Commitment to community
A founding principle of IBC is the idea that dance has something to offer everyone and should be a vibrant part of the community it serves. IBC will create targeted programs and performances for underserved youth, including an annual benefit performance of The Nutcracker. We will collaborate with inner-city schools and seek donations to fund scholarship opportunities. We will hold special performances for the elderly and individuals with disabilities.
Dance uses a timeless language that everyone can not only understand, but also express. As one of the oldest art forms, IBC believes that dance lives inside each one of us, helping to break down barriers and to elevate understanding. This realization lies behind the Indiana Ballet Conservatory (IBC)’s mission to bring dance to everyone in a way that will changes lives and connect a community. Believing everyone can benefit from them, IBC’s dance programs will reach out to all who feel confined and forgotten, or simply unaware of the potential transformative power that dance can bring to their lives, and lend a voice to those struggling to be heard.
Studies show that dance helps children to not only stimulate brain activity so that they can become better students1, but also to develop qualities such as persistence, resilience, motivation and engagement that help them stay in school and navigate personal and social challenges. It can provide the glue to not only hold a child’s life together, but that of an entire community. Yet 96.3% of American children are being left behind in the art of dance. Only 20% of American schools have dance programs. Only 7% of the students are taught by a qualified dance specialist. 2
This is why IBC will bring the opportunity to experience excellence in dance to every child and individual who wants and needs the advantages it brings. With 300 years of the world’s best dance training behind them, and recognition from around the world, IBC teachers will offer the highest caliber ballet and dance opportunities through the provision of scholarships, programs and performances to those who would not ordinarily have the opportunity to experience them. This program will include:
- An annual free performance of The Nutcracker dedicated entirely to those kids in the region who most need its magic
- Performances to benefit and bring attention to local organizations and causes
- Educational and performance outreach to public schools
- Involvement with arts programs for city parks and low income neighborhoods
- Establishing outreach programs and performances for juvenile offenders 3, people with mental and physical disabilities and the elderly.
“When we leave behind fear and prejudice and look into the heart of things, we transform ourselves and our world into something beautiful.” Alyona Yakovleva, IBC Artistic Director speaking of her production of The Nutcracker.
1. Participation in high quality arts education programs improves student imagination, creativity, symbolic understanding, conditional reasoning, critical thinking, and collaborative learning and action.
From compilations of more than 60 peer-reviewed independent studies. Rose, Dale. Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development. Arts Education Partnership. 1999.
Students who study dance score an average 36 and 15 points higher on verbal and math SATs. (College Entrance Examination Board, Student Descriptive Questionnaire)
2(NAEP Report Card, 1997)
3Dance also can affect the way juvenile offenders and other disenfranchised youth feel about themselves. One study demonstrated that when a group of 60 such adolescents, ages 13 to 17, participated in jazz and hip hop dance classes twice weekly for 10 weeks, they reported significant gains in confidence, tolerance and persistence related to the dance experience. Ross, Janice (2002), “Art and Community: Creating Knowledge through Service in Dance.” In R. Deasy (Ed.), Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Achievement and Social Development, Washington, DC: AEP.
