At The Wooden Floor dance moves low-income youth to thrive and develop a sense of accomplishment.  Youth once considered ‘at-risk’ learn to manage risk, through:

• Year-round dance classes in modern and ballet
• In depth, original collaborations with recognized professional choreographers
• Performing opportunities, working alongside talented designers in producing work of high theatrical value
• Workshops and specific projects designed to teach the art of choreography, improvisation, and other dance genres
• Residencies of professional modern dance companies

The comprehensive dance program helps teach youth:

• To feel ownership over their physical bodies
• Encourage new paths of thought
• Have an embodied sense of community
• Retain their ability to access the pleasure of healthy play
• Be able to keep a ready and adaptable mind set
• Reap the benefits of sound physical exercise
• Develop a sense of compositional aesthetics
• Feel safe to explore and express themselves
• Receive high quality dance training
• True physical education by learning how the body works and gaining a better mind/body connection through this knowledge
• Discover their own artistic instincts
• Take risks
• To access the soul through the artistic experience 

The Dance Program serves 375 registered students, ages 9 to 19. Ten graded technical levels in Modern dance, Classical Ballet, Pointe, Boys’ Ballet, Somatics, Improvisation & Composition are offered in 50 classes per week – more than half are accompanied by live musicians. Students can remain in the year-round program for up to nine consecutive years. Since 2005, 100% of graduates from The Wooden Floor have gone on to college, far exceeding the national average.

Auditions are held each October.  Although no prior dance training is necessary we welcome those students with a desire to dance and succeed academically.   In 2009, over 100 students were accepted out of 285 auditioning youth. 

Outreach 

DanceFree Weeks – energetic dance workshops that go out to 20 - 25 elementary and middle schools in low-income neighborhoods in 4 school districts.  The cool, young professional instructors of The Wooden Floor taught more than 3000 students in 2009. DanceFree Days serves more than one hundred 8-year-olds per year in a special weekly African drumming and dance class.     

Residencies Limon Dance Company in 2003, sponsored by the Surdna Foundation, Inc. of New York.  Streb dancers in 2001, Ballet Tech Company in 1999, sponsored by the Irvine Barclay Theatre.  In intensive weeks of technique and rep classes, students dance beside professional performers.  Students are motivated to excel.  Residencies are an absorbing education in arts and life that lasts – see Alumni Update on Omar Olivas.