Heart of Dance

To transform lives through the physical, mental, social and emotional benefits of partner dance. Our values are respect, elegance, and teamwork. Heart of Dance delivers the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of partner dance to those who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to experience them. Dancing Classrooms, our foundational program, teaches crucial life skills like confidence, cultural awareness, conflict resolution and gender respect through the lens of partner dance in schools across Minnesota. In classrooms of K through eighth grade, we engage students with these concepts at an age proven to have the greatest impact. Partner dance leads to confidence, self-expression, joyful movement, discipline, human connection, and more.

Heart of Dance, as a licensee of the global Dancing Classrooms program, presents a 10 week long Social Emotional Learning Program that provides the benefits of ballroom dance to fifth grade students and their classroom teachers. It is provided by our Teaching Artists at no cost to the students. The students meet twice weekly for 50-minute lessons, which are held at each partner school during the school day to ensure full student participation and facilitate curriculum integration. Students and teachers learn six social dances, as well as the historical and cultural origins of each dance, with an emphasis on Respect, Elegance, and Teamwork. At the end of each semester, all the students perform at an in-school culminating event. The schools also have the option to take part in the Colors of the Rainbow inter-school team match, where the students perform before a panel of experienced ballroom dance judges. Each student receives a medal and each school receives a trophy.