Dance Festival Celebrates May Day in Moapa Valley

By STEPHANIE BUNKER

The Progress

The Moapa Valley May Day tradition brightened the faces of each child at the Grant Bowler Elementary School on Friday night May 5. But that was nothing compared to the smiles their parents and family members in the audience were wearing.

The kids and their families gathered at the Moapa Valley High School gym in anticipation for a night of music, dancing, and fun. Traditionally the May Day Dance was held at the Clark County Fairgrounds. The families and kids would sweat it out in the warm evening air during the performances.

This year, though, the school went to a new venue. “We wanted to make families more comfortable where they don’t have to sit in the heat,” said Grant Bowler principal Kelby Robison. “We were offered this facility and we have filled it.”

The stands were packed and filled to the top. Robison estimated there to be about 1,500 people at the event. In the past he thought that they would get around 850 people to the May Day Dance.
“May Day makes people happy,” Robison said. “And it takes a lot of work to get here.”

Paula Dehner, the school’s Physical Education Teacher said that the kids have been learning dances for the May Day performance every day for 6 weeks. “It takes a lot of staff to support this event,” Dehner said. “We couldn’t have done it without them. It was just great.”

The 5th graders started the show off with braiding the Maypole to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. Of course, the kids got the opportunity to invite their parents down to braid it with them in the second round.

The Early Childhood Education kids came out dressed in patriotic attire. They dazzled the audience to “This Land is Your Land.”

The kindergarten kids got to grab onto some parachutes and show their families some cool tricks they had learned. They lift the parachutes high in the air and then pop inside of the parachute and out of sight from the crowd, giggling the whole time.

The 1st graders showed off their poodle skirts and sunglasses in their 50’s look and danced to “Yakety Yak.”

The Mexican Hat dance was performed by the 2nd graders. The girls sported colorful skirts flowing around the room and boys with sombreros.

The 3rd graders boogied onto the floor with bell-bottoms, peace signs, and afro’s. They danced to “Stayin’ Alive.”

Then poles were brought out for the 4th grade to perform a hop/skipping dance in between clapping poles which was called “Tinikling.”

In between performances, the PTO organized a group of baskets to be raffled off to lucky ticket winners.
“Baskets at the May Day dance is part of the tradition and a good way to fundraise with community involvement,” said PTO President Esther Lee. “Plus, people like to win stuff.”

Lee said that all the money raised goes directly to the school and helps with start up costs for next year.
“If we need to spend some money before an event or sometimes the school has something come up, we can have this money there for those things,” she said.

There were many generous donors this year to create the baskets. “We try not to top out all our local businesses on every event we hold, so we have some that wait for our basket fundraiser,” said Lee.

The May Day event is new to Veronica Zinovitch, the school’s Assistant Principal of 2 years. “The kids just love it,” she said. “It’s unique and new to me when I came here. It’s fun to be a part of something like this.”