Press & News

"Everyone can — and should — have the chance to dance." Dance is a powerful form of expression that can be used to communicate who you are, and how you feel. The amazing people at the National Dance Institute (NDI) know this better than most, and believe everyone, of all abilities, should have the opportunity to dance. That's why they created the DREAM Project or Dancers Realize Excellence through Arts and Movement, a semi-annual week-long inclusive dance program for children who are differently-abled. Each child who goes to DREAM gets partnered with a neuro-typical peer who helps them get the most out of the program through teamwork. At the end of the five days, all the kids get to put on a performance to celebrate their hard work and achievements. We got to sit down and talk with three [...]

"The three men, all in their early 80s, discussed everything from their ballet beginnings: Villella being dragged with his sister to class, to dancing with "Balanchine's gals" (as d'Amboise referred to them), several of whom were in attendance, including Patricia McBride and Suki Schorer."

Jacques d'Amboise, Edward Villella, and Arthur Mitchell discuss what it was like dancing for George Balanchine and the impact that he had on their lives.

"Jacques d’Amboise, the great American ballet dancer, is in possession of laughing eyes and a crop of white hair, and he knows how to turn an interview into a show. Wandering through the art-lined hallways of the National Dance Institute in Harlem on a recent afternoon, he gave the best kind of performance — around every corner, there was a new surprise, a new story."

"In dance, you can set a goal that's a little higher than you think you're capable of at the moment. And you work until you reach it. And the skills that you learned to climb those rungs make you capable of climbing higher. The steps taken toward excellence never end."

"In 1976, the New York City Ballet principal dancer ran the marathon the very first year that the course covered all five boroughs of New York City, according to The New Yorker. He trained for it without telling George Balanchine, mostly by running around the Central Park reservoir."