Angela Mojica loves to get down on the dance floor. A dancer since age 5, she is excited to make friends when she starts classes at Phillips Elementary School in the South Side this month.
"It's going to be a good experience that will let me know more about my classmates," said Mojica, 10, of the South Side. "We talk to each other while we move our hips and dance."
Fifth-grade students from six Pittsburgh Public Schools elementary schools -- Allegheny, Arlington, King, Phillips, Spring Hill and West Liberty -- will pilot "Dancing Classrooms," a ballroom dancing course taught in schools across the nation, starting Sept. 29.
Dancing Classrooms is presented by Mercy Behavioral Health as part of its prevention program in the schools and is funded by the Birmingham Foundation; Riverset Credit Union and Tobacco Free Allegheny.
Ballroom dancing is considered one of the most effective ways to teach social dance, said program designer Pierre Dulaine, founder of American Ballroom Theater in New York.
"We teach life lessons wrapped around ballroom dancing," Dulaine said. "We're not interested in if they remember the steps when they're 24 or 25, but that they've learned how to treat each other as ladies and gentlemen."
In classes twice weekly for 10 weeks, students will learn steps to seven dances, including the fox trot, swing, waltz and the merengue. They'll perform in a "Colors of the Rainbow" dance-off in January, wearing their school colors.
To integrate the program into daily classes, students will be asked to write and create art based on their dancing experiences. But the lingering lessons will be social lessons that help prepare them for middle school.
"This puts them in a position where they are held responsible to act with respect to one another," said Rodney Necciai, principal at Phillips. "It's going to be hard work, but well worth it. Our kids spend so much time on reading and math and the core curriculum; it's nice to be able to offer intensive arts too."
Kya Humphries of the North Side wants her daughter Kayla, who attends Allegheny, to learn grace, discipline and coordination. As a former ballroom student, Humphries knows the arts are an important aspect of education.
"Plus, now I'll have someone to dance with," she said.
