<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>Dancing program expands for kids</B><P>Haley Nolde, Oakland Tribune<P>OAKLAND -- When the pulsing music of Three Little Women -- a.k.a. 3LW -- spilled into Studio A at the Alice Arts Center one recent Tuesday afternoon, 13 girls broke into a dance step: right, left, back, forward, arms pumping up and out.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><B><A HREF="http://search.newschoice.com/GPC_StoryDisplay.asp?story=d:\index\newsarchives\angtr\loc\20010129\648325_t3bs229.txt&searchtext=ballet" TARGET=_blank>More</A></B>

This is a very interesting article. I was involved with something like this for almost ten years - I talked about it in another thread. We charged $1.00 per lesson - the school had gotten a grant for the program.<P>It was held in the school auditorium (there were removable seats), so the children didn't even have to travel across any streets, they just walked in or arrived from other schools via school bus. <P>For so many years the only things that were offered to children after school was sports and this, for the most part, was for boys. But girls like to do things too - like dance. Of course boys like to dance it if is offered in the right way. But most of the after school activities used to be aimed at boys and sports. <P>The idea was to keep boys occupied and out of trouble - but girls get into trouble too. They may not be as violent, but they do get into drugs and teen pregnancy. So it's great to see a program like the one in this article.