Dance in the schools

Share the love of dance

Dance in the Schools has brought the joy of dance to surrounding Madison schools for more than 30 years. Through our program we bring the opportunity to experience dance within elementary aged students’ physical education classes. Grades K-5 work on gross motor skills, cross-lateral coordination, musicality, and memorization.

Nicole Nelson teaches hip hop to students at Granite Ridge School in February 2023.

What is Dance in the Schools?

Dance in the Schools is grant-funded programming that Dance Wisconsin brings into schools in the surrounding Madison area. These residencies give students the opportunity to be exposed to dance terminology and musicality. During our 2022-2023 season with the help of grant funds, Dance Wisconsin was able to go into Creekside Elementary School in Sun Prairie for three weeks and Granite Ridge School in Cottage Grove for two weeks to teach dance during their physical education periods. Classes were taught by Nicole Nelson and Megan Schimke.

Dance Wisconsin residencies met all requirements for mandatory dance curriculum (unit format) for the State of Wisconsin's Department of Education. Within their classes, the students learned vocabulary for each dance style, coordination, and practiced spatial awareness. While some students showed prior knowledge of dance that they had learned outside of school, for some children this was an opportunity to explore dance that they might have not had due to economic or family background.

Dance Wisconsin received funding from the Green Bay Packers Foundation for their residencies in 2023 in the 2021 cycle but due to Covid restrictions were granted permission to complete our work in the first two months of 2023. In 2025 we were able to return to Creekside Elementary, and for the first time attend Meadowview Elementary with funding from the Green Bay Packers Foundation and the Sun Prairie Education Foundation.

Recent Participants

In January-March of 2025, Dance Wisconsin had three week residencies in Creekside Elementary School and Meadowview Elementary School (both in Sun Prairie, WI). Grants from the Green Bay Packers Foundation and the Sun Prairie Education Foundation made these in school programs possible. Two instructors from Dance Wisconsin led students’ regularly scheduled physical education classes with Kindergarten through 2nd grade learning ballet and 3rd through 5th grade learning hip hop. Students at Creekside and Meadowview both had opportunities to perform their learned skills at school assemblies.

Previous schools that Dance in the Schools have visited in recent years include:

  • Creekside Elementary

  • Meadowview Elementary

  • Granite Ridge School

  • Lowell Elementary

Fifth graders end a hip hop class with a group exercise at Creekside Elementary in Dance in the Schools in 2025.

First graders at Creekside Elementary follow along, learning ballet vocabulary in Dance in the Schools programming in Winter 2025.