Why I Give to NDI - Harry Yuen
“Watching these masses of children from different backgrounds, neighborhoods, even countries, working together and having a wonderful time, I knew I had found a purpose. I would not allow the children from my school, or the surrounding schools, to be sheltered, to be deprived of this incredible experience. I would make sure all of them could participate in NDI.”
— Harry Yuen
Teacher – Grade 2, PS 130M, NDI In-School Coordinator and Volunteer
Dear Friends of NDI:
As National Dance Institute (NDI) celebrates its 30th Anniversary, I reflect on my 21 years of chaperoning countless dancers to wherever NDI takes them.
When I was a boy, my family went to the circus at Madison Square Garden every spring. On the marquee, there was always an ad for National Dance Institute’s Event of the Year. It was a great mystery to me as to what that was. Then in college, I saw a book, “Teaching the Magic of Dance” written by Jacques d’Amboise. It was all about that mysterious National Dance Institute. I had to buy it.
As a new teacher at PS 130M in Chinatown, one of NDI’s oldest partner schools, my life with NDI began. A flyer was posted on the refrigerator in the school office requesting chaperones for NDI’s 10th Anniversary Event of the Year, China Dig. I was enthralled with the prospect of witnessing over 1,000 children dancing together as described in Jacques’ book. Maybe I’d even get to meet him. As our bus rolled toward the skyscrapers of midtown, I watched the faces of my 25 charges. They looked out the windows, mouths gaping and pointing excitedly. It was clear these boys and girls had never been out of Chinatown!
When we got to Madison Square Garden and the rehearsals began for China Dig, it was an amazing sight. There were celebrities, like Judy Collins and Mary Tyler Moore, and then the real stars: 1,556 children, 56 of whom were here from China! It may not seem monumental now, but in 1986, China was still a closed country on the other side of the world. It was a three-day event, and I was only able to commit to helping out the first day, but by the end of that day I was totally hooked.
My students come from families where money is hard-earned, and Saturday is just another work day for their parents. NDI has opened up horizons and provided travel opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible for them. NDI dancers have performed all over New York City, the United States, and the world. I have chaperoned them to the Kennedy Center and The White House three times. We even went to China, my ancestral home, for NDI’s one-month cultural exchange in Shanghai in August 2004.
Once-in-a-lifetime moments like these are why I am still with NDI—as a volunteer and a long-time financial contributor as well. Even now that I have a very young daughter, and not as much time to give, I remain involved. I know every little bit of assistance—be it material, financial, or time and energy—helps to sustain this great organization and its efforts.
I hope you will join me and send your contributiontoday so that NDI can continue to bring the arts to over 35,000 New York City public school children and their families this year. The effects of the NDI experience last a lifetime.
Sincerely yours,
Harry Yuen
Mr. Yuen was also NDI’s 1998 Teacher of the Year & NY1’s New Yorker of the Week in 2000.
