This school year. children at the Cullman County Child Development Center (CDC) are getting something they’ve never had before: hands-on access to the arts.

“It’s been an incredible thing to see the way our kids have responded to it,” said CDC principal Chris Chambers. “Our two instructors — Laura Harbison [art] and Courtney Foshee [dance] — have really opened up a whole new world for our students, and the kids love it.”

The program assures every qualifying child the opportunity to make art and dance a regularly-scheduled part of their school week, and the stuff these kids get to do is definitely the sort of stuff to look forward to.

“I usually teach hip-hop; some of the older kids I’ve kinda taught some break dancing,” said Foshee, who also own’s Courtney’s Dance Artistry studio in Cullman. “A lot of them can do ‘the worm’ now!

“For the younger ones, I’ve taught a little bit of ballet, too. It’s a little bit scary to begin with, but then they get excited and open up. There’s this boy in my class who does so well in dance — and I didn’t even realize, because he’s so expressive, that he has a disability prevents him from being able, really, to talk effectively. But you would never know that from the way he dances. He really goes all out about it!”

“It’s fun and really gratifying to figure out how to make things interesting for the kids,” added Harbison, a fiber artist who’s finishing her M.F.A. degree at UAB. “What’s so neat is that they all learn differently. It’s a fun challenge to try and figure out the best approach for each chid.

“The thing that’s important for art, too, is that it sort of hits different points for the kids’ development. It might be visual, or sensory, or verbal. A lot of kids have different challenges they’re trying to overcome, and participating in these types of programs gives them a number of different approaches.”

Kids and parents alike notice the difference.

“I think we’ve gotten a lot of really positive feedback from the parents, especially during our Winter Showcase, which we just put on in the last week,” said Harbison. “I think the parents were surprised. They’re getting to see how art and dance can help children improve their skills and performance in other areas. There’ve been tons of studies, too, that’ve shown that having the arts as part of your curriculum can do that.”

Most rewarding for the instructors, though, is to witness children’s sheer enthusiasm at discovering what they’re capable of.

“There are several parents, now, who want their kids to dance outside of school, because they’ve seen how much their kids like it — and how thrilled they are when they learn that this is something they can do. The kids here really love it. Now, when they leave class, they ask me when I’m gonna come back!”