National Dance Institute (NDI) was founded in 1976 by New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d'Amboise. [1]
NDI works with mainstream, bilingual, and special education classes.
NDI classes are taught by professional artists, who work with 6,500 New York City school children each week [2] throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Most NDI dancers come from low-income communities, and all NDI programs are offered to children free of charge. Among NDI dancers, 32% are Latino, 24% Asian, 23% Caucasian, 19% African-American, and 2% other non-white minority groups.[ citation needed ]
In 2001, Carole Valleskey, formerly a principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, founded California Dance Institute as a West Coast affiliate of NDI. California Dance Institute teachers have all been trained in the rigorous NDI teaching methodology.