Dance Wisconsin Inc
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What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Dance in the Schools Program
Dance Wisconsin’s purpose is to promote and foster dance in Wisconsin and cultivate an appreciation of the arts among people of all ages. Dance Wisconsin’s Dance in the Schools programming has the goal of reaching upwards of 1000 Dane County elementary students, each year, and exposing them to dance education through the physical education program in their schools. These three-week residency programs meet the education requirement of the State of Wisconsin in dance. Allowing students to receive dance instruction from professional educators versed in the classical art forms of ballet, jazz and the more modern forms of contemporary and hip-hop.
During the residency the Dance Wisconsin professional dance instructors provide small group instruction to students in the schools during their physical education classes. For the first, second and third graders ballet is the focus of instruction with stretching and learning positions and basic movement across the floor. Combinations of the steps learned are put together for a presentation at the end of the three weeks. These combinations are designed by the professional staff to serve two functions: provide a showcase of steps learned but also provide an outlet for the student to use later for physical activity. The fourth and fifth graders will focus on the styles of jazz and hip-hop as their focus while continuing to empathize stretching and isolations of different body parts while moving across the gymnasium floor. They also learn combinations to showcase and utilize on their own for physical activity. At each grade level we can also include a section on mindfulness which introduces the students to basic yoga.
The Dance Wisconsin Dance in the Schools Programming, attempting to be self-funding, seeks grants to cover preparation and teaching costs so that our educators can enter under resourced schools, that are close to or over fifty percent free and reduced lunch participants. Each elementary school is approximately 400 to 500 students K-5 and we work with grades first through fifth. In 2020 we worked with Kindergartners for the first time. In a typical acdemic year Dance Wisconsin will receive requests from four to five elementary schools meeting the above criteria seeking residencies. In 2019 Dance Wisconsin provided three-week residency instruction in two elementary schools in Sun Prairie, Creekside Elementary and Westside Elementary, introducing approximately 650 students to dance as a life-long skill and entertainment option. Unable to secure adequate funding we had to deny the other two requesting schools their residencies, Lowell Elementary in Madison WI and Northside Elementary in Sun Prairie WI.
The Dance Wisconsin Dance in the Schools Programming provides students with multiple positive outcomes. First, the opportunity to learn about dance styles and the movement of an individual’s body to music. For some, it may be the first time they learn about connecting discipline between their minds and their bodies. For many it may also be the first time they experience teamwork through physical expression as combinations may require one student to combine movement together. Something they will continue to do in their physical education classes when playing team sports. Secondly, they can begin the development of an appreciation of classical and modern dance forms that the school community is not regularly exposed to with the hope that the exposure will create additional interest. Additional interest can simply be the opening of the mind to watching, participating in or supporting dance into adulthood.
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Dance Wisconsin Inc
Board of directorsas of 02/28/2024
Renee Topp
Renee Topp
American Family Insurance
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