Organization Details:

National Dance Institute (NDI) transforms the lives of over 35,000 New York City public school children and their families each year. Under the artistic direction of Ellen Weinstein and a staff of professional dancer/choreographers and musician/composers, NDI strives to reach every child, transcending barriers of language, culture, and physical challenges. NDI fosters a love of the arts and a curiosity about the world in all of the children it serves. Children learn to work together, to develop personal standards of excellence, and a belief in themselves that carries over into all aspects of their lives…for the rest of their lives. Since it was founded in 1976 by New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d’Amboise, NDI and its affiliates have impacted the lives of over 2 million children.

Description and/or History:
Having grown up in a low income family in Washington Heights, New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d'Amboise well understood the transformative power of the medium of dance. In the late 1960s, d'Amboise began teaching ballet to boys in a studio at The School of American Ballet. Fueled by the idea that the arts are a vital part of every child's education, he brought his program to schools. In 1976, NDI was formally established and soon, school after school signed up for d'Amboise's dance classes. In an effort to expand the impact of the NDI program, d'Amboise then began to train fellow dancers and choreographers - including Ellen Weinstein, now NDI's Artistic Director, current NDI Associate Artistic Director Tracy Straus, and many others - in his teaching methodology.
Most of our recent growth has been in the Bronx, where many children attend overcrowded, under-resourced schools. In September 2005, we welcomed two new partner schools in Upper Manhattan. Both of these schools serve families in nearby low-income housing projects with a majority of African American and Latino children. The principals at these schools recognize that NDI will help them build community and bolster their students' ability to achieve - in dance class, school, and life.

Today, programs patterned after the NDI In-School Program involve thousands of children in California, Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina.

While NDI has undergone considerable growth and change over the years, our mission remains the same. We believe that every child - regardless of socioeconomic status, language, cultural background, or physical ability - should have the opportunity to experience the joy and power of the arts. Our goal is to engage and inspire youth to achieve their highest potential, using dance as a catalyst. The NDI pedagogy develops and insists upon excellence, and youth who have never been asked to meet a bar held so high find that they can achieve more than they ever dreamed they could.

There seems to be a human need to dance - to dance for joy, for sadness, to petition the gods and then to thank them. Children feel this need to dance acutely; often its just the opportunity, the invitation, they lack. It is, I'm sure, this human need that triggers the extraordinary changes I see in them. At National Dance Institute we expose thousands of children a year to the mystery of dance - some who are deaf, some who don't know left from right, and some who never thought they could (or would even want to) dance - and all of them are changed by the experience, some in small ways, others profoundly."

• Jacques d'Amboise
  
  




Contact people:


Margaret Cuomo, Chief Executive Officer, (516) 524-4155, (email) Ellen Weinstein, Artistic Director, (212) 226-0083, (email) Leslee Asch, Executive Director, (212) 226-0083, (email)


Office fax number: (212) 226-0761

Address:


594 Broadway Room 805 New York, NY 10012 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.nationaldance.org

Directions:

National Dance Institute at 594 is accessible by subway (#6 train and many other subway lines), as well as by car. Please call the NDI office for more specific directions.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Bleeker Street,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5 minutes

Last updated on June 9, 2009