The faces of Samantha Angus’ young pupils registered the concentration it takes be a snowflake. Or the color violet.

Angus, an Amherst native and a 2005 graduate of Sweet Briar College, was home this summer working on a graduate degree from Sam Houston State University in Texas. To earn credit toward her Master of Fine Arts, she taught dance and choreography to local youngsters at Sweet Briar.

Samantha Angus '05, an Amherst native, instructs one of her dance students. Angus taught at Sweet Briar during the summer for her M.F.A. from Sam Houston State University.

The weeklong workshops — one session for ages 7 to 8 and one for ages 9 to 12 — combine visual arts with dance. The girls created their own moves to depict scenes out of paintings by artists such as Henri Matisse and Claude Monet. They learned to tell a story through movement.

“Remember, we’re going to flutter in like real snowflakes,” Angus coached during one exercise.

“Am I going to move like this?” she said, thundering across the studio floor to a flurry of head shakes and a chorus of “No.”

Following her instructions, the dancers took turns floating barefoot across the hardwood. Good, but not quite what the teacher was looking for.

“I saw it in your legs, now I want to see it in your whole body,” said Angus, who already is an experienced teacher.

As a dance major at Sweet Briar — she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts — she logged plenty of hours instructing local children in dance. The College offers weekly lessons during the school year.

Angus also danced and taught for Terrific Time studio in Amherst for many years. And although she didn’t take lessons at Sweet Briar as a child, SBC’s dance program helped determine the life course she would take.

When she was in elementary school, she saw dance professors Mark and Ella Magruder perform at the College.

“That’s when I knew I wanted to be a dancer,” Angus said.