United States of America
New York City
Since 2014, MindLeaps has served over 10,000 children across the globe. In 2022, MindLeaps is expanding into our seventh country, the United States of America.
MindLeaps’ first-ever New York City program launched on January 11, 2022. This pilot project is organized in partnership with the community-centered non-profit Children of Promise located in Brooklyn, New York.
Children of Promise is the first and only after school program and summer day camp in NYC specifically designed to meet the needs, interests, and concerns of children whose parents or guardians are incarcerated.
Through the MindLeaps Dance & Data program at Children of Promise, four MindLeaps dance teachers worked with 20 children, ages 8 & 9, twice per week, for 1.5 hours each class, over the course of six months, from January through June 2022. The program is designed to support 7 specific social-emotional and cognitive skills, thereby increasing the children’s emotional resilience and positive life decision-making.
At the end of the program, on June 16, the MindLeaps students showcased what they had learned to their counselors and peers in a final performance in the auditorium. Watch the performance:
In its second project in New York City, MindLeaps is working with 6- & 7-year-old scholars at Children of Promise in the Bronx. The Summer classes for the 6- & 7-year-old scholars are co-designed and co-taught by MindLeaps Teacher Training Specialist, Caitlyn Casson, and dancer-choreographer-educator, Key’Aira Lockett, with Children of Promise counselors present at all classes. The activities and movements in the 2-hour classes are designed to be fun, demanding, and kinesthetic, inspired by MindLeaps’ foundational curriculum for boosting social-emotional learning skills. Held on Mondays and Wednesdays for 6 weeks, the classes are off to a wonderful start. After the first day, the children eagerly asked their counselors at Children of Promise “When is MindLeaps on the schedule?” They didn’t want to miss a MindLeaps day! By the end of the first week, the children had learned battements and a modified version of the MindLeaps warm-up. In week two, they moved-on to saut de chats, and started to learn muscles like hamstring. Some of the children were able to show that they remembered, and could even lead, the first part of the warm-up. The classroom walls include picture-boards of agreements about classroom rules, one of which the scholars came up with on their own: “Let’s Keep Our Hands to Ourselves!” Attendance fluctuates between 15 and 25 children, many of whom are experiencing homelessness in addition to having an incarcerated parent.
NYC Team
Charles Grant
Charles grew up in California before moving to New York City to complete his dance training at The Ailey School. His career has balanced academic studies and professional dance work. Charles started his undergraduate studies at Howard University in Dance and completed his BA in Sociology and Art at Fisk University. He has danced and taught with Dimensions Dance Theater and The Ailey School. Most recently, he was a member of Ron K Brown’s Evidence Dance Company before joining MindLeaps. Charles speaks French fluently as well as some Spanish, Arabic and Mandarin.
Grace O’Mara
Grace was born in Baltimore and trained competitively in jazz, ballet, modern, pointe, contemporary, commercial jazz, and improvisation in Maine. She started her university studies at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City in the BFA (Modern Dance) program and is continuing to pursue a degree in Psychology from Southern Maine Community College. Grace has most recently danced with Sidra Bell and performed in a project currently being shown at Lincoln Center.
Kevin Zambrano
Kevin is originally from California and graduated with a BFA from The California Institute of the Arts. He has performed on Broadway in “West Side Story”, is the creative director for artist Dorian Electra and can be seen in music videos for Post Malone, The Weeknd and Solange. Kevin traveled to Guinea, West Africa, with MindLeaps last summer and continues to be a member of the NYC teaching team at Children of Promise.
Philadelphia
MindLeaps’ has further expanded in January 2023 and launched an extending program in Philly, in collaboration with Sunrise Of Philadelphia.
Sunrise Of Philadelphia operates several free and accessible after school programs and summer camps offered in partnership with the Philadelphia Office of Children and Families and the School District of Philadelphia. The after school and summer programs currently serve students in grades K-12, offering a structured and stimulating environment focused on preparing young people for success in education and future careers.
On January 18th, we started our program at Bregy Elementary School. Since then, our program has been running with Alexis Birts, Jameel Hendricks and Charles Grant (traveling from NYC).
The kids love to dance! What prevents some of these youth from trying a new move or jumping across the floor is peer pressure and a lack of self-esteem. That is exactly what MindLeaps is designed to develop! We see that these youth struggle with emotional regulation, and we know that, with consistent attendance, this can be improved with our methodology.
Between the first and second week, our class suddenly went from 30 kids to 15 kids to 22 kids. We worked with the staff of Sunrise to come to a mutual understanding of the pillars of success: confirming which children would participate, and if a child suggested he didn’t want to take the program, we listened to his reasons and adapted the methodology. This has led to a modification where every Friday, we teach a “Tik Tok” version of the MindLeaps standard dance class. The older students all “re-joined” the program after we introduced this adaptation!
Philly Team
Lex Birts
Lex Birts is from Atlanta and now resides in Philadelphia. She received her BFA in Dance from the University of Georgia (2016). During her academic dance career, Lex performed in various pieces at SERBA-(RDA), The Brooklyn Academy of Music and Dance Canvas. Her choreography was also featured at Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre. In 2023, Lex joined the MindLeaps team to bring movement-based social emotional learning development to under-resourced communities in Philadelphia.
Jameel Hendricks
Following his long tenure at Philadanco, Jameel is now building the next generation of youth in Philadelphia. He is currently teaching at String Theory’s Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School and Philadanco alongside his role at MindLeaps. According to Jameel, “You have to work with your insecurities, and when you express yourself performing, you will grow.” He is eager to steer children in the right direction and believes movement has the power to do it.
Charles Grant
Charles grew up in California before moving to New York City to complete his dance training at The Ailey School. His career has balanced academic studies and professional dance work. Charles started his undergraduate studies at Howard University in Dance and completed his BA in Sociology and Art at Fisk University. He has danced and taught with Dimensions Dance Theater and The Ailey School. Most recently, he was a member of Ron K Brown’s Evidence Dance Company before joining MindLeaps. Charles speaks French fluently as well as some Spanish, Arabic and Mandarin.
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