Dispelling
Misconceptions
A summit to bridge
African and African
American divide
See Local News, page 3
Black
Experience on
Canvas
New works reveal
inequities born out
of privilege
See Metro, page 6
Established in 1970
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Volume XLVIII • Number 47
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • December 4, 2019
Committed to Cultural Diversity
photo by b everly C orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Aanaiyah Jones, age 10, started taking ballet at age 3 at Peninsula Park Community Center in north Portland, but now takes lessons at Classical Ballet Academy, a
serious training ground for future professional dancers in southeast Portland, where she will star as Clara in the school’s production of The Nutcracker on Dec. 20.
Big Dreams for Young Ballerina
b y b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
Aanaiyah Jones has been taking
dance lessons since she was three years
old and though she’s only 10 now,
she’s already preparing for a future on
the biggest stage of them all, becoming
a prima ballerina in New York City.
“I love to dance because you can to-
tally express yourself and be yourself,”
she said recently as she was working
out dance exercises at her school, the
Classical Ballet Academy in south-
east Portland, where she’s been taking
classes under director Sarah Rigles for
the past three years.
Jones got her start studying ballet at
Portland Parks and Recreation’s Pen-
insula Park Community Center, a pro-
gram serving a diverse population in
north Portland before moving on to the
more advanced classes at the academy.
According to Portland Parks’
spokesman Mark Ross, this is the first
time an African American child will
have the lead in the academy’s Christ-
C ontinued on p age 9