South Country Education Foundation, Inc.

Serving the students of the South Country School District

American Ballroom Theater’s

 Dancing Classrooms Program

(as captured in the award winning documentary Mad Hot Ballroom)

Taught at the Frank P. Long Intermediate School during

the 2009-10 school year through the support of SCEF

Dancing Classrooms is an artist-led ten-week residency that utilizes the art of ballroom dancing as a vehicle to build students’ social awareness, confidence, self-esteem, team work, and respect for others.  Through learning the Dancing Classrooms’ syllabus students will develop life-long social skills and knowledge necessary for successful life experiences.

CoDanceCo teaching artists present the Dancing Classrooms’ curriculum over ten-weeks, with two 40-minute sessions each week.  CoDanceCo teaching artists:

·   present a diverse range of social ballroom dances that collectively incorporate Cuban, Latin American, Northern European, and African American cultural influences—merengue, rumba, fox trot, waltz, tango, swing, heel-toe polka, and line dances;

·   explain the music and cultural history of each dance form;

·   encourage the ability to dance in harmony with a partner—which assists students in developing a responsive, supportive relationship with the opposite sex and with each other;

·   facilitate a strong sense of balance and flexibility;

·   guide students to increase a sense of physical and emotional well-being through the joy of movement;

·   foster the ability to respect differences in their peers while simultaneously achieving effective team work.