California Dance Institute and Westside Ballet to Launch Pathways Partnership

California Dance Institute (CDI) and Westside Ballet of Santa Monica has announced the official launch of the Pathways Partnership, a structured collaboration that carries a child from a first dance class in their own elementary school classroom to full scholarship training at Westside School of Ballet, one of Los Angeles's oldest and most respected ballet academies, now celebrating its 60th year. Formalized by a board-approved memorandum of understanding and supported by the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative (NSI), the partnership completed its pilot year at Westminster Elementary in Venice and Grand View Boulevard Elementary in Mar Vista, and adds a third partner school, Stoner Avenue Elementary, this fall.

Many Westside families face concrete barriers to the arts: the cost of tuition and dancewear, the ride to class, and schools that offer no dance instruction at all. Pathways is built to remove those barriers one step at a time. CDI teaching artists bring a free, six-session dance residency into participating classrooms, from transitional kindergarten through second grade, with Westside Ballet's artistic leadership visiting to observe. Students who show interest are invited to Westside Ballet's free Sunday Dance to Dreams community classes and its free summer camp week each August. And from each residency, children who show aptitude, enthusiasm and commitment are offered a full scholarship to Westside School of Ballet, with tuition, ballet attire and transportation covered.

"When CDI comes into a classroom, every child dances. No experience, no cost, no exceptions. What Pathways adds is what happens next," said Susan Gladstone, Artistic Director of California Dance Institute. "A child who lights up in a first-grade dance class on the Westside now has somewhere to go with that, and people on both sides of the partnership to help them get there. Talent, enthusiasm and commitment, not circumstance, decide who has the extraordinary opportunity to receive ballet training from Westside Ballet."

The pilot year tested every link in the chain. CDI teaching artists led residencies for more than 200 first and second graders at Westminster Elementary in fall 2025 and Grand View Boulevard Elementary in spring 2026, where five first-grade classrooms and roughly 100 children took part. In January, Westminster students visited Westside Ballet's Santa Monica studios for a special Non-Audition Day, and students from the pilot schools were selected for full scholarships to Westside School of Ballet; the first Pathways scholar began training there when the fall semester opened in August. Partner-school families were invited into Dance to Dreams, whose fifth annual summer week ran August 3-7 with approximately 80 children ages 5 to 12, its largest to date. The partnership was featured at Westside Ballet's spring recitals and gala in May.

"I know what it means to walk into a studio and have someone see something in you before you can see it in yourself. That moment can change the course of a child's life," said Adrian Blake Mitchell, Artistic Director of Westside Ballet and Founding Artistic Director of Dance to Dreams. "Potential doesn't always announce itself on the first day. Sometimes you see it immediately; sometimes it takes weeks or months for a child to find their confidence, their discipline, or simply the courage to believe they belong. That is what Pathways is about. We keep the door open long enough to discover that potential, and then make sure that talent, not circumstance, is what determines how far a child can go."

The Pathways Partnership grew out of two phases of support from the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative (NSI), the Los Angeles funding collaborative that invests in nonprofit resiliency by backing long-term structural partnerships. A $35,520 NSI Exploratory Grant in 2023-24 funded the facilitated due diligence that produced the partnership's design and funder deck, and a $35,110 NSI Planning Grant supported the pilot year, from the in-school residencies to the first scholarship offers. More Canvas Consulting, led by Pilar Castro Di Carlo, facilitated both phases, contributing to program structure, collaboration design and positioning, and prepared the partnership's pilot progress report.With the pilot complete, CDI and Westside Ballet are moving from proof of concept to a repeatable model, building documented protocols for choosing schools, identifying students and supporting families through each step. Stoner Avenue Elementary joins as the third partner school this fall, and conversations with additional Westside schools are under way. By 2030, the partners aim to reach 20 schools and provide 40 full scholarships a year.

Individuals, foundations and businesses can support a school residency, underwrite a scholarship for a year or for a lifetime, or sponsor transportation for scholarship students. The pilot progress report, program details and ways to give are at morecanvas.com/pathways. Westside schools interested in hosting a residency, and families with questions about Dance to Dreams, can find contact information on the same page. The next extraordinary dancer could be sitting in a classroom today, waiting to be discovered.

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