The Dance Happy Project will provide a series of 4 weeks of dance classes for the children living at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. It will do so through a program that already exists at the Coalition, ABCs or Art by Coalition Children program. Over the years,this program has brought many artists to teach the children. However, this will be the first time that the children will be offered dance lessons.

The dance lessons will be taught by a professional dancer and educator, Dario J. Moore, who has more than 15 years of experience teaching dance and who has partnered with Jacques d'Amboise of the National Dance Institute. He is the artistic director of The Center for Contemporary Dance, a non-profit, and he teaches more than 1000 kids in Title I schools each year because of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He and the other teachers have helped me during some sad times by showing me how to express myself with dance.

Did you know that, according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, homeless children have twice the rate of emotional and behavioral issues? They are more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, and withdrawal. I read this on their website. I think that dance can help the children at the shelter the way that it has helped me.

Dance is an art form you can carry with you all of the time, something you can do whenever you want. All you need to dance is YOU, not paints, paper, clay, or anything else. I hope that the dance lessons will give the children confidence so that no matter where they are, they can feel their power to move.