Teaching self-esteem, hard work through dance
Shelah Moody, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Although Albirda Rose-Eberhardt started out as a professional dancer, singer and actress in the 1970s, she said she felt her true calling was in the field of education. In addition to working as a full-time professor in the School of Music and Dance at San Francisco State University, Eberhardt founded the Village Dancers, an SFSU community-service learning program, to help low-income children work through their challenges and harness their personal power through movement, singing and dance performance.

"Some of our children are coming from a mean, cruel society out there," Eberhardt said, "and I try to get them to understand that they are somebody and they are doing fine and that they have a right to be who they are, and say who they are and to project that."