Kuthea Tuy adjusts Felicity Snguon's dance costume.
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STOCKTON - Eight young girls wrapped in red cloth and gold belts dance gracefully across the stage at the Park Village Community Center as their instructors weave among them, correcting postures and straightening costumes.
A group of curious children takes a break from a game of "steal the bacon" to watch from the floor.
The Rhythmic Quilt Dance Program, run by Stockton's Asian Pacific Self Development and Residential Association, teaches children at the Park Village Apartments traditional Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, Filipino, and Vietnamese dances.
The General Mills Foundation's Champions for Healthy Kids Program has awarded a $10,000 grant to APSARA to expand the Rhythmic Quilt program along with the health and nutrition education classes they offer as part of Park Village's after-school tutoring program.
The Champions for Healthy Kids program is a collaboration between General Mills, the American Dietetic Association and the President's Council on Physical Fitness. General Mills recognized that APSARA is an "underrepresented, high-need" group, with a unique take on physical education.
"We felt that they had a solid program and a good cultural spin with the Cambodian dance. They've really integrated culture into their program," said Adrian Jordan, program manager for General Mills.
The Park Village Apartments are resident-owned and provide housing for many low-income families and refugees of Southeast Asian descent. APSARA is Park Village's governing body, which also oversees their children's programs.
"The plan is to keep the rhythm going and keep kids interested in their culture and the music," said Vanna Prasit, assistant director of APSARA.
The Rythmic Quilt dancers are members of the Peace, Love and You multicultural arts network, which sponsors performances by Stockton-area groups that celebrate the city's ethnic diversity.
"We have several age groups that we teach Cambodian dance to. Some of them are older college students who went back to Cambodia to learn more about their culture, and they came back to teach the younger kids," said Sovanna Koeurt, director of APSARA.
Sophanary Sok is one of those students. Two years ago, she visited Cambodia, where the dance techniques she learned at APSARA were refined and corrected.
"I used to be a dancer as well, but now I'm older and it's time to pass it on," Sok said.
Sok hopes that the grant money will allow the Rhythmic Quilt group to travel, purchase new costumes and hire a more experienced dance teacher.
"We haven't performed out of the city or out of the state - only locally," Sok said.
"Maybe we can get a better instructor - someone who can tell us the history of the dances."
In addition to expanding the dance program, the grant money will help to promote chronic disease prevention among the families of Park Village through health and nutrition education for children.
Park Village's existing after-school tutoring program will be augmented by having participants split into two groups for part of each afternoon. The groups will rotate between tutoring and a healthy living class, taught by a registered dietician. APSARA hopes to have this program implemented by the start of the new school year in August.
Contact reporter Heather Ross at (209) 943-8576 or at hross@recordnet.com.
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