It was a night filled with smiles, tears, applause, and awe as 32 youth dancers showcased their talents on stage at St. Paul High School on Oct. 14 in support of youth mental health.
#DanceIsMyExpression was organized by the Paul Hansell Foundation’s vice president, Jolene Hansell, to raise awareness around the issue of youth mental wellness. Proceeds from the fundraiser will go towards funding dance for youth as a means to support their mental health.
As a young dancer, Jolene said she enjoyed choreographing her own pieces and that dance was an outlet for her to relieve stress and tell her stories.
“I felt the world could hear me and understand me, even if It was just me feeling alone in my basement,” Jolene said.
Today, as the director of ballet at Capital City Dance, Jolene said she wants to inspire her students to express themselves and communicate with their audience when they are dancing.
Jolene welcomed students from the dance studio and youth dancers around Ottawa to audition for the showcase back in July. The show featured many styles of dance, including jazz, tap, contemporary, and ballet.
Brian Hansell, founder of the organization and Jolene’s father, was the first to give a standing ovation after the show.
“This was just an absolutely amazing event. I’m so thrilled to see how youth are stepping the game up about the conversation around mental health,” he said. “To see 25 separate performances tonight, with each one having their own special message . . . to me goes a long way towards fulfilling the mission of encouraging people to keep the conversation going around mental health.”
He added, “We’re hoping by keeping the conversation going, that people will gain a level of confidence and comfort to talk about mental health . . . and that they are inspired to do something everyday for their mental health.”
The organization was founded after the loss of Paul Hansell, Jolene’s brother, to suicide when he was 18 in 2010. According to the Hansells, Paul danced competitively from a young age, and had always showed a passion for music, with an album he produced available on iTunes.
The Hansells invited one of Paul’s early tap teachers, Carlos Bustamante, host of YTV’s the Zone, to perform a special tap piece to “Can You Hear Me,” one of the last songs Paul composed before his passing.
“It just felt right, and I wanted to come here and spend time with them, and I wanted to see everything that they had been building in his name,” Bustamante said.
At the end of the performance, Jolene presented Bustamante with a #ConvoPlate, a hand-painted ceramic plate, which is a part of the foundation’s campaign to circulate the handiwork around the community to get people talking about mental health.
“I think Jolene’s doing something really fantastic here and I hope it grows,” Bustamante said. “As [is] tradition with these convo plates, I’ll definitely pass them on to somebody else so that they too can have their mind open up to the idea of mental health and talking about it and helping to figure out how to solve the problems that surround it.”
Jolene said she would like to see the show return next year.
“We’ll see where it can go from here and how we can make it bigger and better and get more youth involved next time,” she said.
