YOUNG PEOPLE LEARN DANCES AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ALCOHOL

JACKSON -- Picture this: About 75 high school sophomores and freshmen running around a gym in a semi-synchronized manner, bobbing, ducking and twirling while performing a Russian folk dance.

Add Superintendent Wayne Maupin and Grateful Dead-Head lookalike Bob Parr, and you have the THEO-sponsored lockin at Jackson Junior High School Friday night.

THEO, which stands for Teens Helping Each Other, is a new group in Jackson formed to combat peer pressure that often leads teenagers to drink or try drugs.

About 25 members of the group spent Friday evening introducing themselves to freshmen about to enter Jackson High School and teaching everyone a few lessons along the way.

The evening started out with two short skits performed by THEO members, the first dealing with driving while intoxicated; the other with suicide.

But the featured attraction of the evening by far was Bob Parr, a drug prevention officer for the U.S. Army at Ft. Riley, Kan., who can dance, dance, dance.

Parr taught the teens to do country line dances, a Russian folk dance, the Electric Slide and a menagerie of other contemporary dances, set to the music the kids listen to everyday.

"I'm giving a kids a viable alternative to drugs and alcohol use for having fun," said Parr. "It's a real struggle these days even for someone my age, to find somewhere to go out and have fun where there's not drugs or alcohol on hand. Imagine what it's like to be a teenager.

"This gives the kids an opportunity to have a good time in a drug-free, alcohol-free environment," he said.

Parr, who drove to Cape Girardeau from his home in Junction City, Kan., for the lockin Friday and another one for Jackson High School Students at the Cape Central Pool Saturday, learned his teaching methods at a substance abuse team training seminar a few years ago.

"One of our staff was a music teacher and she taught us all folk dances on the last night of the session," he said. "So I took it to a team training session in Missouri in 1988 and did the same thing. It was a hit."

As his traveling show became more and more popular, Parr said he had to learn new dances to appease his public.

"I just keep smiling and keep moving," he said. "That's my basic philosophy on life."

Last year, Parr said he did 59 sessions across this state and Kansas, in front of more than 7,500 people. He takes time off work as director of drug prevention services at Fort Riley, when necessary, to take his show on the road.

"Last fall I was asked to do the red ribbon campaign in Jefferson City," he said. "I taught 1,200 people two dances by the time all was said and done. It was a blast."

After the dance lessons were over, the teens cajoled the disc jockeys to play music that would accompany their newly-learned moves. Then they chased after Parr and insisted he join them.

"This is really a great thing to do," he said. "What else would these kids be doing tonight? At least they all seem to be having a good time here."

David Inman, a freshman at Jackson Junior High School, said he was doing just that.

"It's pretty cool that the high school kids are getting together with us like this," he said. "It's great to be around your friends like this and not be pressured to do drugs or get drunk. I'd like to go to more parties like this."