By Dwayne Scheuneman

With all of the bombing, destruction and suffering exchanged between Israel and Gaza recently, it's hard to believe that just a short time ago, as these conditions were developing, we were in the middle of it all, creating, dancing and sharing.  It was an amazing experience wherein we made some friends who were in the studio creating and moving with freedom and joy one minute, then headed home through streets that were surrounded by checkpoints and barriers the next.  It was these barriers that would come to serve as creative influence to our work in Ramallah. 

This past June, Suzanne Pomerantzeff, a legend of the Tampa Bay Area dance community, retired from the Pinellas County Center for the Arts (PCCA) at Gibbs High School. Ms. P, as she was affectionately called by her students, was responsible for the development of the PCCA dance program and, until her retirement, served as the ballet department chairperson. Suzanne touched the lives of many people during her time at PCCA, with her reach going well beyond that of the dance department and her dancers.