iFashion Magazine’s “Outstanding Kids” Fall issue highlights the impact of NDI through the eyes of past and present NDI Celebration Team dancers.
To read this article, please click “Read More” and download the PDF and scroll to pages 104-113.
(Amsterdam News, July 25-31, 2019, by Zita Allen)
There is a rose in East Harlem where hundreds of youngsters learn ballet, tap, modern dance, music, choreography and more while experiencing “a love of the arts, a passion for learning and a desire to strive for their personal best.” The name of the rose is the National Dance Institute.
Best of the weekly activities for kids.
Dance is a powerful form of expression that can be used to communicate who you are, and how you feel. The amazing people at the National Dance Institute (NDI) know this better than most, and believe everyone, of all abilities, should have the opportunity to dance. That’s why they created the DREAM Project or Dancers Realize Excellence through Arts and Movement, a semi-annual week-long inclusive dance program for children who are differently-abled.
Each child who goes to DREAM gets partnered with a neuro-typical peer who helps them get the most out of the program through teamwork. At the end of the five days, all the kids get to put on a performance to celebrate their hard work […]
"Four great dancers from New York City Ballet’s past—Gloria Govrin, Allegra Kent, Kay Mazzo, and Merrill Ashley—will talk about the roles created or adapted for them by George Balanchine in ballets like “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” and “Liebeslieder Walzer.” (The conversation will be moderated by another great American ballerina, Wendy Whelan.)"
"Swope viewed Balanchine and his muses—among them Allegra Kent, Suzanne Farrell, Patricia McBride, and Jacques d’Amboise—with intimacy and tenderness. The genius technique and style of Farrell and Balanchine, especially when she danced under his tutelage, often softens into vulnerability through her lens."
"Mr. d’Amboise is clear that Apollo is “a wild, untamed youth who learns nobility through art.” Balanchine, he said, loved to recall the Paris critic who, reacting negatively to the original 1928 production, said, “Whoever saw Apollo on his knees?” (Balanchine’s response: “Whoever saw Apollo?”)"
"This past summer I went to the graduating performance of National Dance Institute...The show was moving throughout. There was a section where all sat on the floor and one by one, a single kid would stand up and recite the speech by an influential woman of history while the other students cheered on. It began with some of the young girls speaking but then one of the boys stood up and recited Malala Yousafzai. He spoke with complete certainty in first person as a girl, following female with "me."
"Saturday was the last meeting - for now - for a program that has brought a great deal of light and happiness to children with visual impairments... However, as the music school looks for a new home, the program is being temporarily halted. The program's director says the visually-impaired children have gained so much from learning how to dance in a safe setting."
"On Wednesday, legendary ballet dancer and founder of National Dance Institute (NDI), Jacques d'Amboise, honored Harry Belafonte at the Fall installation of Jacques' Art Nest Series, Dance for Change."
