Dancing Classrooms and New York Junior Tennis & Learning Join Together to Offer Social Dance for Hundreds of Young People

Two renowned and wide reaching organizations serving NYC youth -- Dancing Classrooms and New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) -- have joined together to form a new partnership that will offer Dancing Classrooms' beloved social dance residencies during one of the largest and most trusted city-wide after-school programs: the NYJTL ACES Afterschool Program.

Dancing Classrooms, perhaps best known as the subject of the 2005 documentary film Mad Hot Ballroom, is a 26-year-old organization that cultivates essential life skills in more than 150 schools and 17,000 NYC children annually in all five boroughs through the joyful art and practice of social dance. The organization traditionally worked exclusively with schools to host their social dance and SEL residencies during instructional hours. Since COVID, they have developed remote learning, hybrid, and socially distanced versions of the program.

NYJTL, a 49-year-old organization, delivers free tennis and education programming to K-12 youth in NYC and reaches nearly 85,000 children annually.

In the wake of the pandemic, both organizations are seeking new ways to deliver their mission to keep children active and connected as their normal schedules have been upended by remote and hybrid learning. To launch the partnership, seven of NYJTL's 34 after-school program sites have already begun to offer the Dancing Classrooms program with hopes to reach most of the sites by the end of the school year.

Dancing Classrooms has established a similar arrangement with Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education in the Bronx and is eager to collaborate with other youth serving organizations in the metropolitan area.

"With rates of child obesity, depression, and anxiety on the rise, organizations like ours need to team up to meet the great need," says Nancy Kleaver, Dancing Classrooms Executive Director. "Research has shown time and again that dance is one of the most effective ways to engage young people, reduce stress, and improve health and academic outcomes, which are all priorities for our community based organization allies. We are excited to see what exponential impact we can have by working in collaboration with one of the city's most established and respected youth development organizations."

The new Dancing Classrooms residency at NYJTL's ACES Afterschool Program will be an exciting new addition to NYJTL's existing wide variety of year-round activities after school. Now students in the NYJTL ACES Afterschool Program will have the opportunity to learn social dance including merengue, fox trot, rumba, tango, swing, and waltz through a series of pre-recorded and live/synchronous lessons. These accessible dances allow all students to be successful regardless of experience or skill level.

"This year has been especially challenging for our students and partnering with Dancing Classrooms allows us to diversify and strengthen our support of our children," said NYJTL President and CEO, George Guimaraes. "We understand the importance of this collaboration because we know that keeping kids physically active and engaged in school provides them with the greatest opportunity for long-term success."

The two organizations are known for bringing their respective programs to where the students are -- whether it's in-school, after school, or at home -- and target vulnerable and underserved populations whose families need access to a safe and supportive environment where their children are developing skills that will serve them well in life.

This partnership allows NYJTL to offer new instruction that builds on and expands the expertise they currently have while allowing Dancing Classrooms to reach students that might not otherwise have exposure to its program, which is the only one of its kind. The real beneficiaries are the students who will experience the transformative effects of learning social dance in addition to the other enrichments they already benefit from in the ACES program.

The NYJTL ACES after-school program is one of the largest after-school programs in NYC and runs at 34 locations in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan serving 5,000 K-12 youths in after-school and summer programs.