Keeping the MLK Center's mission alive in Rockville Centre

On a typical weekday afternoon, after working her shift as a dietary nutritionist at South Nassau Communities Hospital, Tjuana Evans doesn’t go home, per se, but to her second home at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center on North Centre Avenue.

The Freeport native and Rockville Centre resident of 20 years has been teaching dance at the center for a decade. In that time, she’s turned what was essentially an oversized supply closet into Dance Empress Studios, and young girls into bold, confident dancers.

“This room was nothing; it was just full of junk,” Evans said, adding that she asked the center’s director to put in portable mirrors, clean it out and make it into a studio.

“It has been like this for probably about eight years, and we just make our magic happen here,” she explained, sitting inside the modest room, with mirrors spanning the back wall and a large speaker and bench beside them in the corner.

Evans teaches children and teenagers of all ages and skill levels, and, though she was not professionally trained in dance, realized it was a “gift that I had and wanted to share with other people.” She began teaching dance because of her love for children — before the studio space, she brought girls from the MLK Center to dance on Meehan Lane and keep them out of trouble.

“When I first started, it was just a way to keep the young children off of the streets, because when I first moved here, it wasn’t the best neighborhood,” she said. “Instead of them wandering and having them get caught in the crossfire, or any kind of thing, we used to practice.”

Dance Empress Studios is one of several programs that began at the center as a way to benefit the surrounding low-income community in the “west end” of Rockville Centre. About 40 children, from elementary through high school, go to the center on a regular basis, and more than 100 attend during special events, according to Patrick Morris, the center’s director.

“This is a positive, safe haven for children, where they learn various skills,” Morris said. “It’s a place that parents can know where their kids are and that they’re in a safe and structured environment and not on the streets.”

Programs at the center run the gamut from homework assistance and snack time to Zumba and basketball, which is held down the street at Floyd B. Watson Elementary School. There is also open recreation from 3 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m., as well as summer recreation on weekdays for children, ages 5 through 13. The open, relaxed room has ping-pong, billiards, board games, video games and foosball.

For adults, there’s an open game room each evening and the Silver Foxes group for seniors, which meets every Wednesday for lunch and activities.

“The center is a beautiful asset to this community,” said Mayor Francis X. Murray, who grew up in the village and recalled when the center first opened in 1967. “It benefits everyone from birth to the end of their life. It’s just wonderful.”

Evans’s Dance Empress Studios has taken some of her best dancers beyond the walls of the center. Jelani King and Kamani Carper, 16, and Kianah Calhoun, 10, have performed during the halftime show at Molloy College basketball games, as well as at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside and Second Baptist Church in Baldwin.

On May 17, the girls will compete at Nassau Community College’s Inferno Dance competition.

“When I dance, it’s like nothing can hold me back,” Carper said. “I feel free.”