Meet Ricka Kelsch of Dance and Dialogue in West Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricka Kelsch.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Ricka. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in a home of artists and philanthropists. Both of my parents were in the entertainment industry. My mother was a dancer who, as a young teenager was performing for our troops in hospitals throughout Europe during WW2. While in Italy, she was forced to do a command performance for Mussolini. While there, she helped smuggle dozens of children to safety until she was forced to leave due to unsafe conditions.

My father was a film and television producer, writer, and director mostly known for his comedy work with people such as Jerry Lewis, Neil Simon, Norman Lear, Mel Brooks, Donald O’Connor, and many others. No matter how busy he was, my father was always there to help the local community. Whether it was for school or city fundraisers, dad never said no.

This was the model I grew up with. As my father always told us to be humble, I never really knew all of his accomplishments, but have since gone through his scrapbooks to to find a treasure trove of them. Instead, what mattered most to my parents was that their children understand the importance of paying it forward.

At the age of 21, I was in class at the ballet bar one day and while doing tendu’s had the beginning of my thoughts of ways I’d like to give back. Those dreams were quickly put on hold when my father got sick and eventually passed away.

Having to go into survival mode myself, and then life with marriage and family, I was not able to return to that larger dream for decades. It was the night that Barack Obama became president and asked the country to pitch in and do our part. At that moment, my dream was reawakened and I was once again living in that field of possibilities.

My career has been dedicated to choreography of musicals primarily, but I began teaching dance almost right after my college years. At the young age of twenty-four I was co-teaching the musical theater workshop at UCLA. Over my career, I’ve taught at many schools and studios. I spent seventeen years teaching at Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles where I created the dance program for high school students. I also taught simultaneously at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences for twenty-two years, serving as a middle school dance teacher and Director of the Middle School Dance Company, which I founded. I am also certified as an Autism Movement Therapist and a certified PEERS provider, which is an evidence based social skills program for teens and young adults.

As part of my dance class curriculum, I would teach my students about how art and culture influence each other. During that time we had our first African American president elected and almost immediately saw a rise in hatred and racism. Concerned by this, I grappled with how to reach our youth to educate them about what they feared in others. To teach them we are more alike than different, that all lives have value, that we must not give up on anyone, much less judge them because we don’t know their backstory. It was then when I woke up at 2:00 a.m. one night and began to create my program Dance and Dialogue.

In six years, we have grown from serving eighty-five to over seventeen hundred students throughout Los Angeles, and as far away as Santa Barbara, Ojai, San Pedro, Pasadena, Rialto, and Ontario. Through our All -City Workshops and residency programs currently supported by LAUSD, we are able to reach many of the marginalized communities that need the arts as outlets and who seek out productive ways to express themselves. To date, this is the most rewarding work I’ve done besides being a parent. I look forward to bringing this program to other cities and states in the near future! Please visit the website to learn more and to view the sizzles.

As with anything you passionately pursue, there are ups and downs, sometimes on a daily basis. I have come to use the belief that since I am about doing something good it will be supported, and so far, it’s working! I don’t sweat the small stuff when at all possible. I just put one foot in front of the other with the belief that the work I do is making a difference. This is what keeps me going through the bumps in the road.

On days when I have my All-City Workshops, I have encountered so many logistical issues. Often times it could be one snag after another. I have found that no matter what happens the events turn out to be magical and the more positive energy I put in the better the day goes. I don’t allow these snags to effect me because things have a way of working out. I have found that by maintaining a positive attitude not only helps me to navigate my way to a solution it also demonstrates to our students ways to live in the gray area, that things are not always back and white. There is always a way.

Dance and Dialogue is a non-profit arts organization. We believe that dance is a tool for communication that promotes personal and social change to bring about a better future for everyone in our community and beyond. Dance and Dialogue’s program is based on joy: the joy of dance, the joy of sharing, the joy of self-expression.

By bringing together people of all ages, from all the different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds that make up our community, the program looks to break down the barriers of preconceived differences and eliminates the fear of others. As participants share their stories they encounter their own feelings and discover that in self-expression combined with art, they gain empathy and self-confidence.

For those in our residency programs who have never danced, they learn that by taking a risk to move at all they begin to see they are courageous. They are choosing their self-worth over the judgment of others. Our studies have shown a dramatic shift in school participation, strengthened relationships with peers and educators, reduced feelings of isolation depression and anxiety, anger, and frustration.

So many of these residency students have already given up on themselves. Some of them have already been detained or have a family member that has been, most likely a parent. Some are in gangs. They share about where they live and what it is like to live in fear. They see themselves as other and walk in this world as if whatever they do or think it doesn’t matter because they don’t think they matter. They are scared and angry. They are children and to see this is heartbreaking.

With our joy based focus, we are able to leave judgment outside of the classroom. It takes many weeks of patience and showing up for students to feel safe and begin to take risks. We let each and every student in our room know that we are happy they are there with us, that we see them, and that they matter, even if they don’t share that day. It is by far my greatest joy to witness students begin to dare to dream, to dare to have hope again. To see these teens drop their hoodies, smile and engage with each other is the best feeling in the world. I think this is what sets us apart from the others. Week after week, providing this safe place to be and be heard is unique and so needed.

Dance and Dialogue has been honored with the Lester Horton Award by the Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles for Community Leadership, and has been recognized by the Violence Prevention Coalition of Los Angeles. I personally have become an arts advocate for the city of Los Angeles working side by side with others who see the importance of the strong presence of the arts in a city.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I’m wondering at what age childhood ends? I often say that teaching kids is the secret to my youth.

I am fortunate to have many great memories as a child but the one that stands out for me right now is the time when I was in first grade and in my first play. I had been very sick at home with scarlet fever and missed about three weeks of school. The teacher was kind enough to still give me a part. Because I missed so much school I didn’t have a speaking part. I remember that even though I was just holding up houses and trees, my parents came to see me and squeezed in to the child sized desks. I was so proud! To this day, I haven’t forgotten that they were there. Though not until years later I came to understand by my parents being there that I had value and how powerful a parents presence and love can be to a child. I also appreciated that the teacher didn’t forget me and found a way for me to be a part of the play even though I’d missed almost all of the rehearsals. This was one of the memories that shaped my future for sure!