Photo By Sgt. Juanita Philip | Army Lt. Nichole Payne (center) poses with the Praise and Worship Dance Team that she...... read more read more
Subscribe
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - After working 12-hour shifts in the Joint Operations Center at Joint Task Force Guantanamo, Army 1st Lt. Nichole Monnette Payne sacrifices her personal time to train and choreograph the Praise and Worship dance team.
Payne has embraced this opportunity to volunteer wholeheartedly, and in a short time she has turned a group of JTF Guantanamo personnel into dedicated praise dancers who perform at the Sunday gospel service held at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's chapel.
Her selfless service to her community and fellow service members has earned Payne her 15 minutes of fame.
Payne, who is deployed here with the 786th Combat Sustainment and Support Battalion of the Virgin Islands National Guard, works as a watch officer.
The genesis of the Praise and Worship dance team came when Payne was asked to choreograph a dance for the Christmas program being held at the Naval Chapel.
"I perform community service with the Music in Motion Dance School, where I began as a student when I was 14 years old," she said. "I was also an assistant instructor there."
We had been at Guantanamo for a little more than a month when I was approached about choreographing a dance for the Naval Chapel, because of my background in dance and music."
What began as a ladies dance team quickly grew to include male dancers.
"It started out, at first, as being called The Ladies of Christ Praise and Worship Dance Team," Payne said. "The name changed in January to just the Praise and Worship Dance Team when some of the male soldiers from the 786th CSSB joined the group."
Army Spc. Lindon Dagou, who works for the Joint Visitors' Bureau of the JTF, is one of those male dancers.
"Lieutenant Payne recruited me into the dance group earlier this year," Dagou said. "I was asked and I accepted the challenge to try something new, and here I am."
The group is comprised of 17 JTF personnel, many of whom had no prior dance experience. They spend their weekdays and some weekends under Payne's tutelage.
"I have never danced in my life, but it is not difficult," Dagou said. "We practice a lot — three to four times a week, depending on the level of difficulty of the dance."
As they perform more frequently, the dance steps get more intricate.
"The last dance that we did was very challenging, because one of my dance members was recovering from an injury," Payne said, referring to the dance that they performed for the Sunset Festival.
Incorporating a dancer's injury into the choreography required more practice for the team.
"They learned it in a week though, only God be the glory, how I choreographed that dance with that injury," Payne said.
Payne's passion for community service and love of dance has been a benefit to all the JTF personnel who attend the gospel service.
"A lot of our co-workers who don't attend service keep track of our dance schedule so they can attend service to see us," Payne said.
| Date Taken: | 05.28.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2010 11:10 |
| Story ID: | 51066 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY, CU |
| Web Views: | 256 |
| Downloads: | 185 |
This work, Praise and Worship, by SGT Juanita Philip, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
