MINNEAPOLIS — A Twin Cities-based dance program is helping kids and older adults find their rhythm in social situations.
Heart of Dance, located in Minneapolis, offers partner dance classes for both middle-school students and adult seniors. Participants learn different dances and the cultures from where they originated.
Ballroom dance educator Andrea Mirenda and former Minnesota State Senator Ember Reichgott Junge created the program in 2015.
Dancing Classrooms, Heart of Dance's foundational program, allows students to build confidence, cultural awareness, gender respect and connection with classmates.
"This is not really a dance class," Mirenda said. "We simply use dance as the platform to teach essential life skills, social and emotional learning skills, to learn about cultures from countries around the world."
The program focuses on students in fifth and eighth grades, both ages that have proven to have the biggest impact.
"Parents tell us their students like to get up on dance days to go to school, they don't have to fight to get them out of the house," Mirenda said. "That they come home and do their homework so that they can practice their dancing."
For seniors, Heart of Dance organizers said the program helps improve cognitive function and creates community.
Learn more about Heart of Dance and Dancing Classrooms by following this link.
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