Touring troupe hits state schools Young Americans aims to inspire youth

The Young Americans, an inspirational troupe of dancer-singers based in southern California, is in the middle of a nationwide outreach tour, bringing its youthful exuberance to schools all over.

For three members of the 44-person group, October is homecoming.

Joey Cyr of Bucksport, Shannon Dobbins of Levant and Grace Livingston of Veazie are part of the traveling cast that strives to promote understanding through youth and music.

Each three-day program includes instruction in music and dance, with a performance for the community on the last night. The group already has performed in Howland and Bucksport, and it plans to stop in Hermon, Newport and Orono, but for those involved, a quick description doesn’t tell the story.

“My parents haven’t been able to see what I do,” Cyr, 21, said this week during a break. “You can try to explain it, but you can never do it justice … You just have to see it.”

Part song and dance, part audience interaction and instruction, and all emotion, the Young Americans outreach tour is definitely not easy to describe.

“We perform with emotion. That’s what attracted me to the group,” Cyr said. “It attracts people that are genuine, caring and nice, and the performances are on such an emotional level.”

Morita Tapley, a Hermon dance instructor, attended the Oct. 4 workshop in Howland and said about 450 students and community members were there. Tapley first heard about Young Americans in 1989 when her dance group was invited to California. Both Dobbins and Livingston are former students.

“It’s like having a Broadway show come to your town, only you get to be a part of it,” Tapley said. “The best thing is, everyone is smiling. It’s such a positive experience.”

The Young Americans started in 1962 as a nonprofit, tax-exempt, educational institution offering students the chance to further their ambitions as performers.

The outreach tours started in 1993 as a way to bring three-day workshops to schools across the nation and overseas. Students in grades three through 12 are instructed in vocal techniques, dance, ensemble, improvisation, sound and more.

The Young Americans outreach tour has visited Maine twice already, in the fall of 1999 and again in the fall of 2002.

“Our main goal is just to keep music and performing within the schools and to show the importance of music,” Cyr said. “But it also helps instill confidence in these kids and gets them to do things they didn’t think they could do.”

Charlotte Lee, the outreach tour manager, said the explanation is simple.

“We love what we do … it’s so fulfilling,” said Lee, who has been involved with Young Americans for five years and, at 22, is the veteran of the group.

“We’ve been on the road for about a month now,” she continued, “and we’ve seen everything from schools with no music programs to ones where 400 students are involved.”

Lee, a San Francisco native, said Maine probably falls somewhere in the middle.

The outreach tour will finish up in Maine with three more stops:

. Hermon, Oct. 13-15, Hermon High School, 848-3283.

. Newport, Oct. 17-19, Nokomis Regional High School, 368-4354.

. Orono, Oct. 20-22, Orono High School, 866-4916.

Information about the group is available online at www.youngamericans.com. Eric Russell can be reached at 990-8175 or erussell@bangordailynews.net.