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Dancers from PS 80 in Queens perform at UniverSoul Circus

Para’s dedication pays off
New York Teacher

Jonathan Fickies

The L2L dance troupe performs to music by JLo, Pitbull, Ciara and Jordan Jones at the circus.


Jonathan Fickies

Newton, who provides Response to Intervention services for at-risk students in grades 1-5, glows with pride.

To the strains of music by JLo and Pitbull, Ciara and Jordan Jones, students at PS 80, the Thurgood Marshall Magnet School of Multimedia and Communication in Jamaica, strutted on stage to perform at the UniverSoul Circus on May 2. An audience of 2,000, including 150 parents and school staff who came out to Roy Wilkins Southern Queens Park, gave them a rousing ovation. The school’s dance troupe, L2L (Learn2Lead), got its start with paraprofessional Joanne Newton, who has given up her lunch hour for 13 years to devote herself to the program. “When I first began working at PS 80, the special education students were not included in the school’s performances,” Newton recalled. She wanted to create a venue for them to participate, too. “As students saw the performances I was leading, they wanted to join, so I opened it to all the children in the school,” she said. “You don’t know who’s special ed and who’s regular ed, and that’s how I wanted it to be.” 

Jonathan Fickies

Students head to the big tent for their performance.

From choosing the music based on the messages in the lyrics to choreographing the dances, directing the performances and designing and sewing the costumes (with help from parents), Newton does it all. “She’s really an inspiration for our students,” said Yvette Frazier-Greene, a special education teacher for grades 2–3 who assisted at the performance. The reward for Newton is seeing her students’ self-esteem grow. “It boosts their egos and gives them self-confidence to travel and perform — I’ve seen students become more outspoken and participate more in the classroom,” she said. Tamara Isaac, who teaches 3rd grade at the school, said, “It’s not about a test score or a label, it’s about love.”

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