Jasmine Huynh
According to your website, it says that San Francisco Ballet's educational programs are geared towards providing “access, education, and opportunity for students of diverse cultural backgrounds” from pre-K through 12th grade. How has this changed over the years or has it largely remained the same?
“It stayed the same for the first 35 years of San Francisco Ballet's history of dance education. In 1979, San Francisco Ballet first started to partner with the San Francisco Unified School district. Through that partnership, which has deepened over the years, it has primarily focused on second and third grade classrooms in the school district. SF Unified School district is one of the largest school districts in the state and country. They have around 50,000 to 60,000 students. And I believe there are around 72 elementary schools”
“In 2015, we really started to expand the Dance in Schools and Communities program. It was thriving with second and third grade, but that's it, right? We didn't have the breadth and scope of K to 12th grade…so we started reexamining our goals, our mission, our vision, and asking ourselves: how do we want to build the capacity for all young people in our community to have equitable access to high quality dance education? Where is arts education now compared to 1979 when the program was established? And where do we think we need to be going? So back in 2015, we really started to pilot programs that expanded beyond the second and third grade level…and ask ourselves: what would residencies for pre-kindergarten, middle schools, and high schools look like? Very different, right? How do we provide access to education in music, theater, visual arts, spoken word media, not just dance? We were looking at the Boys & Girls Clubs. How do we partner with them? We also recognized that not every student is enrolled in SF Unified School Districts. So how do we do family programming beyond what we have? We also took a good look at what type of sensory-friendly programming would be right for San Francisco Ballet to develop in partnership with community organizations who serve the special needs community.”
You mentioned that prior to new developments in the education program in 2015, that DISC was primarily focused on the second and third grade levels. Why would you say that is? From your experience working with all grades and all age groups, is there a certain group that appears to be more interested and engaged with your work than others?
“It depends on what other access they have had or interaction they've had with the arts before. I think one of the reasons why we focused on second and third grade, is because it's a really good time for kinesthetic movement. They figured out what up and down and right and left are and how to move their body in space…There's [also] a lot of movement development that is right for second and third grade…When are students ready, developmentally? Seven, eight, nine.”
“[According to the article] “Envisioning the Future of Theater for Young Audiences” by the National Endowment for the Art…learning studies show that by age eight, a child has decided if the arts are for them or not. So having early access to performances and to the arts in their schools and communities is so important, because once they’ve hit eight, nine years old, they've decided, that's it.”
Specifically as it relates to boys, how has your program grown or changed in relation to trying to recruit boys into your program?
“Historically, the Dance in Schools and Communities program has four components. One is the in-school residency for three months. We offer ballet, Asian folk dance, West African and Latin style dance, contemporary, hip hop. There's professional development for teachers to integrate arts into their curriculum. There is a chance to see a student matinee by San Francisco Ballet…Then about 50 students to 100 students, depending on the year, get letters of invitation into San Francisco Ballet's Community Scholarship Program…In years past, we might have had only five students that matriculated into San Francisco Ballet School, or we might have had twenty. It really depends…They have other things to do: soccer, theater, math, tutoring, whatever it happens to be…I think we see the boys' class shrink a little bit more than the girls' class. But, I think that the Community Scholarship Program does a lot to open the doors to young dancers, especially young boys, who might not have thought that dance, specifically ballet, is something that would interest them at all or that they would be good at.”
What would you say are some obstacles that you have run into in reaching young boys, recruiting them, and then keeping them year after year?
“Some of the obstacles for our community are the language barrier and a culture barrier. The majority of the people who live in San Francisco identify as a person of color, and English might not be their first language. And so that becomes a barrier for both girls and boys, but especially when there's that cultural barrier of ‘ballet is not for us,’ right? If a family has had no access to the arts, they might be surprised to get a letter of invitation saying that their child has been thriving in their dance class at their elementary school and has great coordination, rhythm, musicality, flexibility, and interest, and now SFB is offering their child a full scholarship to come and continue their dance education…So that’s why we have an info session now that helps families try to make that decision: We got this letter. We're not sure if this is for us. What should we do?...Then the next challenge is getting them to stay in the program…There are so many other opportunities and activities for kids to be involved with. And we have found that boys especially will decide to do those other activities because they can't do both, or because they have more friends…We also deal with bullying and we know that that's a really hard topic for a second grader. How do you manage that? And so we make sure that we check in with the families when we have family gatherings, like when we go to The Nutcracker. We really prioritize making sure that family engagement and connection is there, [but] also just making sure that the student is thriving in the studio as well. And I think that having a student assistant or two in the class, like you, is a way to ensure that. You're still really someone that they want to talk to and someone they can relate to you…You just bridge that gap.”
