Several pre-professional members of the Pennsylvania Ballet recently visited Charles Henry School in Mt. Airy for a community outreach program. It was a great program for the students to see professional ballet performances. In addition to the ballet performers, our second graders were trained the day before and danced a performance for the other students.
Before they performed, the director of the Pennsylvania Ballet approached me and asked if I was willing to come up to help demonstrate some partner moves. I told them "yes" and was soon called up on stage to help out one of the dancers in a few moves. The local news was there and recorded it. I spent most of the time on the stage making silly faces at the kids and wasn't the most graceful of partners, but I was able to energize the students for the rest of the performance. They seemed sincerely interested in the performances, which were great to see.
Ballet, in particular, doesn't interest most urban youth; but this program definitely is a great way of developing more interest and awareness.
Now… I just need to figure out some class ballet game times…
