Citystep is also successful in breaking down the stereotypes that males may have about dancing, she says. "Dancing is cool and expressing yourself through movement is cool and that comes through to the boys as much as the girls," says Roth. "It's extremely successful in getting guys to loosen up."

"Teaching dance to fifth graders is not like taking advanced classes. The steps you teach them are simple. It's more of an exciting exchange between people," says Rebecca C. Shannon '89, one of Citystep's three directors. "You're teaching kids to be proud of their bodies."

Although most of the children who participate in the Citystep program do so in the course of their school day, Citystep also runs a Saturday program for sixth and seventh grade veterans of the program.

The returning students separated into High Steppers, the sixth-grade retournees, Super Steppers, the most accomplished high steppers, and the Step Ensemble, composed of seventh grade returnees.

In addition to focusing on more advanced dance steps, the Saturday program brings the Cambridge children to Harvard and allows them to get to know more undergraduates.

"Youth supervisors were key to the function of the Saturday program," says Roth, who did the additional choreography needed for the Saturday program. The approximately 20 youth supervisors pick students up at their homes on Saturday afternoon and take them to either the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) or the Currier House Dance Studio for rehearsal and return them to their homes following the practice.

A youth supervisor's job does not end with transporting the older steppers to rehearsal but continues as they have to keep 100 children quiet backstage during the performance nights. They play games with the students like wink,' cards and 'operator' to keep them amused.

The job "has two functions, it provides a second undergraduate role model for kids. Over the year it developed into something like a big brother, big sister program," says Newdick, who also acts as the youth supervisor coordinator. "And Citystep benefits [from having supervisors] because discipline is needed backstage especially at the Loeb to keep the kids quiet."

A good youth supervisor, Newdick says, must have "experience with kids, a willingness to make emotional and time commitments, and reliability."

The Saturday program is particularly good for the show because it brings experienced dancers back to the show, organizers say. The veteran Citystep children show much improvement from their first year to their second, says Roth.

"Their basic level of co-ordination is different. The kids who went through Citystep as fifth graders pick up steps quicker. They're used to thinking in counts. They are used to thinking in terms of right or left or up and down," Roth says. "I can teach a step in half the time that people in school programs do," she adds.

Having experienced dancers has proved so beneficial to the program that organizers this year founded the Step Ensemble, for third year veterans of Citystep. "The Step Ensemble is an incredibly talented group if kids," Roth says. Their training includes an intensive dance workshop in addition to working on the steps for the show, Roth says.

Despite the success of this year's group, Roth, who will co-direct the show next year, says she is uncertain whether she will continue the Step Ensemble. "I'm not sure we're going to do the same thing [Step Ensemble] next year because the group of kids this year was so amazing that we didn't want to let them go and they didn't want to go," she says.

Although the Saturday program makes it possible for Cambridge students to interact closely with Harvard undergraduates outside of the school system and provides experienced dancers, it has also has some drawbacks, organizers say. In particular, the program encountered difficulties this year in the areas of getting the children to show up and finding a space to work.

"I did feel at times that it was a struggle to get kids there because often parents take their kids away on weekends or sometimes the parents need kids to watch younger kids," Roth says.