According to your website, it says that San Francisco Ballet's educational programs are geared towards providing “access, education, and opportunity for students of diverse cultural backgrounds” from pre-K through 12th grade. How has this changed over the years or has it largely remained the same?
“It stayed the same for the first 35 years of San Francisco Ballet's history of dance education. In 1979, San Francisco Ballet first started to partner with the San Francisco Unified School district. Through that partnership, which has deepened over the years, it has primarily focused on second and third grade classrooms in the school district. SF Unified School district is one of the largest school districts in the state and country. They have around 50,000 to 60,000 students. And I believe there are around 72 elementary schools”
“In 2015, we really started to expand the Dance in Schools and Communities program. It was thriving with second and third grade, but that's it, right? We didn't have the breadth and scope of K to 12th grade…so we started reexamining our goals, our mission, our vision, and asking ourselves: how do we want to build the capacity for all young people in our community to have equitable access to high quality dance education? Where is arts education now compared to 1979 when the program was established? And where do we think we need to be going? So back in 2015, we really started to pilot programs that expanded beyond the second and third grade level…and ask ourselves: what would residencies for pre-kindergarten, middle schools, and high schools look like? Very different, right? How do we provide access to education in music, theater, visual arts, spoken word media, not just dance? We were looking at the Boys & Girls Clubs. How do we partner with them? We also recognized that not every student is enrolled in SF Unified School Districts. So how do we do family programming beyond what we have? We also took a good look at what type of sensory-friendly programming would be right for San Francisco Ballet to develop in partnership with community organizations who serve the special needs community.”
You mentioned that prior to new developments in the education program in 2015, that DISC was primarily focused on the second and third grade levels. Why would you say that is? From your experience working with all grades and all age groups, is there a certain group that appears to be more interested and engaged with your work than others?
“It depends on what other access they have had or interaction they've had with the arts before. I think one of the reasons why we focused on second and third grade, is because it's a really good time for kinesthetic movement. They figured out what up and down and right and left are and how to move their body in space…There's [also] a lot of movement development that is right for second and third grade…When are students ready, developmentally? Seven, eight, nine.”
“[According to the article] “Envisioning the Future of Theater for Young Audiences” by the National Endowment for the Art…learning studies show that by age eight, a child has decided if the arts are for them or not. So having early access to performances and to the arts in their schools and communities is so important, because once they’ve hit eight, nine years old, they've decided, that's it.”
Specifically as it relates to boys, how has your program grown or changed in relation to trying to recruit boys into your program?
“Historically, the Dance in Schools and Communities program has four components. One is the in-school residency for three months. We offer ballet, Asian folk dance, West African and Latin style dance, contemporary, hip hop. There's professional development for teachers to integrate arts into their curriculum. There is a chance to see a student matinee by San Francisco Ballet…Then about 50 students to 100 students, depending on the year, get letters of invitation into San Francisco Ballet's Community Scholarship Program…In years past, we might have had only five students that matriculated into San Francisco Ballet School, or we might have had twenty. It really depends…They have other things to do: soccer, theater, math, tutoring, whatever it happens to be…I think we see the boys' class shrink a little bit more than the girls' class. But, I think that the Community Scholarship Program does a lot to open the doors to young dancers, especially young boys, who might not have thought that dance, specifically ballet, is something that would interest them at all or that they would be good at.”
What would you say are some obstacles that you have run into in reaching young boys, recruiting them, and then keeping them year after year?
“Some of the obstacles for our community are the language barrier and a culture barrier. The majority of the people who live in San Francisco identify as a person of color, and English might not be their first language. And so that becomes a barrier for both girls and boys, but especially when there's that cultural barrier of ‘ballet is not for us,’ right? If a family has had no access to the arts, they might be surprised to get a letter of invitation saying that their child has been thriving in their dance class at their elementary school and has great coordination, rhythm, musicality, flexibility, and interest, and now SFB is offering their child a full scholarship to come and continue their dance education…So that’s why we have an info session now that helps families try to make that decision: We got this letter. We're not sure if this is for us. What should we do?...Then the next challenge is getting them to stay in the program…There are so many other opportunities and activities for kids to be involved with. And we have found that boys especially will decide to do those other activities because they can't do both, or because they have more friends…We also deal with bullying and we know that that's a really hard topic for a second grader. How do you manage that? And so we make sure that we check in with the families when we have family gatherings, like when we go to The Nutcracker. We really prioritize making sure that family engagement and connection is there, [but] also just making sure that the student is thriving in the studio as well. And I think that having a student assistant or two in the class, like you, is a way to ensure that. You're still really someone that they want to talk to and someone they can relate to you…You just bridge that gap.”
