Having been a professional dancer myself, choosing a dance teacher for my five-year-old daughter was an important selection. I knew what values in a dance education and creative setting mattered the most to me. There is no other dance class for children in New York City that offers dance composition at the heart of growing a dancer like the program Ellen Robbins offers. From kindergarten through high school graduation a child experiences dance and choreography as Art with a capital ""A"". Dance and its elements provide many physical, developmental, cognitivel, social, expressive -- I could go on and on -- criteria for actualizing the whole child. How Ellen's work provides life-enhancing focus and unfailingly validates respect for dance as an art is a testimony to her own serious belief in and commitment to dance, music, theater, and the related arts. Your child, as student, will be an artist in Ellen's classes. Dance is both discipline and fun and everyone can dance in their own capacity but not every dancer identifies her/himself as an artist. Now, as my daughter goes off to college to pursue her interest in linguistic anthropology, I see the poise and confidence being a dance artist contributed to her stature. I chose the dance teacher who gave dance, and my daughter, artistic integrity.
Carol Clements
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