The NDI DREAM Project (Dancers Realize Excellence through Arts and Movement) is an inclusive dance program that provides children with and without disabilities the opportunity to perform. In this unique program, children with a wide range of disabilities and a group of age-matched, non-disabled peers from NDI’s Advanced Teams become partners, dancing and performing together with the goals of maximizing participation and challenging every dancer to achieve their best through teamwork, creativity, empathy, and discovery. The program culminates in a performance celebrating each child’s success, the joy of inclusion, and the transformative power of dance.

DREAM was co-created by NDI Artistic Director, Kay Gayner, and Pediatric Physical Therapist, Dr. Agnes McConlogue Ferro. This week-long workshop is held twice per year, in February and August, at the Jacques d’Amboise Center for Learning & the Arts in Harlem. The program serves dancers ages 8 to 16 years old and is offered free-of-charge to all participants.

Contact Carol Lee, Program Coordinator, for more information about enrollment. We are currently seeking children with disabilities to join us! We do not currently have any volunteer opportunities for this program.

We host two DREAM camps every year. Below are the dates for our upcoming camps:

• DREAM Winter Camp: February 20 – February 23, 2024
• DREAM Summer Camp: August 12 – August 16, 2024

These programs will be offered at the Jacques d’Amboise Center for Learning & the Arts in Harlem.

NDI DREAM Project@Home! (All ages and all abilities)
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To view with closed captioning, please watch on YouTube. 

NDI’s DREAM Project is online! This series of 30-minute classes focuses on introducing the NDI style of dance class to children with a wide variety of abilities. NDI teaching artists, our Board Certified Pediatric Physical Therapist partner, and children with and without disabilities from the NDI DREAM community provide strategies for adapting movement for different levels of abilities. Steps are broken down and choreography builds throughout the series culminating in a mini-performance. 

Join us and share this class with your community for a dance class experience that is one of a kind! Families and children of all ages and with a wide variety of abilities are encouraged to participate.

DREAM Project Teaching Artist and Physical Therapist Training (for Teaching Artist and Physical Therapy candidates who have completed an NDI Teaching Artist Training Program or currently work for NDI Affiliate Programs)

Check the NDI Collaborative Teacher Trainings page for information on upcoming workshops.

Kay Gayner

Kay Gayner is the Artistic Director of National Dance Institute (NDI) and currently serves as Artistic Director for the NDI/China Project in Shanghai and the NDI/Lebanon Project in Beirut, training teachers in the NDI pedagogy and overseeing the development of NDI’s partner programs in both countries. Kay is an NDI Senior Teaching Artist & Choreographer and was named the 2009 Teacher of the Year. With Agnes McConlogue Ferro, Kay serves as co-creator and co-director of the NDI DREAM Project (Dancers Realize Excellence through Arts and Movement): an inclusion-based dance program that focuses on augmenting movement potential through partnerships, collaboration, and choreography.

Agnes McConlogue Ferro

Agnes McConlogue Ferro PT, DPT, PCS is a Board Certified specialist in Pediatric Physical Therapy. Agnes is a Clinical Associate Professor in Stony Brook University’s Physical Therapy program and a practicing clinician. Her affiliation with National Dance Institute began in 1998 and continues as the co-creator/director of the Dancers Realize Excellence through Arts and Movement (DREAM) Project, an inclusive-based dance program highlighting abilities, partnerships and performance. Agnes was honored to receive NDI’s Teacher of the Year award and Stony Brook’s Faculty Honor Award. She has completed research on the impact of DREAM for all participants and presented preliminary findings during the prestigious IV STEP and Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy conferences. She is a firm believer in NDI, the power of the Arts and the power of a child’s capacity to excel.

From its inception, NDI’s DREAM Project is a collaborative effort. NDI DREAM Co-Founders Kay Gayner and Agnes McConlogue Ferro are active leaders in promoting community-based inclusive dance programming. With this in mind, Kay and Agnes share with wider audiences the techniques and best practices they have developed through the NDI DREAM Project. Below are selected conferences where they have led workshops and presented research.

APPTAC (The Annual Conference of the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy, a specialty component of the American Physical Therapy Association.)

Very Special Arts Conference

• McConlogue, A. The Kennedy Center, Arts and Special Education Conference 2018; Atlanta, Georgia August 2018 “Giving Voice to the DREAMers: Results from an Inclusive-Based Dance Program”
• McConlogue, A., Gayner, K., and Barry, A., The Kennedy Center, Arts and Special Education Conference 2018; Atlanta, Georgia August 2018 “Everyone can Dance! Pursuing Artistic Excellence with Children with Disabilities”

NYC Arts in Education Roundtable Face to Face Conference (Face to Face is the largest, most comprehensive arts in education conference in New York State.)

NYSDEA (The New York State Dance Education Association)

NDI partners with The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School, providing a program for children and teens who are blind and visually impaired. Led by NDI Master Teaching Artist Dr. Jenny Seham, dancers from the FMDG Music School partner with NDI alumni interns in a joyful, rigorous, yearlong program that culminates in performance.

NDI is proud of our long-term association with the FMDG Music School community since 1989. The FMDG Music School partnership reflects NDI’s founding belief that all children can attain excellence through the performing arts.