Since its founding in 2013, Ballet Vero Beach has more than proved its mettle as a stellar professional ballet company. Equally impressive, but lesser known, are the nonprofit’s myriad community engagement programs, which are continually expanding.
The Stage to Page program, one of the earliest, was introduced in partnership with the Learning Alliance and the School District of Indian River County to strengthen childhood literacy through arts integration. As part of that program, they provide free Friday matinee performances to all first- third- and fifth-grade students in the county.
Their Accessible/Family Friendly Series of six hour-long performances are specifically geared to the needs of the differently abled and families with young children.
A Ticket Donation program provides free performance tickets to organizations whose clients would not otherwise have access, and their Student Rush policy offers $10 tickets to students with a valid ID when seats are available.
Their most recent initiative is a First Steps program in partnership with Childcare Resources of Indian River County, incorporating movement and arts integration with early childhood development.
“We just finished our first full season of it,” says Adam Schnell, BVB artistic director/CEO.
A pilot program with 4-year-olds launched in the fall of 2023 and, after discussions with Shannon McGuire Bowman, CCR executive director, and Tara Beard, CCR school director, they added babies in spring 2024.
This school year, the program took place in two 4-year-old classrooms, one infant class and one mobiles class.
“Infants start from 2 months old and then mobiles is like 6 months through a year, because they’re starting to scoot. They crawl and they begin to walk through the process of that school year,” explains Camilo A. Rodriguez, ballet master.
Rodriguez developed the exercises and curriculum with assistance from his mother, Aida Lara, Ph.D., who retired as the director of Early Childhood Education at the University of Puerto Rico, as well as supporting evidence from Childcare Resources and other organizations.
The program focuses on the appropriate stages of development from birth to age 4 with classes designed for each age group.
“We’re just supporting what’s already happening at Childcare. And so, with our movement class, we are focusing on gross motor skills and social emotional development. Because both the body and the brain are developing at the same time, but not necessarily one to one. And every kid is different,” Rodriquez explains.
“We are trying to be an extra set of eyes, ears and hands in the room, because they [Childcare Resources] have such a panoply of services available to the kids that go there. We’re really just trying to maybe help them catch issues one step sooner,” adds Schnell.
Rodriguez gives high praise to Tara Beard, who he says knows every child’s name and is aware of everything happening at the school, saying, “They’re the ones that are really tracking success; we’re just implementing the program itself.”
All the BVB principal dancers and fellows participate, separated into the same teams each week, joined by Childcare teachers and aides.
“So it’s all of these trained eyes making the program work,” adds Schnell.
Asked if he considers what they are teaching to be dance, Rodriguez says with a smile, “Well, it’s movement and it’s to music.”
Sometimes, he says, it can be as simple as rhythmic talking, counting, singing or clapping.
“With the infants and the mobiles, we have a fun exercise where music’s playing and you’re sticking your tongue in and out to the rhythm, or you’re moving the tongue to the right and to the left to the rhythm. Some of them, the first reaction is being mesmerized by it,” says Rodriguez.
“And then you see their mouths are moving, they’re moving the tongue to a rhythm and connecting the brain to the tongue, as for speech. So, it’s already a skill at a very abstract, elemental level,” he adds.
Rodriquez notes that with infants, the inner ear is about balance, orientation and switching positions, adding, “They’re constantly developing that with every fall, with every trip, with every off balance.”
One weekly exercise with the 4-year-olds has them tapping the floor while they go round the room saying their names. Next, they go around describing how they feel that day, with the instructors putting a name to that emotion. Eventually, the children learn to say the emotion rather than just describe it.
“So they’re learning how to put words to what they’re feeling. They’re learning to communicate with others,” says Rodriguez.
“That is so important as they make the transition from preschool to kindergarten. Self-regulation, being able to describe how you’re feeling, so that whether it’s your classroom teacher, the nurse, or the principal, whoever it is, you can articulate to an adult what is going on,” adds Schnell.
Rodriguez agrees, commenting that in the first semester they wanted the children to listen and follow instructions. But later in the year they encouraged them to talk, so that when they move on to kindergarten, they will be able to communicate.
Despite having a full season of rehearsals and performances, they say the dancers all enjoy working on this added task and have themselves developed more empathy and tolerance.
“They’re now all advocates for understanding how important it is that from birth to 5 years old, that kids get what they need. How amazing is that?” says Schnell.
While BVB doesn’t have enough staff to offer the program in all 13 of Childcare’s classrooms, they hope to eventually expand it, possibly following a group of infants through age 4. Another option is creating a mini curriculum that could be instituted in all the district’s pre-K classrooms.
“We have also brought the curriculum that we do with the 4-year-olds of Childcare Resources into the Riverside Theatre Dance Education Program,” says Schnell.
“When we started Ballet Vero Beach, our mission sort of was twofold: to present the highest quality professional dance that we possibly could, and to reflect that back to how we can assist the community,” says Schnell. “So we feel really lucky that we get to work with these organizations.”
They both stress the proven research that if children aren’t put on the right track from birth to age 5, the goal of reading by third grade falls by the wayside.
“There’s a direct link, even to our Stage to Page, because if you are developing your muscles, and some muscles are very tight at that young age, you may be very uncomfortable sitting at your desk chair. So you’re not going to be focusing on reading. It’s as simple as that,” says Rodriguez.
Schnell also emphasizes the importance of parents talking, reading and playing with their children.
“And if you see something that you think is not right, there are so many experts and services, especially in this town, that will get you where you need to be. I just can’t say that enough,” says Schnell.
For more information, visit BalletVeroBeach.org.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
