For Lydia Roberts Coco, music is motivation. The former lead dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opts for percussion music with precise counts when teaching Horton at Ballet Virginia International in Norfolk, Virginia, but she also knows when to pull out all the musical stops. “When I find my students are not dancing with as much life as I would like to see, I teach a more contemporary-style combination at the end of class to music that has beautiful lyrics. My goal is to try to get more emotion and passion out of my dancers.”
When Coco isn’t teaching modern or ballet, she choreographs for and coaches young dancers preparing to compete in Youth America Grand Prix, a responsibility she enjoys because of the extra time spent focusing on each dancer’s unique qualities. “Oftentimes I am first inspired to choreograph by the dancer herself. I simply love creating in the studio, and then enjoying watching it all unfold as a dancer makes it her own,” she says.
Coco works hard to build her students into confident, mature performers. “I find that young dancers, especially in the teenage years, become self-conscious and hold back from dancing to their utmost ability in front of their peers. I want them to know when they step onstage that they are there to share their gifts, their beauty. When I was in Ailey, before we went onstage Ulysses Dove would tell us, ‘You have nothing to prove, only to share.’ I always loved that.”