Now reaching over 600 students, the DanceDC program has grown and expanded dramatically since its pilot year in 1999. The Washington Ballet's partnership with DC Public Schools and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is in its fifth year, helping to make DanceDC The Washington Ballet's highly acclaimed flagship education program.

DanceDC uses The Washington Ballet's unique integrated dance/language arts curriculum, Dancing With Words, to help children:

Write poems, read folk tales, and keep journals to develop their verbal and written skills as they learn dance;

Study about dance leaders, particularly African-American and Latino artists; and,

Engage in creative movement work.

The language arts component is in complete compliance with the Washington, D.C. Public School Standards for the grades we reach. The in-school programs have a stronger focus on the language arts component and integrating that component with music, dance and the visual arts. The after-school classes also offer creative writing and other language arts activities, while focusing more on in-depth, classical, pre-ballet technique training.