Hip hop artist teaches elementary students during two-day tour

MOOSE JAW — Students from two Moose Jaw elementary schools enjoyed the benefits of dance, including self-confidence and self-expression thanks to Jess Dance, a Vancouver-based company on its first tour of Saskatchewan. The lessons took place at Sunningdale Elementary School on Sept. 19 and King George Elementary School on Sept. 20. “We’re empowering these students to be challenged, but by the end of the… lesson they’re actually doing things they never knew they could before. That translates into (confidence with) everything in their entire life,” explained Jess Dexter, the owner of Jess Dance. “You can’t deny when you (make) a dance move how it feels inside your body,” she added. “You feel so confident with yourself, (and) that’s going to create a confident human, period.” When Dexter first learned dance she said the methodology needed a new approach. “In my high school we had a dance unit, just like you have a basketball unit (or) a volleyball unit,” she said. “We had our super bro’d out, rugged PE teachers teaching the electric slide… and how to ‘do si do’ your partner… there was no contemporary dance (either).” At the age of 17 she began instructing at schools and her new...