"Dance not only makes you flexible, but gives you eye-and-hand coordination and balance," Cruz said. Cruz, who made the varsity baseball team at Ballard High this year, said ballet helped him in other athletic programs, like baseball. "We constantly hear from parents and teachers that they can see how the children grow in self-confidence and poise, and how it carries over to their schoolwork and other aspects of their life," TerMaat said. I enjoyed dancing." Throughout their training, Pacific Northwest Ballet emphasizes that the children themselves control how much of their dance potential is reached. And when we got the letter of acceptance, I was like, 'Oh no, what am I going to do now!?' I got invited to join Level III, I was excited. "When I started, I thought this was ridiculous, this was for girls," recalled Cruz, who is now a Level VII student. Ballard High School senior Carlos Cruz was one of the boys whose tune changed. "It's interesting to see their attitude change about it, especially for the boys, and the change even for the kids back in their classroom about their attitude concerning ballet," TerMaat said. While many of the children have never experienced ballet until they arrive for the first day of DanceChance classes, it doesn't take them long to get up to speed. The DanceChance program continues to provide them with scholarships for equipment and tuition. Once the DanceChance students reach their third year, they join the regular Pacific Northwest Ballet School classes for their level and become more responsible for their own transportation and getting themselves ready for class. "I have six volunteers who help me get the kids ready, and we have puzzles and word games connected to dance for the kids to do before class starts." TerMaat emphasized that the students are given all of the opportunities, faculty and curriculum that any Level I or Level II student in the Pacific Northwest Ballet school would get, with the added help in transportation and equipment. "On a typical day, we come in and check the students' equipment and get things ready for them," TerMaat said. "Students are selected on the basis of their musicality, physical ability and coordination." The Level I students come to the Pacific Northwest Ballet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, during the school day, while the Level II students miss part of one school day and also attend on Saturday. "In the fall, we screened about 1,400 children and picked 60, so you can see how selective that we're being," TerMaat said. That special talent is very rare, and there's only a couple of other programs in the country like this." DanceChance focuses on students who have the potential to become professional dancers. "Now we've had the program for close to 10 years, and to see those kids moving up in the school and have the opportunity to be professionals is so great. "It's great to have that diversity and that's what wanted: to have that diversity that we have in Seattle," said Jenifer TerMaat, DanceChance coordinator. Eight languages are represented this year in Level I, including Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese and Spanish. This year, 18 Seattle partner schools participated in the initial screening, providing students from almost every possible background. To select students for the Level I class, the DanceChance screening team visits partner schools to audition third-grade students. Students attend classes twice a week on full-tuition scholarship, with dance attire, transportation and complimentary tickets to company performances provided. Francia Russell, co-artistic director and director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School at the Seattle Center, began DanceChance in 1994. Then, with big sighs and big grins, the youngsters stop being budding ballet stars and settle back into just being kids from Broadview, Thomson, Cooper, Daniel Bagley, Emerson, Fairmount Park, Graham Hill, Highland Park, High Point, Kimball, Leschi, Maple, Martin Luther King, Sanislo, TT Minor and Wing Luke elementary schools.
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