Project Description

NDI provides school communities with intensive arts immersion programs.

Each NDI class is led by a Master Teacher/Choreographer, a Musician/Accompanist, and an Assistant Teacher. Students who have never danced before undergo a stunning transformation through the power of NDI’s award-winning pedagogy and world-class teaching staff. NDI provides programs for students in grades Pre-K through Fifth Grade. We have also piloted programs that work with students on the High-School level.

Program Structures

  • NDI offers full-year programs, 10-week residencies, 2-week intensives in which students dance every day for two weeks, and after-school programs.
  • All students on a selected grade or grades participate.
  • Classroom teachers are actively engaged in the residency, and many choose to dance with their classes.
  • Classes run 45–55 minutes. Each moment of an NDI class is rich with energetic, rigorous, and joyful learning.
  • All NDI programs culminate in a final performance for the entire school community.

WHAT STUDENTS LEARN AND DO IN THE NDI PROGRAM

Fundamentals of Dance and Performance

Students learn the fundamentals of movement and music by mastering dynamic movement with clarity, energy, and precision. They learn the value of excellence in dance, and how important discipline, effort, focus, and teamwork are in achieving it. Students also hone their critical and creative thinking skills as their dance skills develop.

Curricular Theme
Students learn how dance and music create meaning, build community, and move audiences as they work toward a common performance goal. Focused through a curricular theme, NDI introduces students to new cultures and big ideas, engendering in them an abiding curiosity about the world and their place in it.

Final Performance

With NDI, product and process go hand in hand. Students perform original choreography in a fully-realized theatrical production presented in a daytime assembly for the entire school and in an evening assembly for families. School and NDI staff set up lighting and sound equipment for the performance, cultivating a professional performance atmosphere. Over the course of the program, students become dancers, taking to the stage as stars in their own community.

Schools and families take great pride in the extraordinary excellence their students achieve in NDI, and teaching artists develop relationships with principals and classroom teachers that deeply root NDI’s programs in a school’s culture and curriculum. NDI continuously evaluates our programs and we provide ongoing professional development to ensure the highest quality teaching and artistry.

Click here for an application to become an NDI partner school. For more information, contact Aileen Barry, abarry@nationaldance.org.