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Children and Politics
Group of peace activists agrees not to protest when first lady Laura Bush attends a children’s dance recital this week in Santa Fe

By DIANA HEIL | The New Mexican

Fourth- and fifth-grade students from Turquoise Trail Elementary School practice their parts in the upcoming Jo Kid for President on Tuesday at the National Dance Institute of New Mexico. First lady Laura Bush will attend a performance Friday. - Wes Pope | The New Mexican
Ever since word got out in March that first lady Laura Bush might attend the gala grand opening of the National Dance Institute Dance Barns, the nonprofit organization has been overwhelmed with letters and calls from political protestors.

"I've been told the blood of the Iraqi children are on my hands," said NDI-New Mexico co-founder and artistic director Catherine Oppenheimer. "I've had two swastikas."

The outcry, however, won't stop Bush from coming this Friday.

On Tuesday, Secret Service agents scoped out the 30,000-square-foot performance building on Alto Street. Pamela Mantis, a deputy press secretary for the Republican National Committee, confirmed that the first lady will be in the audience at 6:30 p.m. Friday when 500 elementary school students strut freestyle jazz dance moves in Jo Kid for President.

"She will be at the first performance, and then she will be giving remarks at the gala," Mantis said Tuesday.

Bush will travel and attend the show without her husband. Neither Mantis nor a White House spokeswoman could confirm rumors that President George W. Bush will be in New Mexico this week, too.

"We have absolutely no political agenda," Oppenheimer said Tuesday.

A group of peace activists who carry placards at the corner of Cerrillos Road and St. Francis Drive every Friday were set on crashing the Bush visit. But after seeing NDI students perform and meeting with Oppenheimer and Santa Fe Police Chief Beverly Lennen last week, some abandoned NDI as a protest location.

Peggy Prince, the director of Peace Action New Mexico who changed her mind after meeting with NDI, hopes others will follow suit.

"We're not supporting or condoning any kind of protest at the dance recital Friday," Prince said Tuesday. "We really want to support the little kids. We want them to be the headline the next day, not the protest."

Prince said representatives from activist groups are meeting today to plan a course of action at another venue instead. But according to Mantis, the NDI opening will be the first lady's only public event.

Lennen greeted the Secret Service on Tuesday and then rehearsed her dance part on the NDI stage. She has been an NDI dancer for the past three years. "I'm getting dancer's toe," she said.

The police chief hoped there would be alternate sites where Santa Feans could exercise their freedom of speech in front of Laura Bush without spoiling the children's "15 minutes of fame."

The request apparently wasn't granted.

"We are preparing in the event protestors should choose to show up at NDI," Lennen said, adding that the local police department acts in a supporting role to the Secret Service.

Originally, a few activists planned to carry pictures of maimed Iraqi children to NDI's grand-opening gala. Oppenheimer said that would have been damaging to the peace movement because "it's really abusive to do to our local kids."

Prince finds it ironic that Laura Bush would come to Santa Fe to celebrate a new performance center when her husband is cutting funding for the arts, schools, health care and the environment while "bloating the coffers of war profiteers."

"It's not about this particular arts event," she said. "It's about the presence of the Bushes. It's about Bush policies. This just isn't an appropriate place for the Bushes to be visiting."

"We would have liked NDI to uninvite her," Prince added.

While Viva Bush bumper stickers can be seen around town, antiwar sentiments ran deep enough in Santa Fe that the City Council passed a resolution opposing a war in Iraq and later adopted a resolution in support of the troops but not the president.

"People thought we should disinvite her in this liberal community," Oppenheimer said. "That would have made a big political statement. And we weren't prepared to do that. We're honored that she's coming to honor us."

Prince wondered why NDI invited Laura Bush "instead of someone the children might enjoy," such as dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp.

NDI usually sends invitations to the White House and congressional leaders in its mass mailings, said Oppenheimer. "No one ever comes," she said. "Why would they come?"

