Chris Collins Dance Studio Choreographs The Most Positive Movement In Dance

At a February 2005 dance competition in Richmond, Virginia, attended by hundreds of elementary school- and high school-aged children, 50 of the competitors received a special “Awesome Dancer” award, recognizing their outstanding effort and performances during the two-day event.

While students from the Chris Collins Dance Studio of Alexandria, VA, performed extremely well in the competition, none received the “Awesome Dancer” recognition.  Still, every one of them was perfectly content with that outcome; in fact, they were thrilled.  Why?  Because they were the ones handing out the awards and proving to themselves that it truly is better to give than to receive.

It began as a collaborative effort between dancers, parents and teachers at Chris Collins.  While students and teachers there have a 30-year history of earning high honors at local, regional and national dance competitions, the studio shuns the win-at-all-cost approach taken by some and prefers to live by its own motto: “We measure success in smiles.”

To put those words into practice, the studio created buttons emblazoned with a gold shooting star and the words “Awesome Dancer!”  Each Chris Collins dancers was given a button along with the assignment to observe dancers from other studios at the competition and award one of them an "Awesome Dancer" button.

The gesture was designed to teach the dancers respect for their fellow dancers and to encourage camaraderie beyond studio boundaries.  Many students awarded their buttons to dancers who exhibited outstanding talent on stage, while others sought out dancers who gave great effort, persevered through adversity, showed a lot of potential, or simply exhibited what they considered an award-worthy smile.

The beauty in "The Dance Button Project" is that the children were given no criteria upon which to make their awards.  They alone determined who received their button that day and why.  And in 50 private, impromptu award ceremonies held in hallways and dressing rooms, they chose and spoke the words that told another dancer -- a competitor –- that they are awesome.

So how were the buttons received?

Some dancers were brought to tears by the gesture of kindness.  Others commented that receiving this small recognition from a fellow dancer meant more to them than receiving a gold plaque from the competition judges.  Students, parents and teachers sought out studio director Chris Collins and commented that they'd never seen anything like this before.

While this alone would have been success enough, the effort doesn’t stop there.  Before the buttons were distributed, each had been individually numbered and printed with a website address (www.DanceButton.com) where the history of each button was to be recorded.

At DanceButton.com, recipients found uniquely numbered message board threads corresponding to the numbers on their buttons.  There, notes had already been typed to them by their new dance friends, and they were encouraged to share their own experiences -- what it meant to them to receive a recognition from another studio's dancer. 

They were also encouraged to share the button itself.  The site suggested that each “Awesome Dancer” continue to share happiness by passing their button along to another dancer from a different studio.  The hope is that, in time, the buttons will become well traveled and carry goodwill to dancers far beyond their original home at the Chris Collins Dance Studio.

One young button recipient posted on DanceButton.com, "I would like to say thank you for the amazing button you gave me.  I really needed it this weekend because I was really sick with the flu and I couldn't breathe when I was dancing.  It made me feel better."

A teacher added, “I want to give you all a huge ‘You are WONDERFUL!’ button!  I can't say enough about how fabulous I think this is.”

“I just could not be more proud of our dancers than I was this weekend,” said studio director Chris Collins.  “On stage, I thought they were all great as always.  But it was off stage that they really put on a show, and I know they brought smiles to the faces of many dancers from other studios when they presented the "Awesome Dancer" buttons.  I was approached by several studio directors and parents telling me that their students really appreciated the buttons and what nice students I have.”

Within days of the competition, word of “The Dance Button Project” had spread, and requests for buttons arrived from studios in Maryland, Tennessee and Massachusetts – each wanting their own students to become part of the effort.

The non-profit Dance Company Parent Association at Chris Collins Dance Studio (the parent group that actually produces the buttons) was glad to oblige, filling each order and dedicating 100% of the proceeds to their “Rising Star Scholarship Fund” – a tuition assistance program not for their own children, but for young non-competitive dancers who aren’t even a part of the dance company.  They call it their investment in the future of dance.

In the months that followed, "Awesome Dancer" buttons reached the west coast of the United States and even cross the border into Canada, making The Dance Button Project an international program of goodwill.

So will the chain of kindness continue?  Only time and the generous spirit of our youth will determine that.  But for the moment at least, everyone at the Chris Collins Dance Studio is comfortable in knowing that through The Dance Button Project they are changing the face of dance… one smile at a time.

Who's Awesome?
Savion Glover Receives An "Awesome Dancer" Button From CCDS Dancers

Chris Collins Dance Studio dancers (Megan Savary, Stella Photiou, Christina Tucker and Lauren Ramos) present tap superstar Savion Glover with an "Awesome Dancer" button.