Band of Brothers

Kaelen and Coleman (my own twin sons) have danced since preschool. I often joked that they didn’t have a choice, but to be honest, I asked them every year if they wanted to enroll in dance and braced myself each season for them to tell me they were done. That day never came though and they happily danced their way through high school and have even voluntarily continued dancing through college.

In sixth grade, they met Logan and became fast friends. Logan joined their dance class, and together with two other guys their same age, they formed a hip hop group entitled I.C.U. Crew. They named the group themselves with the acronym standing for In Constant Unity. Their name summed up their relationship as these three danced together, went to school together, played football together, did track together – and spent many a day catching rides in each other’s cars and weekends flopped on each other’s couches. When it came to Homecomings and Proms, their dates certainly learned that it was a package deal and their trio experienced all the highs and lows of high school life together.

Senior year, the three amigos decided to step in to the next chapter of life together as well. After graduation, all three headed to Western Oregon University, trading in their parents’ couches for their own as they shared a three-person room in the dorms. They continued to dance, branching out to sign up for Modern dance class while running an impromptu hip-hop group on campus. The school turned out not to be the right fit for any of them and the three headed back to Eugene after the first year, with lessons learned. Each of them took hip-hop at Lane Community College and finished up their Associates Degrees there. Logan went on to OSU with our love and support - and Kaelen and Coleman stayed in Eugene where they have been working with the studio’s boys’ hip-hop program for the past two years.

My boys have been an integral part of our dance studio family taking care of everything from costume ordering, prop building, teaching, cleaning, corralling toddler princesses – and keeping their mother sane. They have approached every task with humility, humor, and a willingness to help. This past month, Kaelen and Coleman were both approached by a private Christian university in California about joining their track team. After a lot of thinking, planning, and praying – they decided to take the offer and are heading down to Concordia University Irvine this weekend.

A few weeks ago, I got a text message from Logan asking if we could connect. Over lunch, he let me know that he has really missed dancing and will be moving back to Eugene and would love the opportunity to be involved in the ATD studios again. I couldn’t have been more thrilled as he has certainly been missed this past year.

So, this band of brothers is certainly on different paths now, but I would like to believe that dance has woven their journeys together in just the right way. Even though our studio will not be the same without Kaelen and Coleman, we could not be more excited to welcome Logan back to the family. The boys who dance with us are lucky to have all of these great young men as role models not only in dance, but in life. As all of them grow and progress, the studio doors will always be open to them and we hope the dance floor always feels like home.

Note: Not to leave the other two "brothers" out of the story - Jourdan is now at Portland State University and Aidan is pursuing a degree in Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan. Both are certainly doing us proud!