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Fall Newsletter
KING5 coverage of 1st ClassWatch: West Seattle fifth graders learning ballroom dance
By LORI MATSUKAWA / KING 5 News The Background: Pierre "Mr. Pierre" Dulaine is the founder of Dancing Classrooms, a New York City based program that brings ballroom dance to classrooms. The purpose is to allow students who are typically introverted and reserved to step out and shine. It also builds social skills and builds self confidence. "We're all on our Blackberries and Facebook and computers. And this is one of the few things in life where you share, where you're touching another person. We teach them to touch with respect," said Dulaine. The Dancing Classrooms program was launched in 1994 and profiled in the documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom." The film followed several classes of inner city youth through their lessons all the way to the city-wide competition. Dulaine's visit to Highland Park was sponsored by Carpe Dance, a local group which supports social dance as a way to empower children and build self-esteem. Highland Park Elementary will be granted 10 weeks of ballroom dance lessons next spring.
Dancing Classrooms National Training Completed
The training this past week has been both demanding and rewarding. We’ve had the privilege to experience the Dulaine method first hand, learning the curriculum as the students do, as well as learning about the underlying principles and life skills is based upon. It is easy to understand why this program is so effective at teaching respect, building self-esteem, and fostering team-work. We also had the opportunity to watch Pierre Dulaine teach the first lesson to a class of 5th grade children at a school in the Bronx. They entered as boys and girls but left as “ladies and gentlemen”. At the training there were teachers and site supervisors from 15 different sites from around the country and a pilot site from Zurich Switzerland! We can imagine the impact that introducing thousands of kids in such a compelling and positive way will have on the individual lives of the children as well as their parents and community. Upon return we will be working to establish a pilot school to start the program in the Fall. Jacqueline is excited to be the teaching artist for this inaugural residency. Plans for our fundraising Gala in late Fall are well underway and we have an amazing team of supporters growing for this event and for making the program sustainable long term. If you would like to be involved please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We hope to send a few more teachers to the training in December and wish to be able to service four additional schools starting in January. If you know of a school that might be interested in incorporating the ten week program into their winter/spring classes now is the time to start planning. Please let us know so that we can tell them more about it. More to come soon... |
Jacqueline and I are so honored to have completed the training with Pierre Dulaine and the Dancing Classrooms staff in New York City. We were very impressed by the consistent emphasis on modeling presence and compassion for and with the students. The care and attention they have given to crafting a syllabus that accurately addresses the social needs of the kids is incredible!