• S H O R T S H O R T S
WBM FILE PHOTO
DANCING TO BENEFIT CANCER
Ken Jones, second from right, conducts a lesson during the East Coast Shag Classic on Jan. 28, 2017.
LPERFORMING WITH THE SYMPHONY ONGTIME Wrightsville United Methodist music director and pianist Julia Walker Jewell
will be the featured soloist with the Wilmington Symphony at the Wilson
Center on Feb. 3, performing her original composition “Dance of the Coin.”
“It’s a multimedia piece with a film that will show in the background and
dancers choreographed by Lesa Rogers Broadhead,” Jewell says. “The piece stands on its
own without anything else, but I envisioned it with these things and it works really nicely as
a film score and a dance.”
The inspiration comes from the Nazis’ treatment of the Jewish people during World War II.
Jewell wrote it in 2010 after reading a book of poetry about the Holocaust.
“I had a very emotional reaction to the material,” she says. “I heard lots of music when I
was reading the poems.”
The composition tells the story of a coin passing from hand to hand in 1942 Germany.
“We see several vignettes, whether in our minds listening to the piece or the dancers
or watching the film,” she says. “We see how people treat each other. Jewish people,
Germans, Nazis. Amidst the strife in the topic we see hope throughout. I don’t want it
to be a downer. I want people to have inspiration and hope to keep something like that
from happening again.” —Simon Gonzalez
C
ERIK MAASCH
AROLINA traditions
and a good cause come
together the second
weekend of February
when the East Coach Shag Classic
returns to Wrightsville Beach.
The “Be My Valentine Weekend
Getaway” is scheduled for Feb. 8–11
at the Holiday Inn Resort. Partici-pants
enjoy the Carolina’s signature
dance — the shag is believed to
have originated somewhere between
Wilmington and Myrtle Beach
— to live beach music from local
and regional bands. The weekend
includes lessons to teach basic steps to
newbies and help veterans hone their
skills, and a silent auction.
This is the eighth annual shag
classic at the beach, organized
by Hope Abounds, a Wilmington-based
organization that provides support services for women, children and teens facing a cancer diagnosis.
“People come from all over North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia,” says Penny Millis, director of development for
Hope Abounds. “The cool thing I love about the East Coast Shag Classic is a lot of times you can go and hear the bands but you can’t dance
to it. Shaggers, we want to dance. And the shag lessons and line dance lessons are huge. People love that.”
Millis, the organizer since the first event, expects about 250 people each night, 75 percent of them from out of town. —Simon Gonzalez
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Julia Walker Jewell
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WBM february 2018