RAINIER BEACH, Wash. — Every tap inside the Northwest Tap Connection signals choreography for change.
The dance studio has been around for nearly 20 years in Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood.
“For me, my thing was a hook,” says studio founder Mebla Mirchell-Ayco.
Students know Mitchell-Ayco as Miss Melba. She’s a 30-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department.
“To get kids really interested in dance, and if they were interested in dance, then I would never see them come across my desk at the Seattle Police Department,” she said.
Miss Melba is also a believer that dancing and discipline can move kids away from crime and into community.
She and the studio have a mission to tap into the lives of every student who walks through their doors.
Miss Melba makes it clear- the expectation that students do their step work as well as their homework.
“I’m not telling you to be the best, but I expect for you to do your best. I expect for you to be a role model for others who are looking in at you,” she says.
She knows all too well the profound impact kids can have on other kids. Recalling an experience in 4th grade, where a white student taunted her in class.
“He referred to me as an *expletive*, and he said, ‘do a tap shuffle for me,‘” says Miss Melba. “And my tap shoes because of what he said, I came home and threw them out the window.”
She refused to tap dance for decades, until a friend stepped in.
“She said girl please. You need to put your tap shoes on, why would you let someone take away your joy?” she recalls.
So, to tap dancing she returned. Dancing through hard times, and teaching others to do the same.
“When it’s all said and done. My goal is to raise up a generation of socially conscious youth that understands the value of doing the right thing, standing for the right thing, and role modeling it,” says Miss Melba.
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