Cuckoo For Coco

Friday afternoon in Harlem was like a trip to Ireland with the arrival of the Eire Born dancers from Vancouver. Coco Rocha brought her childhood dance troupe to New York City for an afternoon of dancing to benefit the Children's Aid Society. "It's something fun and different for them," Rocha explained. "It wasn't a huge crowd, but these are kids who are interested in dance. It was all a matter of how can we bring this dance to the Children's Aid Society? This is what I know and care about. I can't say I have experienced cancer, and I just don't want people to think I'm fake. I wanted to do this so they can see that there's more out there and it really can be someone's life support and you don't have to do a typical job. And it's also just an hour of nothing but fun for them. The girls are just so excited to see it."

Though the children weren't completely familiar with Coco, the model captivated them as she does the fashion industry: they proceeded to scream her name immediately after they were introduced. A dancer since the age of five, the model spent the afternoon learning the steps to an hour long performance just to bring entertainment to the children. And afterwards, the dancers brought the kids to the stage, teaching them a few steps, which the kids quickly interpreted with their own forms of dance.

"It makes it easy to be on the runway," Rocha explained of her transition from dancing to modeling. "It's all about putting on an attitude. I had to learn to perform in the sense that it's just playing around up there. Photographers can tell who was a dancer and who wasn't. Walking is just so 'plain Jane.' I put on the runway attitude, but shows like John Galliano's, where you can sit on someone's lap if you like, are just so fun."

As far as Irish dancing costumes are concerned, Rocha laughed. "It's not à la mode, but it's tradition and that's really what Irish dancing is about. You can say they're tacky, but it's the tradition of years ago when this was a form of entertainment. People would just get up and dance."