| 2. Dancing Classrooms |
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| Happy 40th Birthday, Marian |
| Twice a week for 10 weeks, hundreds of Omaha Public Schools students put aside their math and science books for 45 minutes to learn the Merengue, the Foxtrot, and the Rhumba; the Tango, the Cha-Cha Slide, a vigorous line dance that gets a little extra gusto. (Most of the kids have danced the Cha-Cha Slide and teach the teaching artists a move or two.) These students are in the Dancing Classrooms Program, brought to Omaha by the ARTery in 2006. Marian cofounded the ARTery, a nonprofit arts organization, in 2004. The world-famous ballroom dancers Pierre Dulaine and Yvonne Marceau started Dancing Classrooms in 1994 as a not-for-profit project of the American Ballroom Theater Company. The film Take the Lead, starring Antonio Banderas as Dulaine, is a more-or-less accurate depiction of the early struggle to gain a foothold in the New York City school system and the rapid success of the program once it was accepted into the curriculum. Dancing Classrooms is an arts-in-education program teaching ballroom dance to children as early as fifth grade. As depicted in the popular documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, Dancing Classrooms is an in-school residency for every student regardless of background or experience. While Dancing Classrooms has been hailed as an effective program for teaching social dance, the program provides many other benefits. Dancing Classrooms creates an atmosphere that encourages students who are typically introverted and reserved to step out and shine. It focuses physical energies and improves health through the joy of movement. It builds self-esteem and social skills as it improves confidence and children's ability to relate to others. Since 1994, Dancing Classrooms has grown from one fifth-grade class of thirty students to nearly twenty thousand students in the New York City area. The program has expanded to several other U.S. cities and Canada.
is one of the most expressive ways we celebrate and communicate our cultures and communities. With Dancing Classrooms, we are able to reach children in existing classroom settings and address fundamental issues of mutual respect and self- esteem--issues that social dance puts into practice. We hope to inspire children through dance to do well, to respect one another, to be proud. This program is about more than dance, it is about teaching children to take a bow.
Mission Our mission is to build social awareness, confidence, and self-esteem in children through the practice of social dance. Through standards based, in-school residencies, we use the vocabulary of ballroom dance to cultivate the positive feelings that are inherent in every child. The maturity necessary to dance together fosters respect, teamwork, confidence, and a sense of joy and accomplishment. Ballroom dance is the ideal medium for nurturing these qualities. Philosophy Dancing Classrooms uses a curriculum-based teaching approach to achieve social awareness and build self-esteem. Students learn the vocabulary of various contemporary social dances in a classroom setting. Each class in the series introduces new steps, reinforcing what has been previously learned through practice and repetition. Our teaching philosophy is one of inside out versus outside in. Yes, the students learn to dance, often extremely well, but if they do not gain a sense of pride in their accomplishments, if they don't emerge with greater confidence and respect for themselves and others, then the Dancing Classrooms mission has not been achieved. Dance is instinctive in human beings. We take that inherent ability and help the students bring it out rather than forcing it upon them. For that reason, the more students learn, the more their self-esteem rises. Our classes serve a diverse population of children who speak many different languages. Classes are conducted in English. All students are welcome; there are no prerequisites, and experience is never required. Dancing Classrooms courses culminate in a series of competitions. To see the excitement and preparation generated by these competitions, view the excellent film Mad Hot Ballroom. Instant Gratification Ask any of the Omaha ARTery's teaching artists what it's like to teach Dancing Classrooms for the first time. You'll usually hear, "If I hadn't seen it for myself, I wouldn't have believed it." At the first session, fifth-grade boys and girls generally are uncomfortable touching each other, even in the "pancake hold"-boys' hands extended palms up, girls' hands placed gently on top of the boys' hands, palms down. By the third session, most of the children are comfortable dancing in the traditional "ballroom frame," and some start practicing together while they're waiting for the bus after school. They enter and leave each dance class in "escort position"—gentlemen on the left with their right arms bent like teapot handles for the ladies to hold on to. Most of the students—they are always referred to as "ladies" and "gentlemen" in Dancing Classrooms—try to teach the steps to parents and siblings. That's one of the reasons the ARTery started a class especially for parents and other interested adults. The teaching artists find Dancing Classrooms very rewarding, because the students respond so quickly and enthusiastically once they get past their initial awkwardness. Some classroom teachers and TAs have reported remarkable improvements in self-esteem and school performance among children who were morose and listless before they learned "to take a bow." And research shows that Dancing Classrooms does indeed improve not only self-esteem but school performance. |
| Since 1994, Dancing Classrooms has grown from one fifth-grade class of thirty students to nearly twenty thousand students in the New York City area. The program expanded to Omaha in 2006 and has since spread to several other U.S. cities and Canada. |
| In the summer of 2005, after seeing the award-winning documentary about Dancing Classrooms, Mad Hot Ballroom, Marian made arrangements to fly to New York and meet with Pierre Dulaine, the program's founder. Within just a few months, the program was up and running in four Omaha schools, making Omaha the first expansion city. |
| Omaha Public Schools superintendent John Mackiel, Marian, Pierre Dulaine, Dancing Classrooms liaison Michele Patterson |
| By summer 2008, the Omaha program had grown to
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| Above right: Philadelphia Dancing Classrooms competition |
