Kids dive into the wondrous world of dance at ODC’s ‘Family Matters’

Dancer, choreographer, and educator Daiane Lopes da Silva of Kinetech Arts was demonstrating how rice bounces on a metal plate as children crowded around her. The kids faces lit up with excitement as they took grains in their own hands to drop, witnessing the kinetic vibrations. Lopes da Silva was connecting them to natural movement, the way that gravity and momentum drives an object forward. It was just one of the ways young people were engaging with the science and magic of dance at ODC s “Family Matters” series, which launched in October. (The next two installments take place November 1 and December 13.) Family Matters aims to provide accessible and joyful entry points into dance by combining exciting performances with behind the scenes experiences, discussions, and demonstrations for children and their parents—cultivating an early love of the art form and helping to ensure a new generation of arts supporters. Offering this kind of family programming is nothing new fo