Super Students
Saturday, July 4, 1998
Name: Kiyomi Dong
Age: 11
School: Heeia Elementary School
Favorite subject: Language arts
Pastimes: Reading
Future: Writer
When Kiyomi Dong performs a Chinese cultural dance onstage, she gives each performance her best. Spirited dancer
Last year, she and two other students of the Phoenix Dance Chamber performed a lively Mongolian horse dance for an international competition in Canada. They won second place in the intermediate dance trio competition for their performance.
Dong said she danced as if the top half of her body were a rider and the bottom half were the feet of a horse. At the same time, she reminded herself to keep her chin up, smile, look far into the distance and picture herself riding through the vast Mongolian plains.
"She was one of the only ones who could capture not only the movement but the spirit of the dance," instructor Diane Letoto said. "She's really sharp. Kiyomi is one of the best."
Aside from dance, Dong said she loves to read books and poems. Dong, who starts sixth grade at Heeia Elementary School in the fall, is a straight-A student and in the academically gifted and talented class. She served as student council vice president this past school year and will be president in the fall.
Dancing, however, will always be a part of her life, said Dong, who's been a student of the Phoenix Dance Chamber since she was 4 years old.
"It teaches me about the Chinese culture and just the way they celebrate things," she said.
Shirley Iida, Star-Bulletin
