Celebrating National Dance Week.

MILE HIGH DANCING

"Fifty-plus years in business gets you a pretty good Rolodex!" laughs Gwen Bowen of Bowen's School of Dance Arts, explaining how she persuaded the Denver Public Schools to host free dance classes for nearly 500 students during National Dance Week 2004.

From 9:45 A.M. to 1:15 P.M., instructors rotated through six classrooms for 40-minute sessions in jazz, African, modern, and flamenco, as well as Russian, Mexican folklorico, and hip hop. One day was for elementary school students, and the next for high school students. "It was a lot of work, hut it was fantastic. Just seeing the kids' faces as they left was worth it," says Bowen. This year, she's expanding the event to fill an entire week at Denver's new convention center.

Starting in August, Bowen organized the effort among recreational groups, private studios, and public schools as well as members of Denver's African and Hispanic communities. "We don't use teachers from any one studio so that all have the same opportunities to be involved," explains Bowen. "We also spread the teaching around so that students can be exposed to as many forms of dance as possible."

At the end of the week, Bowen and the community organization Arts for All stage a concert in which groups perform three-to-five minute pieces. The program is open to all, time permitting. In 2004, the youngest performer was 4 years old; the oldest was in her 70s.

BORN TO DANCE

Children born during April 22-May 1 in Morris, Illinois get a special birthday present from Donna Mueller's School of Dance. "We take birth announcements to the hospital and give them to the families of the babies to explain how special it is to be born during National Dance Week," says Mueller, who has been teaching dance in Morris for more than two decades.

In addition to welcoming future dancers into the world, Mueller and her teachers travel to a nearby farming community to teach dance in kindergarten through eighth grade. At a junior high school, she talks about the history of dance, then launches into a participatory program with a smorgasbord of dance styles.

"National Dance Week is about awareness," says Mueller about her cradle to teen approach. "The more aware we can make the community about the history, the opportunities, and the joy of dance, the more support the community will give in return."

DEAR DANCER ...

In 2003, when Debra Danese was working as an artist-in-residence in Norway, she met students who were curious as to how they compared to American students. Were they learning the same steps and using the same music? She contacted NDW to ask whether it knew of an organization that fosters international interaction of dance students, and NDW executive director Patricia Goulding convinced Danese to start one.

In October 2004, she launched Dear Dancer: NDW's International Pen Pal Program, to help dance students correspond with each other under the supervision of their teachers and studios. Within a few months, she had arranged matches for 15 American schools.

One of the schools is Villa Maria, a private school for girls in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where Danese teaches. She says she lets the students take the lead in determining what they want to share with their foreign counterparts. For example, they might create a logo that combines the school emblem with American imagery, take a digital photo of the class, add some representative pop music, and send the whole package electronically to their foreign counterparts. Danese says she wants them to use skills like creative writing and computer literacy that they don't have a chance to apply in dance class.

"By matching American students with schools abroad, they can learn about different cultures, concepts, and syllabi," says Danese. During National Dance Week, she suggests that Dear Dancer pen pals share posters, photos, and essays.