Topf Center for Dance Education Inc

New Friends Through Dance: NFTD is a year long dance training and performance course offered as an elective at the high school level with a focus on promoting multicultural tolerance and diversity. NFTD is highly praised by teachers, headmasters, and parents of the participants. The program includes weekly dance classes at four partner sites for 50-200 students; in-school demonstrations at each site in February; and a final performance at a professional theater. One final performance is a free daytime concert for Boston public school children of all ages, and the other is open to the public.
Early Childhood Dance Education: This course helps preschool children develop their fine and gross movement skill. It does this by instructing them on how to listen and follow directions, how to make their bodies move with specific placement, how to create movement and structured dances, and how to perform different movement tempos, shapes, and levels. Students learn how to take turns, lead, and follow. They also work alone, with partners and in groups, being audiences and performers. 1000+ Children learn and sing nursery rhymes to movement; they also learn simple folk dances with focus on body awareness, self-expression and socialization.
Dance & Literacy Curriculum Integration: Developed to support the BPS Readers Workshop and literacy programs, this program strengthens the learning and understanding of what over 550 elementary school children read in class. Students' engagement in what they read in class is increased when they are asked to recall story elements and then are taught to express character, conflict, setting and other story components through movement and dance.
Dancing To Wellness: Based on an integration of dance and physical health education curricula, Dancing to Wellness aims to engage those children who may not be interested in physical education into another type of fitness related activity, like dancing. The goals are:
1. to build rituals of healthy eating and physical activities in urban youth;
2. to change their attitudes about eating and physical activity;
3. and to add to their knowledge about healthy eating and living
Youth Professional Program: A free, merit-based program for aspiring young dancers. This program was created to give ongoing pre-professional training for students ages 8-18. Students are recruited from our elementary outreach program sites to apply for and participate in a full-year of intensive dance training at the Topf Center Dance Studios. Students are required to attend classes weekly in modern, ballet, jazz, and ethnic dance. Students perform in a year-end performance and also perform at several social events throughout the year. Considerable parent involvement is required, as well as good attendance and behavior. In addition to returning students in the program, an additional 20-25 students are recruited every other year at the 8-10 year old level to begin their training in the program.