Christmas Eve at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
The L.A. County Holiday Celebration will be hosting its 64th Annual event at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Christmas Eve from 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. Among the many performances, one new notable standout is Divas and Drummers of Compton dance program that focuses on character development, leadership skills, discipline, exploring creativity and learning life skills, leadership,conflict resolution and peer to peer development. The inspiration for this program came to Founder, Instructor and Director Keli Berry throughout her different life experiences. Berry, founder of Divas and Drummers of Compton danced and stepped her way into success and along the way found the inspiration for what is now the Divas and Drummers of Compton.
Berry, alongside her husband, Terence Berry, own 1 Shine Youth Center in Gardena which was established in 2011. Berry who danced in college was called to intern during her studies and researched pedagogical strategies of teachers that taught minority students, during her research Berry noticed a need that wasn’t met within the classroom setting.
There was a need for cultural arts and enrichment classes and programs that schools and classroom environments were lacking. This led to disengagement throughout the learning and educational process. Soon after her internship she was awarded a grant for a program that she used toward a summer after school program. Shortly after she found herself in Ghana, Africa where she showcased cultural arts and upon realizing the needs of children of color in her hometown of Compton returned to focus on enhancing the lives of youth.
Berry says of her organization, “The Divas and Drummers of Compton is founded upon the principles of providing inner city youth with access to quality performing arts, cultural arts, leadership and education.” The Divas and Drummers of Compton are a non-profit organization that offers dance lessons in genres such as jazz, hip-hop, ballet, and majorette for children and adults ages 3-22. They service between 100-120 students in and out of the South Los Angeles area.
In addition to these genres, they offer courses in the areas of modeling, stepping, pageant preparation and tumbling. In addition to dance courses, Divas and Drummers provide a mentoring service through USC’s majorette team who serve as mentors for the young ladies involved in the program. They also offer opportunities to visit major HBCUS Divas and Drummers of Compton has been featured on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, Kelly Clarkson Show, 2022 NFL Super Bowl Performance, NBA Lakers Game, WNBA Sparks Game, College Graduations, Lifetime’s Reality Show “Bring It”.
The celebration will broadcast on PBS SoCal or streaming the show live on the pbssocal.org website. Following the live broadcast, the Holiday Celebration will remain available to stream on-demand on pbssocal.org, as well as on the free PBS app. An encore presentation will be broadcast by PBS SoCal on Sunday, Dec. 24 at 6 p.m., and on KCET on Sunday, Dec. 24 at 9 p.m. and on Monday, Dec. 25,at noon.
For more information, visit Home | 1 Shine Youth Center, Email: info@1shineyouth.com or call: (562) 344-5805
