The Dance Force Ballroom Program provides instruction for local teachers who then teach several ballroom dances to their students. This ends with a competition between the schools.

Many of these schools are in low-income areas, and many of the students in these programs wouldn’t have an opportunity to learn ballroom dance otherwise. We keep the costs of the program very low for the participating schools so that cost isn’t a barrier to participation. As a result, we are spending time every year doing multiple fundraisers and seeking out sponsorships in order to run the program. This grant would allow us to further invest in the schools and the students.

Several Antelope Valley schools participate every year, and it would be wonderful if we could use the grant money to recruit and support new and existing schools and youth programs. We had to cancel our March event in 2020 just 2 weeks prior to the competition. This was devastating for our students. In 2021 we held a virtual competition for our high school students, but we weren’t able to offer the program to the younger students because of distance learning. This year, we have half the number of schools participating because of all the Covid restrictions. This grant money would help us to rebuild our program in the next few years.

The benefits of this program are immense. Students not only learn new dance abilities which include partnering and competition skills; they also learn important social and lifetime skills such as team collaboration, socialization skills, improved self-esteem and self-confidence, and increased cognitive skills. An additional benefit of the Youth Ballroom Dance Program is that students also learn about the importance of daily exercise, which helps to build and strengthen bones and muscles and increases their overall fitness level.