing athlete who can do anything and go anywhere,” said Debralyn Press, founder of the Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center, where Bencosme began dancing six years ago.  It is a few pirouettes from the apartment Bencosme shares with his mother, Tara, and two of his brothers.

A Sleepy Hollow co-captain who was the runner-up in Section I last year, Bencosme wrestles at 145 pounds – 30 pounds lighter than he weighed when he captained the school’s football team playing fullback/defensive back, and a lot lighter than he’ll be when he leads the Sleepy Hollow lacrosse team this spring.

“It’s no big deal.  Your body adjusts,” Bencosme said, smiling beneath the bleached-blond hair that he and his fellow Horseman wrestlers have adopted for the season.  He is propped, sweating heavily, against a wall in the wrestling room, talking about his plans to study business in college and one day open a dance studio of his own.  When asked why he is so passionate about dance, Bencosme replied, “It makes me feel right.”

It was pure serendipity that Bencosme got started in dance at the age of 12.  He was playing basketball at the Morse School playground, as he often did, and one day happened to meet some new kids in town who were taking classes at the Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center.  Bencosme decided to check it out, and enrolled in an acting class.  He has since studied voice and drama and all manners of dance at the center, from break dancing to hip hop, tap to ballet.  When he stopped showing up for the daily games of tackle football at the playground, his friends teased him unmercifully.  Bencosme ignored them, and kept on dancing.

“If you would’ve told me the first day I went down there that I was going to wind up being a ballet dancer, I never would’ve believed you,” Bencosme said.
According to Press, “He’s good enough that when he performs, people come up to me and say, ‘This kid should be dancing with Alvin Ailey.’”

Dancing has literally taken Bencosme all over the world.  There was a summer trip to Italy four years ago, and he’s performed with Rockland Express at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.  He has danced on television and been a back-up dancer for several hip-hop artists at concerts, earning $200 per show, $75 for rehearsals.

Whenever Press arranges for a program at a nursing home or homeless shelter, Bencosme is always on board, his sports schedule permitting.  Press’ only frustration is that with three sports, Bencosme doesn’t have more time to dance.

With his mother on disability with a back condition, and his father in the Dominican Republic with little contact with the family, money is always an issue.  Press gives Bencosme an annual scholarship to the center, and he works in a number of capacities there, helping out in any way he can.

Bencosme wants to attend Ithaca College next year, and continue to dance and compete in sports.  He expressed gratitude to his mentors, Tompkins and Press, and even wrote his college application essay about the coach.  “He’s been a big father figure for me,” Bencosme said.

This native son of the community, whom Press referred to as “a special, special kid,” has seen friends get in trouble with the law, and lives adrift with no real purpose.  He considers himself fortunate not to be among them, and has his feet planted firmly on the ground, even as he continues to soar.