Beauty 4 Ashes Dance Feature-Virginian Pilot

In the bright and airy practice space of his downtown Hampton dance studio, Beauty for Ashes founder and artistic director David Riddick directs his troupe as he talks about his theater company's upcoming production, "One," and how it was inspired by the long and short of love.

"I came up with the idea for this show after reading a newspaper article about the high divorce rate," said Riddick, 28.

"My grandparents are still together, and that got me thinking about love's obstacles and trials." "One," he says, is an examination of the stages involved in a long-term relationship.

The dance is the physical representation of that journey. The show, to be presented at the Jefferson Davis Middle School in Hampton this Friday and Saturday, fuses dance forms from modern to ballet.

"My dancers have to be committed because the mind has to control the body," Riddick said as he put his young troupe through its paces during a rehearsal.

As the performers alternately pirouette, kick and stretch, their mentor is encouraging yet firm.
"Everyone has to be in the game because dancing is hard."
 
The Hampton native speaks from experience. Riddick toured as a member of Tennessee's Kingsport Ballet Company after earning a degree in Fine Arts from Virginia Intermont College in Bristol.

"I studied dance, but I was also fascinated with choreography," he said. "The other students complained about having too much work, but I really paid attention and started taking small choreography jobs."

Riddick was planning to further his professional studies when a family illness brought him back home to Hampton Roads in 2006. "I was applying to the London Contemporary Dance School, but my mom got real sick and I wanted to help out," Riddick said.

He quickly found work as a dance instructor for the city of Newport News before landing a gig as a program director for the city's Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center. All the while, Riddick kept dreaming big. He founded his dance company four years ago and opened his studio last spring. In its short tenure, Beauty for Ashes - the name is a Biblical reference - has managed to draw the attention of several prominent modern-dance figures, most notably Sharon Gersten Luckman, executive director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York.

"She did a workshop with us a couple weeks ago," Riddick said. "My dancers performed for her, and when they finished, I asked her for a critique. She said she had nothing to critique because we were the total package."

That's no small praise, given the dance executive's pedigree. Better still, Gersten Luckman offered to help Beauty for Ashes attain arts grants, and is writing a recommendation letter for one of the company's dancers to study with Alvin Ailey next year. Darrell Shields, a senior at York High School in Yorktown, is the principal dancer for "One." The former athlete started training with Riddick three years ago.

"I wouldn't have been able to have a career in dance if it weren't for David pushing and encouraging me," Shields said. "We're all about digging deep here. It's all about emotion and passion. It's not about doing the kind of tricks you see on 'So You Think You Can Dance.' It's about having heart and being able to touch people."