Switching Roles to Share the Joy

Sokoloff Prize winner Lulu Mangriotis ’25 introduces ballet to young dancers.

BY KATE DUNLOP

For two weeks this summer, the ballet student became the teacher: With funds awarded to her for winning the Sokoloff Prize for Compassion and Kindness, Lulu Mangriotis ’25 designed and implemented a program to introduce two dozen six- and seven-year-olds to ballet.

Mangriotis grew up dancing in New York City, starting at age two; by seven, she was training and performing with the School of American Ballet — what she calls an opportunity of a lifetime. Now a member of the St. Paul’s School Ballet Company (SPSBC) and a volunteer with the Friends Program, which matches an SPS student with a local child for mentoring, Mangriotis combined her interests in dance and community service to create a new offering for the Harlem YMCA’s summer camp.

“I was really keen on creating something tangible and lasting, because it opens up the opportunity for human connection,” says Mangriotis. “It was really important for me help other people and to contribute to something I love, which is dance.”

Knowing she would need help, Mangriotis recruited her friend and SPSBC co-captain Caroline Walsh ’25. Together, they ordered and assembled barres for the studio, and once they knew the dancers’ sizes, they purchased ballet slippers, white shirts and tights for the boys, and skirts and leotards for the girls.

Over the course of the two weeks, the duo devoted themselves to presenting ballet as a creative, athletic and artistic endeavor. And, in addition to teaching the basic positions and steps, they made sure to show videos of dancers like Misty Copeland so their young students would know what’s possible within the world of ballet.

“It was all about opening the door to ballet, and some of the kids really took to it,” Mangriotis says. “Being a teacher, being on the other side, was so interesting and eye opening. I really reached back to remember how I learned, but then I also had to learn how to let the kids have fun, which ended up being a short dance battle at the end of each session in which they had to incorporate a step learned that day.”

By program’s end, after a final performance complete with tutus and applause, 16 of the young dancers were interested in continuing to dance, so Mangriotis compiled a list of organizations and other resources that could help open the door even wider.

“They have what the need to get started, I think,” she says. “If I can, I’d like to go back next summer and check in on the kids and maybe do another week or two.”

As for her own ballet classes back at SPS, Mangriotis sees them a little differently now, with a newfound appreciation for the planning and logistics behind each one.

“When Caroline and I get to do our captains classes, we’re not just going to take everyone to the barre and start freestyling,” she says with a laugh. “Those are going to be well thought out ahead of time with lots of preparation.”