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beyond dance

Dance ...
" is awesome." - Alan
" is the best subject at school." -Farai
"is the one of the coolest programs a kid could have!" - Charlotte
"makes learning fun." - Madison

Dance is so much more - it's a universal language, it's math, it's science, history, physical education and it is art! According to a 2005 Harris Poll commissioned by Americans for the Arts, "93 percent of Americans agree that the arts are vital to providing a well-rounded education for children."  It has been proven that this type of children's performing arts program enhances the academic achievement of students.

Benefits from Arts Education

  • Participation in music, the visual arts, and dance is linked to better performance in mathematics, science, and creative thinking.
  • The arts nurture social skills and increase motivation to learn.
  • Artistic exploration promotes the ability to pay attention for longer periods of time.

Arts Education in the Schools

  • Arts education benefits all students, and the benefits are greatest for students who are educationally or economically disadvantaged.
  • Partnerships among teachers, students, parents, and community groups are often strengthened by arts education.
  • The No Child Left Behind Act identifies the arts as a "core academic subject."

Source: Sandra S. Ruppert, Critical Evidence: How the Arts Benefit Achievement, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and Arts Education Partnership, 2006.

Measurable Results of Our Programs

North Carolina Arts in Action uses the unique teaching techniques honed for over 30 years by renowned arts educator Jacques d’Amboise and The National Dance Institute, who currently reaches over 40,000 children annually in the United States and around the world. NC AIA teaching artists are thoroughly trained in these same techniques in both their initial in-depth training and on-going professional development with NDI – techniques that instill discipline, focus, tenacity, and a high standard of excellence in elementary school children, which carries over into other areas of their academic and personal lives.

A 1997 doctoral dissertation* by Jenny C. Seham in NYC systematically tested a group of children before and after their first exposure to the NDI program. The results showed NDI instruction to be "clearly superior" in improving scholastic and social skills in children.

Dr. Seham tested 4th and 5th graders’ student behavior, school grades and scores on standardized achievement tests. Dancers and non-dancers (control group) were tested before and after a 30-week dance program.

Dancers’ grades increased "significantly" in reading, language arts, spelling, math, and social studies, as well as conduct. Grades for the control group went down slightly in most areas. In fact, "dancers maintained and improved grade point averages, and significantly increased their academic standing over non-dancers."

Classroom teachers’ evaluations showed that dancers had made "significant gains" in scholastic, social, and athletic competence, physical appearance, and behavioral conduct.

Standardized achievement tests showed "significant improvement" in quantitative, reading comprehension, language mechanics, language expression, math concepts, problem solving, math total, basic battery total, and reference skills.

Articles on Arts Education

The Arts: Critical Links to Student Success
By Richard J. Deasy and Lauren Stevenson
Critical Links explains how arts education and exposure to the arts help children do better in school.

National Dance Institute's In-School Education Programs Evaluation
Executive Summary
By Dr. Rob Horowitz, Associate Director of the Center for Arts Education Research at Teacher's College, Columbia University
Dr. Horowitz conducted an external evaluation of the National Dance Institute's (NDI) in-school program on partner schools, on student learning and classroom teachers, and elicited feedback from constituents on effective NDI teaching practice and program implementation. North Carolina Arts in Action is an affiliate program of NDI: New York.

Study Links Art Classes to Academic Achievement
By Lori Olszewski, San Francisco Chronicle
A Stanford University professor has found that youngsters who dance, act, sing and paint in after-school arts programs are more likely to win academic awards and achieve, yet most American students have no weekly arts education.