Community Corner

Joliet Teen, Dance Crew Perform on 'Steve Harvey Show'

Defining Diversity's goal is to "inspire others to embrace what makes them an unique individual and celebrate diversity."

Defining Diversity, a four-member dance crew that includes 14-year-old Brandon Esparza, of Joliet, was featured Monday on "The Steve Harvey Show" (2 p.m. on WMAQ-TV/Channel 5).

Brandon sent us this note to tell us about the show, during which he performed with Devon Rice and Justin Rice of Naperville and Ivan Corral of Aurora.

Here's what he had to stay about they're trying to achieve:

"Defining Diversity formed just last year on our own, and since then we have been performing at various events and colleges, such as DePaul University for a charity event, Lake County University, etc.

"After a years of hard work of bettering ourselves and choreographing our own routines, we just recently filmed an episode of the Steve Harvey show on NBC. The episode aired Monday, January 27th 2014 and had an amazing impact.

"We took it as an opportunity to share our message and the reason why we even started our dance crew. We aim to inspire others to embrace what makes them an unique individual and celebrate diversity. Despite our differences, we are coming together to share our love of dance and inspire and entertain others.

"The reason I am contacting you is because I am wondering if you would be interested in writing a post about Defining Diversity's huge achievement. It is something that we are very proud of and I'm sure our community would be too."

Click here to watch Dancing Diversity perform on "The Steve Harvey Show."


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