Osborn Ballet Program

The Osborn School District Ballet Program offers professionally oriented ballet training after school for boys and girls with related studies, activities and fieldtrips. Currently in its eighth year, it has contributed to improved student achievement and added additional depth and breadth of education and experience. The program annually attracts approximately 60 fourth through sixth graders from Clarendon School with an additional 50 third grade students from sister school Encanto and continuing seventh and eighth grade students from Osborn Middle School. The overarching goal is to make professionally oriented ballet training available to students who do not have access to it. Students have earned the privilege of auditioning with professional dance companies and receiving scholarships for further study. The Ballet Program received the prestigious Arizona School Board Association Golden Bell 1st Place Award for 2009 and the Arizona Educational Foundation's A+ Exemplary Program Award 2009.

The program includes academic work and Nutrition classes in addition to dance study. Beginning dancers attend one-to-two-hours per week, in separate boys’ and girls’ sections. More advanced students attend up to five days per week. The Ballet program curriculum consists of classical ballet technique, based on the Russian, French and Italian schools. Instruction includes terminology (in the French language), history and development of ballet and western dance with general historical background as a reference for understanding and context. Instruction also includes an introduction to music as it pertains to training, history and performances. The Ballet Program addresses the Arizona Department of Education Arts standards in the area of dance. All students participate in extra-curricular studies, read from the ballet library, and can participate in supervised study hall, tutoring, and homework support.

To date the Ballet Program students have danced in Ballet Arizona's Nutcracker for four seasons. The program has served more than 670 students since its inception in the fall of 2003. Many of the students served would not be able to afford the cost of professionally oriented dance instruction. The Osborn Ballet Program is offered exclusively to Osborn students for an annual fee of $2 and is supported by Tax Credit donations to Clarendon and Encanto Schools, donations to the Osborn Educational Foundation, and the 21st Century Community Learning Center after-school grant.