Season 2, Episode 14; STEMulating Dance

Luewilla X (Smith-Barnett) has had a passion for dance since childhood. She started her dance training at age 7 with the Doris Jordan School of Dance on the south side of Chicago and continued to develop her dance training by taking classes with Joseph Holmes, Lou Conte Dance Studios, Homer Bryant, Deeply Rooted Dance, and Joel Hall Dance Center.  She is currently a First Company Dance Member with the Joel Hall Dancers and is seeking certification in the Katherine Dunham Dance Technique.  

Luewilla is also a mother of three, a STEM Educator, and the Co-founder of Zenith Dance Company, Inc. in Chicago, through which she has taught dance for several after-school programs, including Muhammad University of Islam’s After School Arts Program. While working as an educator and professional dancer, Luewilla recognized the many connections between the art of dance and math/science concepts and decided to use dance as a tool to increase awareness, knowledge, and passion for learning math and science. In 1996, Luewilla won a Chicago Foundation for Education Small Grant to implement her “Building Better Ballet Bodies Program” (BBB). Through this short-term program, she taught students, math, science, and health concepts through the use of ballet dance technique. Subsequent to this program, Luewilla was nominated and awarded the “Talented Teacher Award.” Recently, in 2016, Luewilla decided to resurrect and revise the BBB program, now calling it “STEMulating Dance.” STEM being the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, STEMulating Dance is a program to help “STEMulate” the mind, enhance innovative thinking and increase motivation for learning math and science through the engagement of various dance techniques.