SIUE East St. Louis Center for Performing Arts Light Up Stage with Holiday Concert
Holiday favorites – such as “Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” and “Little Drummer Boy”– were performed with the kind of sparkle and shine that only the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center for Performing Arts’ (ESLCPA) After School program can give.
The program held its annual Holiday Dance and Music Recital on Thursday, Dec. 15 in the Multipurpose Room on the Wyvetter H. Younge Higher Education Campus in East St. Louis.
“Our students worked tremendously hard to showcase a performance that would light up the audience’s holiday,” said Homer Simmons, ESLCPA director. “I am pleased to say they did just that.”
Students, ages 6-17, included: Olivia Bell, Lauren Bell, Imani Barnes, Nia Barnes, Karlie Boey, Kalia Boey, Tatum Boykin, Pillar Coates, Karenza Cox, Kiarse Fields, Taelor Hannan, Tamami Johnson, Tah’Jae Johnson, Natalia Knighten, Alanis Smith, Ava Smith and Londyn Williams.
Also performing were alumni students Yasmin Coleman, Jyion Smith, Gysai Sylla and Khalifa Sylla; and musicians Coleman, 
Kacien Fields, Idris Jamison, Aunya King and Willis Wright.
Directing the performances were ESLCPA instructors McKinley Smith and Jay’Kayla Winford, choreographers, and Esau Toombs, band director.
SIUE East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts has a long, rich history. The legendary dancer, anthropologist, and social activist Katherine Dunham founded the Center for Performing Arts at the SIUE East St. Louis Center in 1967. At its peak in the 1990s, the East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts provided year-round instruction to more than 1,000 youth and became a training ground for professional artists of all disciplines. For decades, the East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts has provided performing arts classes to students and community members to develop local talent and to cultivate a love of the arts. The program serves children ages 7-17. Students study beginning piano and guitar, drums, bass guitar, West African drumming and multiple styles of dance. Classes often culminate in musical and theatrical productions.
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SIUE East St. Louis Center for Performing Arts’ After School program students presented their annual Holiday Dance and Music Recital on Thursday, Dec. 15.
