Elders Outreach
Youth Outreach
Public Performances
Tango in Health
Evaluation Consultant
Jamaal Matthews
Funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the DC Children & Youth Investment Trust Corporation
Youth Outreach
Today more than ever the arts are needed by our young people as a forum for safe expression, communication, exploration, imagination and cultural understanding. The overarching goal of the Tango Youth program is to address this need in the immediate, physical format of tango partner dance.
We emphasize the skills of improvisation and encourage all students, both male and female, to learn both leading and following roles. We find this is an excellent tool not only for gaining a mechanical understanding of how the tango works, but also for instilling values of respect, empathy, and collaboration.
During the Summer of 2009, funded by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, we taught twelve tango workshops to children ranging in age from 7-14 years old as part of summer camp programming at Dance Place and Joe's Movement Emporium.
During the Summer of 2010, funded by a grant from the DC Children & Youth Investment Trust Corporation, we conducted a 6-week tango camp for teens in DC. We taught groups at five separate community centers in partnership with the DC Department of Parks and Recreation Summer Camps, culminating the program with a student performance at the ARC in Southeast DC. Four instructors, one intern, and five volunteers from the local tango community worked together on this project.
