Children's Dance Foundation (CDF) celebrates the creative spirit in all of us. A non-profit founded in 1975, our programs are a joyful and affirming experience for all to learn, think, create, express and achieve. Community service through the power of dance is the bedrock of our work, with these main programs: Community Partnership Program, Studio Program, School Touring Program, Student and Staff Performances, and Creative Community Workspace.

Through Dance, our Community Partnership Program provides much needed opportunities for nearly 1,000 children each week at 24 sites to feed their imaginations, work together, explore big ideas, and strengthen their bodies and minds. At Birmingham Health Coalition for the Homeless’ My Place we teach 20 children who are homeless or live in transitional housing. There the teachers have seen many of the children “come out of their shells” and develop social skills with dance…for the child who is homeless, dance is a healthy way of releasing emotions. At the Bell Center for Early Intervention we teach 15 preschool children who have developmental delays and other physical or mental challenges, including a little girl who was able to jump with both feet for her first time ever in dance class last year…for the child with special needs dance is an exciting and fun way to work on essential skills. CDF’s professional teaching artists (dancers and musicians) travel to all corners of our community with consistent opportunities for children to learn through the arts.

CDF's School Touring Program presents the new professional dance performance “The Magic Circle” and our much loved “Math in Motion” to local underserved elementary and middle schools. These modern dance performances juxtapose two disciplines, math and dance, finding a means of expression for one through the other. Four adult dancers use oversized and whimsical props to help teach math concepts like shape, circular motion and pattern. These innovative performances will reach more than 4,000 students and teachers this year.

Today, creative opportunities for many disadvantaged children are few and far between if they exist at all. In a strained economy, arts education funding is usually the first cut. It is in this time that the arts are essential to the spirit of our community. Since CDF was founded in 1975, our professional teaching artists have been committed to working with the most disadvantaged and at risk children in our community and in Alabama. CDF brings the services to these children, supplying exciting opportunities for them to engage the arts and learn through creative experiences.

Creative, inclusive, arts education!