"You couldn't take your eyes off (Reema) when she was dancing," said Reema J. Samaha Memorial Director Corrina Matlock.
Watching the Remembrance Through Dance performance in honor of shooting victim Reema J. Samaha on the one-year anniversary of April 16 brought tears to senior finance major Corrina Matlock's eyes.
Matlock said Samaha was a beloved friend of hers and described the performance as helpful and therapeutic. Matlock danced with Samaha when were both members of the Contemporary Dance Ensemble at Virginia Tech.
"We think about her every time we're dancing," Matlock said, who is the Reema J. Samaha Memorial director for the ensemble. "She was just so passionate."
To continue Samaha's legacy, the Contemporary Dance Ensemble has put together a Remembrance Through Dance Workshop, which will be held on Dec. 6. All proceeds raised from the event benefit the Reema J. Samaha Memorial Fund, which supports events such as the workshop and the future performance dances on the annual anniversary 4-16.
This is the first workshop in what Matlock said she hopes will be an annual event.
"Ten years from now, I'd still like to come back and see the different effects of Reema through dance," Matlock said.
The workshop features classes in contemporary ballet, contemporary jazz, hip hop and belly dance.
"This shows all the variety there is in dance and show all the forms she (Samaha) excelled at and loved," Matlock said. Samaha was in five different dance companies her freshman year at Tech.
Professional dancer Dylan G-Bowley will be teaching a beginner and an intermediate/advanced contemporary ballet class.
G-Bowley graduated from The Julliard School of performing arts in March and currently performs contemporary ballet with the Trey McIntyre Project dance company.
G-Bowley will teach McIntyre's chorography on Saturday.
"Trey gives you a lot of liberty with dance, but he's very specific about what he wants," G-Bowley said, who gives his dancers more creative freedom when he's teaching his own choreographed work. "I'm sharing (McIntyre's) vision."
G-Bowley said his upper-level class will be less straightforward and will be more musical than his beginner class.
He teaches dancers of various ages and levels at a local dance studio in his hometown of Marion, N.Y.
The contemporary dance ensemble asked the Trey McIntyre Project whether it could provide a dance instructor, and G-Bowley was available this weekend. He initially wasn't aware of the purpose of the workshop, but after he found out he said he was happy to be a part of it.
"I'm really honored to help out," G-Bowley said. "It helps share the vision of dance."
Adjunct professor of Radford University's dance department, Kyle Shukis, will teach an all-levels contemporary jazz class.
Shukis teaches a contemporary jazz class at Radford, choreographs and dances for the Dance Company at Virginia Tech and is an instructor at Dance Tech Performing Arts Studio. He travels to teach master dance classes throughout the country and has taught 10 different classes this semester.
Shukis said he loves teaching new people and that they provide him with a different energy than the students he regularly teaches.
"I love expression and emotion through dance," Shukis said, who prefers jazz because dancers have more freedom to express their own personal style through it.
Shukis' class is all levels, and he will provide three different "options" for each contemporary jazz technique to accommodate the various levels of dancers.
Shukis also choreographed last year's Remembrance Through Dance performance on the one-year anniversary of 4/16 and said it was "The best event I've ever attended. There was an amazing sense of community."
Shukis said he hoped the workshop would inspire a similar feeling within the Tech community.
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Too bad the family has gone crazy with their political campaign. I got a mass email from one of them that was full of hate and anger - apparently their settlement money has made them empowered to politically active! Big surprise, money wins again....
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After all, Thomas Fadoul, Reema's cousin and a lawyer said in the Washington Post on July 18, 2007 that relatives of the Virginia Tech victims deserved "at least what the 9/11 families got" SOURCE: "Va. Tech Relatives Seeking Payment: Attorney Says State Should Create A Fund" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202014.html On a bright note - Reema was, in life, a rather attractive girl and apparently quite nice to people. It's a shame what happened to her.
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"full of hate and anger", "money wins again". You obviously don't know the Samahas very well. Do they want this NEVER to happen to another family again...and have they channeled their deep love for her toward that end? Yes.
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On second thought, if they had "deep love" and "NEVER" want to see this happen to anyone else, I guess they wouldn't be attacking others. Sorry for my misstep.
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Sorry, I'm a total idiot and don't know what I'm saying. Please forgive me...
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What were the Samahas sending out that was political in nature? I know they were vocal about settlement money (ka-ching, ka-ching), but didn't know about their causes otherwise.
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Something about lying down and playing dead on the anniversary of 4-16.. some kind of protest I guess, but the student body vehemently opposed it. Then I get this email from my prof from a Samaha ranting on about guns or something... I don't know it's just annoying. I ignored it but it really set my impression of the family.
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You don't know this family at all. They don't care about the money, they care about their daughter. They are working because they don't want anybody else to have to go through the pain they're going through everyday. The event they supported on the anniversary was for ProtestEasyGuns which is trying to make campuses a safer place. They weren't doing it for "political" reasons but to support something that can make a difference and save lives. The whole family is forgiving, strong, and amazing. Your impression from an email doesn't matter.
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The Samahas and other families of the victims are in search of truth and accountability so that another tragedy, like April 16, will not happen again. I am sure the families would certainly exchange any settlement agreement for the return of their loved ones. Let’s not divert the focus of this article and the great work being done in memory of Reema by the CDE.
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Repose en paix, habibti. Je me souviendrai toujours de vous...vous remplissez mon cœur de joie.
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You have no idea what you are talking about if you think this family has any negative intentions whatsoever. You first of all, do not KNOW this family. Second of all, it is obvious you have an agenda to frame them in a certain light for whatever your intentions are. Third of all, you are completely entitled to your opinion, even if it is quite distorted, but it is distasteful and insensitive to post about topics of a political nature on an article that is recognizing the celebration of a beautiful person's life. If whoever is making these negative comments goes to Virginia Tech, I am ashamed to call you a peer. You don't think about how what you say will effect the family or their friends personally, and as someone who ACTUALLY knows them- reading things like this really hurts, but on the other hand I know that anyone who would write that doesn't really know them nor did they know Reema, so your opinions don't matter. Thank you to the Collegiate Times for writing this wonderful article, and I'm sorry the discussion board is being crowded with political commentary.
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The comments at the bottom here are truly disturbing, and clearly come from individuals who have never even met the Samaha family. If past Collegiate Times stories on the victims of the shootings are any indication, they likely come from members of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. It was SCCC that bashed those who participated in the April 16 "Lie-In" on here repeatedly, even though that event was organized by friends and family members of the victims. SCCC then invited Eric Thompson, the gun dealer who armed Cho, to campus a week later. Thompson's appearance was what was truly opposed by the overwhelming majority of the student body, and university officials and the Collegiate Times spoke out strongly against it.
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