~ Important News for the Extended Heart of Dance Family ~
From the 10,000+ dancers who have come through our programs, to the many more thousands of educators, family members, donors, staff, and volunteers who have supported them – you are all a part of our legacy!
Heart of Dance was established in 2015 to bring the mental, physical and emotional benefits of partner dance to communities who might not typically have easy access to them. It has been a wonderful journey and we’ve made many new friends along the way. After 10 inspiring years, however, we announce the closing of Heart of Dance as of the end of this year. As many of you were already aware, between leadership transitions, an altered post-Covid funding landscape, and shifting priorities in our society, our organization has struggled in the past couple of years. The Board has made the difficult decision to sunset Heart of Dance. May of 2024 was our final Colors of the Rainbow Team Match. We have maintained a low profile since then and stopped accepting donations this fiscal year, as we have wrapped up programing and operations and attempted to find new homes for our programs so they can continue to benefit our community.
DANCING CLASSROOMS: We explored several options in 2025 in the hope that the wonderful Dancing Classrooms program would continue to add to the 10,000 Twin Cities youth in whom we’ve already instilled the Social Emotional Learning skills of respect, teamwork, connection, inclusion and joy through the lens of social partner dance. Ultimately, none of those options worked out so sadly, Minnesota will no longer be a Dancing Classrooms site.
There is still a possibility, however! Dancing Classrooms now has an option for cities without a nonprofit licensee organization like Heart of Dance – the DC Institute. An individual such as a PE, dance or music teacher who works for a school or district can be trained in the DC curriculum, modified to be delivered in those settings. If you are an educator who understands how powerful Dancing Classrooms can be, and are excited to continue to offer it in your building or district, please contact Eva Carrozza at global@dancingclassrooms.org for more information.
DANCE FOR LIFE: As the creator of the original Dance for Life program, Heart of Dance co-founder Andrea Mirenda has been approved by the Board to continue independently offering this impactful program to older adults facing a variety of mental and physical health challenges. Whether dealing with dementia, Parkinson’s disease, strength and balance issues, or general frailty, Dance for Life can improve the quality of life for all older adults! For information on how to bring the various Dance for Life programs to your organization, or for individual dance instruction for all ages, contact Andrea at Dance for Life Wellness, dance4life.wellness@gmail.com.
While we at Heart of Dance are sad at the prospect of this final chapter of our wonderful organization, we’re also profoundly grateful to have had the opportunity to serve our community for ten wonderful years, building respect, teamwork, connection, inclusion and joy through social dance!
Keep dancing and keep reaching out to others to ask,
“May I have this dance, please?”
