Dancing without boundaries, and sharing growth and experience | KD Sunday Spotlight
Dance has no boundaries, and inside of Beechwood Elementary School, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater teaches more than movement. Students learn about the mind-body connection, discipline, and a love of the arts.
"It's about learning how to be in a group of other people. It's learning how to navigate space. It's learning self-regulation. It's learning how to connect to music," said Pittsburgh Ballet Theater teacher Jamie Murphy.
She's just one of the instructors from Pittsburgh Ballet Theater who teaches ballet to three classes per day at Beechwood Elementary, every weekday, all school year long.
"It's really something beautiful to watch them," she said. "[To] be able to show a new side of themselves that when I started with them in September, some of them were a little more shy this or that, and now they're really outgoing and excited to try things and raise their hand."
For 2nd grader, Luna Lockett Baldera, her physical growth is paired with social growth. She said she learns "a lot of stuff and creative movements," and dancing in this class makes her feel "like me and my friends are happy."
It's more than fancy footwork and ballet terms; it's connecting moments to music and academics, too.
"We're going to connect their classroom lessons into dance, so we're talking about math, English, language arts, history," said Murphy.
All of this ballet education is free to the participating schools through the nonprofit work of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater.
"It's so important and it really does mean so much to the mission and values of P.B.T.," said Manager of Education and Accessibility for Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Lindsey Kaine. "Not only are we in over 100 classrooms, we also work in community centers around Pittsburgh. We do a lot of accessible programming. So, we have a dance for Parkinson's class, and we have an adaptive dance for individuals on the autism spectrum."
As a nonprofit, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater commits to helping the next generation.
"Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre really cares about the community," said Murphy.
It's bringing dance to the young minds, who might not otherwise have the opportunity, while sharing connection and true inspiration.
Pittsburgh Ballet Theater is in three to five schools every weekday, but it has several additional nonprofit programs that reach both young and old. For more information on the Pittsburgh ballet theater's non-profit work, head to this link.