St. Louis Dancing Classrooms`

St. Louis Dancing Classrooms (SLDC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit social development program aimed at empowering youth, teaching respectful interaction, and promoting teamwork in St. Louis area schools. Using the New York-based Dancing Classrooms program (portrayed in ‪Mad Hot Ballroom‬ and currently engaging over 40,000 children each year) as a model, SLDC partners with classrooms in grades 4-6 to address whole-child development and foster overall student success.
Since 2008, St. Louis Dancing Classrooms has been invited to conduct our residency programs in over 30 schools (public and parochial) across St. Louis City and County, from Ferguson all the way to Hillsboro and DeSoto. Students learn the Merengue, Foxtrot, Rumba, Tango, Swing, and Waltz, along with several other "sugar" dances while developing and practicing the life skills necessary for creating positive and meaningful connections with others. SLDC and its partner schools work together to encourage student participation, monitor behavioral expectations, and promote kindness, compassion, and joyful expression through ballroom dance. Carefully and systematically selected and trained in the Dulaine Method and the Dancing Classroom Curriculum, our Teaching Artists work very closely with classroom teachers to create assignments to support their academic goals. In addition to work that supports academic content areas, students write reflections that give the children a voice about how they feel about learning to dance, working with their classmates, and other SEL-based experiences.
Residency programs are available in online/virtual, hybrid, and in-person formats and have been adapted to protect the safety and health of all involved.