CDF celebrates 40 years with May 2 event

Children’s Dance Foundation is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a special performance on May 2. The free event begins at 7:30 p.m. at The Alabama Theatre. 

Forty years ago, three women implemented a new approach to teaching dance to very young children and those with special needs. Dancer Jennie Webb Robertson, along with Virginia Samford Donovan and Mary Conyers Cooper, founded Children’s Dance Foundation (CDF) with the mission to provide age- and developmentally appropriate movement classes that nurtured the whole child – physically, mentally and emotionally. Today, under the leadership of new artistic director, Heidi Stoeckley, CDF’s professional teaching artists continue to ignite the creative spirit and talent of all children, including the child who is homeless, very young, disadvantaged or at-risk and the child who has special needs.

In 1975, Robertson had the makings of a dance program: attic space, $50 and a few interested students including her granddaughter. She enlisted the help of friends Donovan and Cooper to begin reaching out to the places were children were already gathered, such as the day care centers of the Birmingham Housing Authority, Children’s Hospital waiting rooms and the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind in Talladega. The trio of ladies took dance directly to those children, giving them opportunities to listen and respond to the music, be creative and move. In 1985, a studio location was started in Southside to help fund the outreach classes.

Today, CDF is based in Homewood and has nearly 30 dance artists and musicians that fulfill the founding mission daily, dancing with Birmingham children through various community partnerships and the studio program. CDF holds weekly dance classes with live music for nearly 1,000 students varying in age at partner sites such as UCP Hand in Hand, The Bell Center and YWCA. Directors and teachers at partner sites say that CDF’s classes enrich the children’s learning and provide a physical and creative outlet for their students.

Currently expanding is CDF’s work with students learning English as a second language. With special funding from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, CDF’s teaching artists are helping the students at three elementary schools acquire stronger language skills through dance. 

To learn more, visit childrensdancefoundation.org.