Dancin Time - Arts in Education

Dancin' David and I have a dream of positively impacting our culture in the United States by teaching our youth partner dancing.

We have noticed in our lives that Europeans and Latin Americans as well as many other cultures throughout the world have a very strong connection to their ancestry, family, and community threw music and dance. The people in these cultures have been exposed to music and dance since birth. These are the people time and time again that are uninhibited and having a great time dancing at a family or community event. Many times we see American's literally run away from dancing with others because of feeling a lack of self confidence. It comes down to the simple fact our country does not have the type of familiarity with music and dance some of the other cultures do.

Ballroom Dance includes Swing and Latin dances as well as Fox Trot and Waltz to name a few Ballroom dance gives youth an opportunity learn poise, confidence, respect, how to interact and be comfortable with the opposite sex, become more social, and learn non-verbal team work.

With the release of the new movie Mad Hot Ballroom a documentary, on a dance program in the NYC Schools, people are feeling very inspired by all the positive results dance education can have on our youth.

Let's not forget the television show, Dancing with the Stars, that recently aired on ABC. This show was not predicted to be the huge success that is became.

We are Dancin' David and Dancin' Dawn from DANCIN' TIME. We are a married couple who met on the dance floor seven years ago. Individually we both have had the love of dance in our souls since childhood. Dancin' David has been a dance instructor for 12 years. He choreographs dance routines and writes lyrics for songs. He has a bachelors degree in Electrical engineering. Dancin' Dawn has been dancing and training in dance since 1994. She has been teaching dance since 2002. She also has an associates degree in Accounting, a background in Interior Decorating, and in training and managing sales teams.

We both have a special ability to connect with and have a great time with kids of all ages while presenting the educational dance material. We are very flexible when working with the schools to bring dance to their students. We can come for a day, 2-3 days, 2 weeks, or have a program of once or twice a week for 8-10 weeks with the goal of having a dance performance at the end for the school and the families of the students. We welcome other variations of the above. We also offer a fully integrated curriculum involving History, Geography, Mathematics, Dance, and Physical Fitness that can be presented in whole or broken down into modules tailored to the individual school.

We are Arts in Education Presenters. This means we have met all the learning, curriculum, and arts standards. This also means that the BOCES Arts in Education Program has funding available for the New York State schools.

Standard 4 Understanding The Cultural Dimensions and Contributions of The Arts requirements

We have done our dance program for Bethlehem Public Library and Miss Halls School in Lenox M.A. We have successfully completed 3 full days at Okte Elementary School K-5 in Clifton Park in October 2005. An article appeared in the Times Union Thursday November 3rd 2005 on the dance program we did at Okte Elementary. In January 2006 we taught a 10 week program at Zoller Elementary School In Schenectady for their 5th graders with a Grand Finale Dance Show at the end to show the school and the parents what they learned. Elaine Houston from Channel 13 did a very lengthy news clip on Zoller Ballroom Dance program which was aired on the 5:30 p.m. news in march 2006. Also the Schenectady and the Times Union papers did articles on Zoller. We completed what Argyle Central School's Principal Jan Jehring said to be the most successful arts in education program that they ever had. We are starting a dance program in July for 3 weeks for Two Together a program for inner city school kids.

We will be on the Schenectady Today Show – The Wednesday Edition with Ann Prillo Wednesday February 1, 2006 10am channel 16. We will be talking about our school dance programs and the benefits to our youth. Also we will be returning on Wednesday March 22, 2006 for new dance educational products and information that we have been developing. Also the New York State Teachers Association has a paper that updates our schools on information regarding the type of work we are doing. This paper is doing an article on us.