But this time, one of the group's longtime supporters, who attended college with George W. Bush and considers him a personal friend, extended an invitation that got noticed. He has been telling the Bushes about NDI for several years. (NDI would not give his name but noted that he was one of the original donors who paid for the NDI program to move from New York to New Mexico. He is not an NDI employee or on the organization's board, Oppenheimer said.)

A 39-year-old dancer from New York City, Oppenheimer said she was "completely stunned" when he called her in February to say Laura Bush accepted.

"It was news to us," she said. "The timing of it was pretty incredible."

With the war in Iraq brewing, Oppenheimer was doubtful the first lady would actually make the trip. But on last-minute notice, NDI ordered an insert announcing the first lady's planned attendance while invitations for the event were still at the printer.

"She's going to speak at a small reception for special friends of NDI and watch the performance," Oppenheimer said.

Since 1994, NDI-New Mexico has brought dance to 18,000 children in 50 schools in 23 communities, including Santa Fe, Española and Albuquerque. It claims to be the largest arts-education organization in the state.

At least some activists were under the impression that NDI was devoted to Santa Fe's privileged children, Oppenheimer said, and had invited Laura Bush in the middle of the war to show support for the war and the Bush administration.

"We are about kids," she said. "We are a peace movement. We are building community."

NDI aims to inspire children to feel good about themselves and develop a solid work ethic.

By serving children of all ability levels and offering dance scholarships for after-school and summer programs, NDI is far from elitist, Oppenheimer said.

A 60-page magazine telling the history of the National Dance Institute devotes one page to Laura Welch Bush.

"She's an educator. She was a public-school teacher. She was a librarian," Oppenheimer said. "The way we look at it, she is really coming to honor us and honor the kids."

Jacques d'Amboise, a former New York City gang member who became a member of the New York City Ballet, started NDI in New York 25 years ago, and now his concept has spread to 10 states throughout the country.

In 1990, he began teaching dance classes in Santa Fe's public schools. The Santa Fe Board of Education provided 3.5 acres of land next to Alameda Middle School at $1 a year for 50 years.

Children from throughout the state may perform and take classes in the studios. Beyond the street jazz that requires little more than tennis shoes and a pair of lungs, students can advance to ballet, tap and flamenco dancing.

The new NDI theater seats 500, and tickets are still available for Friday's performances, at 6:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.

Tickets range from $150 to $300, depending on whether you opt for dinner or dessert only. Call 983-7646 for more information.

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Reader Comments

Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Reader comment by: Ed Campbell

I do hope those who whined the loudest about their fears of dissent -- show up and spend the bucks on the NDI program. Might validate their crocodile tears. Might even make up for a tiny percentage of Bush's cuts from the Arts.

Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Reader comment by: Cathy Lamoreux

As an anti-bush person, but also a proud aunt of one of the performers, I have been concerned since my nephew told me Ms. Bush would attend. I'm very happy that Peggy Prince (whom I respect greatly), is recommending that demonstrators stay away from this event.--unless, signs set aside and enjoy a truely wonderful show.

Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Reader comment by: Just another citizen

When are the protesters going to accept the fact that not everyone wants to see them whenever THEY choose to grace our presence. If you want to protest...don't show up to the performance. Don't impose your views on an event that is for OUR children in Santa Fe. Talk about oppressive behavior. I'm not pro-war, but NDI isn't about George Bush or Iraq...can't you people move on?

Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Reader comment by: Steve Gonzales

The anti-Bush comments to this article provide just another example of whiney extreme leftists who will twist anything into an excuse to complain. For goodness sakes, let these kids have a happy memory. When Hillary Clinton came to town, no one protested with pictures of children injured in Haiti or Bosnia. No one paraded cigars before her. Mrs. Bush is a lifelong educator, and this community should be able to respect that fact, independent of our views toward her husband.

Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Reader comment by: Leslie Carlson-Elliott

I believe it's a great honor that Laura Bush is coming to the NDI to show her support for this program, and the mentorship it provides to our children. I feel this is not an event that should be used to further protester's agendas. If they use it as such, smothering the attention that should be focused on the program and the children, then it will simply prove the goals of these protesters have much ado with agenda and little to do with people, communitees, and children.