Zenon Dance Youth Outreach

Happy Minnesota Summer! I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to share an update on the progress of our Youth Outreach Project at Zenon Dance School, thanks to your generous support.

The Youth Summer Session is in full swing with classes at Zenon and at off-site partnerships with local art organizations, artists, and public libraries. We are thrilled to have such a busy schedule this Summer and to continue to build strong relationships extending our reach into our youth communities.

Our Spring Session provided 10 weeks of outstanding dance programming to youth in greater Minneapolis and St. Paul communities and on-site at Zenon’s Studios in Minnesota. Through collaborations with public school districts, and local arts organizations Zenon reached over seventy-five youth dancers.

The Spring Session culminated by celebrating our youth dancers in a performance showcase in The Cowles Center for Dance and The Performing Arts - TEK Box, with families and friends. This showcase highlighted the dancers’ progress after a full academic year of classes, demonstrating gained confidence in movement knowledge, performance, and independent creative voices, all shared in a safe space and with a welcoming community.

This summer we launched “Dancing Through Words” a new youth dance program in collaboration with the Minnesota-Hennepin County Library system and Coffee House Press (an internationally renowned independent book publisher and arts nonprofit based in Minneapolis, MN), at three library sites. This free workshop series for ages 6-11 shares the link between words and movement, and how words can inspire movement. Creative movement classes led by Zenon Dance instructors use the tools of words from our favorite children’s literature stories to inspire movement with a special guest reading from a local children’s author. This program has had one workshop with remarkable success with full families joining the class during their afternoon library trips. We cannot wait to share more in our next project update!

Additional Summer youth programs include, partnering with MacPhail Center for Music (a community music school providing individual music lessons and group classes in over 35 instruments and voice) to help students ages 7-11 years old explore how music and movement partner well together in three – one week Sampler Camps; and two-one-week on-site summer camp opportunities with full enrollment for ages 3 through 11.

We are preparing to announce our Fall Session in mid-August for on-site classes from September through December and are excited to be adding additional Creative Movement classes for ages 3-6.

Your support has had profound impact this Summer and touched many young hearts with the joy of dance. We are incredibly grateful for your support and for your continued partnership in our mission to empower youth dancers in Minnesota. You are helping Zenon make a difference one step at a time.

With gratitude,

Danielle Robinson-Prater

Director