Fourth-Graders Reach The Finals Of City Ballroom Competition
For the past six years, fourth-graders at P.S. 229 in Woodside have participated in “Dancing Classrooms,” a ballroom dance program run by American Ballroom Theater Company, Inc., and have achieved great success.
Dancing Classrooms brings American style ballroom dance to fourth and fifth grade students, and provides an enriching experience that most NYC kids would normally never have. Professional ballroom dance teachers, known as teaching artists, go into various public schools for a 10-week, 20 session program, and teach ballroom dance lessons to the students.
P.S. 229 began taking part in the program several years ago but when budget cuts jeopardized their participation in the program, the fourth grade teachers, along with Assistant Principal and Supervisor Corinne Caballero, decided it was too important to let funding prevent the students from participating in such an experience.
With permission from the school’s principal, Dr. Sibylle Ajwani, they were told if they could come up with much of the funding for the program, they should, “break a leg” and participate in the program.
The fourth grade teachers worked to raise funds for the much wanted program, which over the years, has grown increasingly popular with many of the school’s various staff members. Every spring they hold a special “Ballroom Dance Fancy Cake Raffle,” where teachers and other staff members make over 50 delicious and interesting cakes and desserts to be raffled off during “Family Math Night.”
Parents of the fourth grade students also contribute to a sponsorship fund, and personal donations have been gratefully accepted from family members of both teachers and students over the years.
But raising the money for the program is only half the battle. After approximately 10 weeks of practice, several students from each class are chosen by the teaching artists, to compete against the other schools around the city in the “Colors of the Rainbow Team Competition.”
Different schools offer to host the competition in their gymnasiums after school hours, and the visiting schools all travel to the host school. Each school is given a color to represent their team, and they are encouraged to incorporate that color into the outfits the students will wear to the competition.
The competition is when P.S. 229’s enthusiasm for the program really takes off. Each year the fourth grade teachers as well as various other staff members shop for the costumes, finding the perfect dance competition dress in each girl’s size, as well as shirts, pants, and team color ties for the boys.
Rosalba Masullo, one of P.S. 229’s paraprofessionals, does all the necessary alterations for each child-dancer, including sewing the team-colored sashes onto the girls’ dresses, sometimes having to remove and re-sew different colored sashes for each level of competition. Each year the flowers for the girls’ hair are donated by a particular staff member, and other staff members offer to do make-up and hair for each level of the competition.
The afternoon of the competition staff members pitch in to get the students ready for the event, everything from tying team ties for the boys, styling flower-adorned hair for the girls, pinning on competition banners, sashes, and numbers, and doing anything else it takes to get the students “performance-ready”. Staff members also support the students by wearing the team’s colors.
The school’s web-master, paraprofessional Barbara Murphy, video records the competition for the school website, and takes group photographs before the completion begins. Finally, P.S. 229-which has hosted the competition for the last three consecutive years-couldn’t have it without the help of its dedicated custodial staff.
In addition to the competition, each school’s 20th lesson consists of a culminating show where all the fourth grade students perform, and the parents are invited to see their children dance on stage. Students with special needs are included in the dance program and final show, and the school’s paraprofessionals who assist those students work hard to enable the students’ participation and enjoyment of the experience.
In addition, members of the school’s physical therapy staff dance with student’s whose disabilities require a trained physical therapist to assist them. The final show takes place in P.S. 229’s auditorium, which is decorated by the art teachers.
The Dancing Classroom’s Ballroom Dance competition has four rounds: the quarter final round, which was held at P.S. 229 on Mar. 19; a semi-final round which was held in Long Island City; a semester-final, which was held in Manhattan; and the Grand Final, which will be held at The Riverside Church in New York City this Saturday, June 23.
The students of PS 229 have won all three rounds, and for the first time since the start of the program, they will be competing at the Grand Final.
The ballroom dance competition has become a tradition in which so many school staff members come together to make something special happen for the students.
Editor’s note: Caroline D. Roswell-Gruss is a teacher at P.S. 229 in Woodside.