Would you say, as it relates to introducing boys to ballet, that is working? What would be considered a success? Is it the number of boys who continue from one year to the next, or having someone like Sean Bennett make it into the company? Or is it much simpler? Is it just the introduction of boys to dance, and fostering the appreciation for dance, and the arts in general?
“I think it's both. When we look at: what are San Francisco Ballet's community engagement programs? What is the impact of our community engagement program? San Francisco Ballet's education and engagement programs are successful at providing access and exposure to the arts for all ages and abilities. We've really been intentional about how to open up this art form to all those in our community. And we are seeing more boys participate in our summer dance camps with Boys & Girls Clubs—coming back every day, ready to dance, ready to play the drums, ready to explore music through their bodies. It's really great to see that. Will they go on to be ballet dancers? Probably not, but that's okay. But they've had this opportunity to really engage with the arts and to deepen their interest and possibly spark a love for it.”
“I think that a lot of ballet schools across the country struggle with recruitment and retention of male dancers. San Francisco Ballet does also have that problem, just like everyone else. But, we pride ourselves in the fact that we’re able to successfully recruit young dancers from all over the Bay Area, as well as around the country and globe, and provide quality dance education to…[but] we can always do more.”
What distinguishes your organization, programmatically, culturally, operationally, and philosophically, from similar outreach programs across the country and world? What makes DISC different? There are many local “programs” that schools could partner with. Why do they choose San Francisco ballet? You even had mentioned that some kids were traveling all the way from Hollister to attend the Colorform screening.
“It's wonderful that we aren't the only ones, that there also are programs within universities, arts organizations, the Opera, the Jazz, the Symphony…[But] what makes San Francisco Ballet different is that one, we've been around for a long time. The organization is over 90 years old, and our partnership with the school district is over 45 years old…[Second], it’s our long standing partnership with the districts and our really strong collaborative focus…We [also] constantly hear from teachers…that this is the best arts program because of the caliber of the teaching artists— they are amazing with our students. They are in tune with [the students] needs…We [also] bring in a live musician, which a lot of organizations are not able to do, which allows students to engage in the arts in multiple ways.”
Do you work with any other ballet outreach programs?
“Dance USA is an organization that has many, many affinity groups, which allows us to connect with counterparts from across the country.”
Do you have any stories in mind of specific individuals whose lives have been changed or significantly impacted by the education programs at the San Francisco Ballet?
“There is a teacher. He's an SFUSD teacher now. And he actually grew up in San Francisco, and he went through the DISC residency program, and then got a scholarship to attend San Francisco Ballet School…He didn't go on to be a dancer…but he attended one of our professional development workshops this fall. And he said coming into the building was so exciting. He said something like, ‘This building brings back memories of being in the studio, learning ballet, experiencing it with my friends, and building new friendships.’ So it’s awesome how our program had an impact on him growing up and how that allowed him to be an excellent partner in our work…and a role model for the young boys in his class.”
Most of the funding for San Francisco Ballet's educational programs are from private and corporate foundations, right?
“We are funded through a number of things. We have some generous funding from California Arts Council, from the National Endowment for the Arts, but also corporate sponsorships like the Diana Dollar Knowles Foundation, the Flora Family Foundation, Bank of America, as well as individual donors.”
I'm assuming that funding is not an issue then?
“Funding is always an issue. Funding for arts education is harder too...It's not as exciting as funding new works that go on stage, right? Those are really exciting things to be attached to. It's a little bit harder to find funding for twenty-five second graders. It shouldn't be, but it is.”'
If you had an unlimited budget, what do you think you could accomplish?
“I would love to dream big…”
“If a large donation were to come through, I think it would be really thinking about what is needed now? What is needed five years from now? What is needed ten years from now? And how can we continue to provide equitable access to the arts as well as promote diversity and inclusion?”
What do you think is the biggest opportunity for your organization?
“I think the biggest opportunity for San Francisco Ballet right now is recognizing how our community, our society, our arts consumers, and how our artists are changing. The only way to access it 50 years ago was in the Opera House. Now you can access it on your phone. There are so many different ways. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for San Francisco Ballet and all arts organizations. It really forces us to think about who our audiences are, what those audiences need.”
Is there anything you wish more people knew about San Francisco Ballet's engagement programs or about ballet in general?
“I just think people should learn more about ballet. There's so many ways to engage in the arts and engage with the arts. If it's through a performance in the Opera House, great. If it's through World Ballet Day, great. There's so many ways to access it. I just think that the arts can and should be for everyone, and I would love to share this gift with everyone in our community and our world.”
find more about San Francisco Ballet's educational programs here
interview by William McClure Stout
