The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Calgary teacher Kelsey McMahon uses dance to connect students to school

THERE ARE SIGNS EVERYWHERE that Kelsey McMahon’s classroom is an extraordinary place: the Dirty Dancing poster on the wall, the motivational cards with phrases like “if ballet were easy, everyone would do it.”

For 15 years, McMahon has taught dance and visual arts at Calgary’s Forest Lawn High School. The school sits in one of the most ethnically diverse and poorest neighbourhoods in the city. Here, McMahon has built one of the most successful high school dance programs in Alberta. 

“The aim isn’t to create professional dancers,” she says. “It’s to create people who are able to think outside the box and who are able to work with others.” 

Every year, between 200 and 300 students come through her classroom. It’s a white-walled dance studio with black rubber flooring and McMahon’s desk pushed against a wall. Her students train in ballet, hip hop, jazz and contemporary dance. They practice through choreography on an imaginary stage marked out with coloured tape on the floor. 

As part of the dance program, McMahon created and cocoaches the school’s competitive dance team. It’s the only school-based dance team in Alberta that vies against private studios in competition. 

Most of the dancers that her students are up against have been in formal dance training since childhood. In comparison, many of Forest Lawn’s dancers had never set foot on a stage before they joined McMahon’s dance class. They’re a diverse mix of genders, races and sizes. 

That’s their trademark, McMahon tells her students during her precompetition pep talks. 

“It doesn’t matter what your costume is, it doesn’t matter if our team looks different than the other teams. Our diversity is our strength.” 

In a school where students struggle with attendance, the value of a class like ballet is easily underestimated, says McMahon. But dance often engages students so they come to school more often. They bond with other students in a way that’s very different from a traditional class like physics or English.

“Fine arts are often what get students to connect to school. It’s what gets them to form communities within the school and to find value in school.” 

“If you don’t have those things, sometimes students won’t come.”

Her students’ enthusiasm is sky-high. This fall, during auditions for the dance team, 60 students showed up to compete for the 15 to 20 slots. 

More important than pliés or posture, McMahon wants her students to learn skills that they can use outside of school—things like courage, teamwork and the confidence to take on new challenges.

“I don’t take kids to competitions so they can win trophies. I take them to show them that they are capable, just as capable as anyone else.” 

That said, her students do win trophies. In the last two years, they’ve picked up multiple awards, winning citywide competitions with routines in hip hop and jazz. 

Some have even gone on to win scholarships. Since joining the dance team two years ago, Grade 12 student Jehad Kalaf has garnered more than $900 in scholarships. 

Kalaf doesn’t know if he’ll pursue dance after high school. His chief motivation for dance is camaraderie rather than a career. “For me, the biggest thing is community. We are a team,” he says. 

Opening Doors

McMahon comes from a different background than many of her students. Growing up in Edmonton, she started formal dance training at five and continued throughout high school. She spent summers in New York City, working and training as a dancer while completing her education degree at the University of Alberta. 

At 22, she was en route to New York City for dance when the Calgary Board of Education offered her a job teaching dance at Forest Lawn. She jumped at it, though friends questioned why she wanted to work in a school with a tough reputation. 

Today, with her plaque for Forest Lawn Titans Coach of the Year 2018 resting against the wall behind her, McMahon offers the same answer that she did then: “Performing arts programs are essential for all schools, but especially for schools where the population comes from interrupted schooling or are vulnerable youth.” 

Elise Janz, McMahon’s colleague and cocoach of the dance team, said the dance program is a credit to McMahon’s commitment to her students. 

“She does a fantastic job of opening doors for kids where they want them and that’s not something that every teacher can do.”

It isn’t easy to fund a competitive dance team in a city not known for dance and in a neighbourhood not known for wealth. But that’s how they’ve done it. All the funding comes from bake sales, bottle drives and donations, driven largely by the coaches, the students and their parents. 

For her part, McMahon still lives a bit of the life of a dancer. She spends her evenings hand-sewing beads, appliqués and fur onto bodysuits and dresses for her students. 

“I am seriously good with a glue gun.”

AT THE BARRE WITH 
Kelsey McMahon

Why is dance so important to you?

When I started dancing I was very shy, and it was a way for me to be larger than myself. It gave me a place where I could be expressive and outgoing. Now that I’m an adult, I see the power that dance has in terms of building community. It gives us all the space where we can be part of something larger than ourselves, where we can connect with others and find a space to belong.

At what age did you realize this was the case?

I always loved to dance, but I realized that I needed to dance when I was in high school. That’s when I knew it would be my lifelong pursuit. 

What do you love most about dance?

At this moment in my life dancing is about release. Teaching full time, being a learning leader, being on multiple committees and having two young kids at home keeps my mind very full. When I’m dancing my mind is free and I can breathe. It is a great gift to give yourself to be lost for a little while.