PORT ARTHUR, Texas — The new Vincent Middle School dance team, the Vincent Vibes, is putting the finishing touches on their Black History program.
"Tell the story" is the theme for Vincent Middle School's Black history program.
“The song is actually from a slave hymn so you know I think there's so much power in this piece,” said English teacher and dance coach David Bacon.
“I feel like it's going to be very eye-opening to a lot of people,” said dance team captain Amyriah Roberson.
The Vincent Vibes Dance Company will be performing their rendition of Wade in the Water in honor of Black choreographer Alvin Ailey.
“Alvin Ailey is very big on strong body lines and that's what you're going to see a lot of and so that was a huge part of it was really understanding who this choreographer is what he brought to the dance world,” Bacon said.
“From my culture and my people i just find it inspiring,” Roberson said.
And like their predecessors, the Vincent Vibes are telling a story of their own. In September 2021, the dance team became the first dance company at Vincent Middle School.
“I sent that to my administrators and my principal was instantly like ‘We have to have it on our campus,’ and I got my proposal,” said Bacon. “It got approved. I had tryouts and I started having practices and the rest is history. We have a dance team now.”
When bacon joined the Mustang family last year, he saw a need.
“Well because of our demographic, a lot of my girls have a passion for dance that their parents income really can't support,” Bacon said.
Out of 16 girls on the team, only a few had a dance background he wanted to provide students with affordable lessons.
“Those companies can be almost in the thousands like college tuition,” Bacon said.
On average, in Beaumont large group dance classes can cost students between $40 and $160 for just one dance class a week. Bacon wants Vincent students to have the same opportunities as anyone else.
“Some other girls that are more fortunate may have been in a professional dance setting by the time they're three or four to going to middle school dance going to high school dance eventually receiving these big college dance scholarships,” Bacon said.
The group began their first season at basketball games becoming the first middle school in Beaumont to take on the majorette style dance.
“Majorette style dance and like HBCU style dance has probably been around since the 50s and 60s but this is our form of dance and this is something that is very special to our culture and it is very unique," Bacon said.
“They always lift me up when I’m sad, taking care of me and stuff so I see them as family,” Roberson said.
“I want them to understand that Black is really beautiful and that they can be confident, and they can have this sass and they can just be who they want to be out loud,” Bacon said.
You can catch the Vincent Vibes performance Monday, February 21, 2022. at 7 p.m. And you can take the whole family. Admission is free.