Community & Education

Take Ballet to the Streets is a free performance series in community centers, parks, waterfront piers, senior citizen centers, museums and schoolyards—all places where new audiences can encounter ballet. In addition to presenting the Company’s repertory, Take Ballet to the Streets offers information to the audience about ballet vocabulary, basic approaches to choreography and the history of ballet. Selected performances feature children from Brooklyn Ballet’s education programs.

Elevate is a residency, currently in seven public schools, in which students and classroom teachers work with professional ballet dancers. The Elevate program teaches children the basic ballet vocabulary through the “Language of Dance” system. The children experience the discipline and rigors of ballet and learn how to describe and notate their experience. The residency begins with a lecture demonstration “What is Ballet?” performed by Brooklyn Ballet. The students then receive 6-8 weeks of hands-on ballet training. Extended residencies are followed by student participation in Take Ballet to the Streets performances. Gifted students from the Elevate program are offered scholarships to Brooklyn Ballet School. The program is currently offered to 2nd, 3rd and 6th grades and provides master classes for High School students.

Brooklyn Ballet in the Houses is a program that provides ballet education to students and their families who live in NYCHA housing. The program is a full year of Elevate in a neighborhood public school including three performing opportunities for the students. One of these performances “Ballet Magic” brings together Elevate students, Brooklyn Ballet’s Company and Youth Ensemble for a free performance in the NYCHA community. Full scholarships to Brooklyn Ballet School are awarded to gifted students.

For information on how Elevate and Brooklyn Ballet in the Houses can be a part of your school, email Catherine Green, Elevate Education Director, at catherinegreen@brooklynballet.org.

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