BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Instead of running a mile in gym class, how about learning how to do a plié from a pro? That’s what Mr. Jeoffrey Harris will teach you inside his dance class at McKinley Middle Magnet School.

“I was a visual artist, I was a musician, I played in the band,” Harris said. “Dance is just something that stuck with me, and I love to do it.”

If you step inside his classroom, you’ll see several young dancers, trying to learn the technique behind ballet. Harris teaches his students the terminology of the artform first, and then the moves come later.

“I feel like you can’t tell the body what to do if you don’t understand exactly what the words are talking about,” he explained.

Harris said he teaches over 100 students. He trains them, hoping they’ll have a passion for dance the way he does. Even if they don’t, he hopes one message will stick.

“I want them to say, ‘When I danced, I did my best at it, and I got the most out of it.'”

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