Community Outreach Programs and Partnerships

Metropolitan Ballet Company's outreach programs, performances and community partnerships fulfill our mission to enrich the lives of our children, families and seniors through dance. We serve over 3,000 children and seniors each year with free access to its performance season, outreach performances at local schools and retirement communities, and in-school classes and scholarship programs for underserved youth.

Our Community Partners include: outreach

The School District of Philadelphia outreach
The Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center
Abington Friends School
Abington Presbyterian Nursery School
Educating Communities for Parenting
Grace Nursery School
Jenkintown Library
Manor College
New Church Live
Northern Children’s Services
Penn State Abington
Pennsylvania Ballet
Rydal Park
Settlement Music School
Sunrise Retirement
William Penn Charter School

If you are interested in having Metropolitan Ballet Company participate in a community or other special event, please contact us by phone at 215-663-1665 or contact Lisa Collins Vidnovic, Artistic & Executive Director, at collinsvidnovic@verizon.net. Outreach

Metropolitan Ballet Company is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization providing scholarships, performance training for pre-professional dancers and outreach programs designed to promote a love and appreciation of dance in our community.

Kinetic Literacy Program©

Since 2008, Metropolitan Ballet Company has partnered with The School District of Philadelphia to deliver its innovative Kinetic Literacy Program© to Kindergarten through Third grade students at two area elementary schools: Joseph Pennell Elementary School and A.L. Lingelbach School.

Metropolitan’s Kinetic Literacy Program© is a standards-based, integrated academic program combining visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methodologies to enhance and invigorate the English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics programs, and is taught during classroom instruction in the regular school day.

Children participating in the Kinetic Literacy Programs can be expected to learn new strategies for engaging with concepts presented in the traditional classroom setting, complemented by new skills in arts appreciation and athletics. 500 students (18 classrooms) currently participate in Metropolitan’s on site classes annually, and our on-site programming is expanding. The Kinetic Literacy Program supports this effort with two distinct components:

M3=Math x Music x Movement©

M3=Math x Music x Movement© (copyright 2013 Janet Blenheim, All Rights Reserved), is an academically integrated program for children ages seven to nine, grounded in the PA Core State Standards and Standards for Mathematical Practice. The program, created and led by Janet Blenheim, a former professional dancer, Japan Fulbright Scholar and recently retired K-5 Math Department Head at the School District of Upper Dublin, focuses on essential questions through creative problem solving tasks which integrate movement and music to introduce and reinforce mathematical concepts. outreach

Reading Moves Me© outreach

Reading Moves Me© (copyright 2015 Lisa Collins Vidnovic, All Rights Reserved), utilizes movement activities, read-aloud sessions and instruction on attending a live theatre performance to enhance the District’s Core ELA Curricula and Standards. In addition to on-site classes, students are given the opportunity to attend a special matinee performance of Metropolitan’s annual Family Concert Series free of charge, offering a visual adaptation of the literature that children engage with throughout the fall, and an opportunity to experience a high-quality dance performance.

Metropolitan Ballet Company’s Kinetic Literacy Program© is funded, in part, through the generous support of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, regional corporations and foundations, and individual donors. Metropolitan’s Kinetic Literacy Program© is also supported by gifts made through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC) administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).

Click here to view Metropolitan’s Kinetic Literacy Program Album.