ROAD Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary!
by Kayla Warner

	Photographer Kevin Anderson

“Reach up, three four!”  Chanted by 1,200 fourth grade students in Kansas City, Missouri, Shawnee Mission and Kansas City, Kansas school districts each week, these words are part of the warm-up routine incorporated in the Kansas City Ballet Reach Out And Dance (ROAD) program.

This year Kansas City Ballet is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of ROAD.  The goal of the program is to bring dance directly into elementary schools to introduce children to the fundamentals of dance with an emphasis on energy, precision, discipline and teamwork.  Through dance the students can learn valuable life lessons that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.  ROAD has grown from 180 children in two schools to 1,200 children in 17 schools.

Community Programs Director Linda Martin, describes the program as “it’s a dance class that won’t necessarily develop professional dancers, but one that uses dance fundamentals that help achieve the education standards in the schools.”

Specially trained ROAD teachers use several methods of instruction in this unique teaching process including team-building exercises, warm-up exercises and challenging choreography routines—all with live piano music.   Adding a new “chapter” of choreography each week helps the children develop memory skills and incorporating new vocabulary words such as names of muscles during the warm-up exercise can enhance the school’s academic goal with a new way of learning.  This approach to teaching helps the kinesthetic learner be successful.  A Kansas City, Kansas classroom teacher stated, “…the child with low academic achievement had a sense of success through their dancing!  Students who are kinesthetic learners were able to learn with their bodies and ROAD served as a motivation for all students to do well.” 

At the end of the year the students present what they have learned in a “ROAD Rally” for family, friends, and younger students at their school.  Mrs. Martin explained, “the goal is for us to help the children realize and discover their full potential…we’re constantly pushing them, but in a positive way.”

Success can be seen in one former Broken Arrow Elementary School student who is now a high school student at Shawnee Mission Northwest.  The ROAD alum’s mother described the program as giving her son the confidence to be involved in the performing arts such as the school musicals as well as Theatre in the Park in the summer.   A classroom teacher stated, “…through ROAD the children learned that dancing is not a specific thing for only certain people…but for everyone.”

Not only does this program encourage students to work together as a team, it builds individual confidence and self-esteem.  Mrs. Martin said, “Each child is given the opportunity to project themselves in front of an audience through exercises and activities that utilize simple, fun, pedestrian movements that all children can do.  They are allowed to perform the movements solo, which at first is difficult for some children to do.  Through encouragement and praise, the shy children gradually gain confidence and the desire to shine in the spotlight alone.”

 Students who display natural dance talent in ROAD may be invited to participate in ROAD Bridge, a week-long summer program that serves as a transition from ROAD class format to a more formal dance training setting.  After a concentrated week of “Bridge” classes, students who wish to continue studying dance may qualify to be a member of ROAD Extension class.  Those students are offered year-long scholarships to Kansas City Ballet School. 

As the program continues, Mrs. Martin and the ROAD Crew focus on the goals of the program:

To educate, energize and empower local students by emphasizing discipline, teamwork, dedication and self-awareness though dance.  We are not looking to create professional dancers, (although we may identify some raw talent along the way) but to introduce students to an activity that demands excellence in themselves and instills a joy of dance along the way.

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