Child, Youth and School Services pre-Kindergarten perform a hip-hop style dance, one of three dances, for their parents and teachers at the Fort McPherson Post Theater May 14. Performing the three dances learned in front of an audience helped build c...

The children of the Fort McPherson Child, Youth and School Services pre-Kindergarten class got to put their confidence to the test during a dancing skit at the Post Theater May 14.

The skit featured three different dance types - a ballet, a tap dance choreography, and a hip hop choreography.

"It was a chance (for the children) to get up in front of all these people," said Tamra Konczey, pre-K program administration assistant.

"The main thing was to impart confidence to these children in a child friendly way and environment." Konczey, who has also been a dance instructor since 1991, began instructing the children on dancing techniques in March.

Konczey said she has offered dance classes during the after school programs since November of 2009, but decided to expand lessons to pre-K students due to the many benefits.

"Any form of physical activity is beneficial. It builds confidence, locomotive and coordination skills," Konczey said.

Konczey said the dancing also served as reinforcement for many of the lessons taught during the year by pre-k teacher, Laura Stephenson, adding she was able to show real life applications to lessons such as counting, recognizing patterns and maintaining focus.

Lesson lengths started at 30 minutes and gradually worked up to an hour, Konczey said.

"They learned pretty fast," she added. Katelynn Lawson, 4, daughter of Lisa Lawson, a nurse at the University of Alabama, was a dance participant and said she enjoyed learning and performing.

Her mother said the show was nice, but that Katelynn was "a star even before she took the stage."

Ananda Lockett, 5, was also somewhat of a star, having previous experience with dance.

Her mother, Sharon, an accountant at Lockett Solutions, said Ananda has been taking tap and ballet lessons since she was 2 years old.

Ananda said she liked performing the ballet dance the best and was happy to get the experience.

"I'm glad everything went right," she said. The dance was one of the final programs in the pre-K students education, which ended Tuesday with a graduation ceremony also held at the Post Theater.