Our Programs
Positive Motion for Children with DisABILITIes
The only dance arts education program of its kind in Atlanta, the Positive Motion program is a weekly one-hour dance class including ballet, jazz, and hip-hop for individuals aged 10+ with diagnoses including global developmental delay, down syndrome, autism, and cerebral palsy. “A Celebration of Positive Motion” performance is presented at the end of each 16-week session, open to all community members. These students show improved attention, concentration, emotional expression, balance, directionality, fine motor skills, ability to follow instructions, socialization, and memory. A volunteer team of teens and adults offer one-on-one attention to our participants while gaining fantastic skills in leadership and compassion.
“The past 4 months have been life-changing for my son and all the dancers. This is the dance class that I have searched for, high and low, for TEN years. Not a single other dance studio around Atlanta had the courage or the vision to consider a dance class for kids of different abilities.”
Parent of a Positive Motion program student
International Positive Motion
We have responded to the limitations of the global pandemic by continuing to connect with our students via online classes, which have allowed us to expand to a global audience and enroll international students. Our classes are attended by students in Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, and more!
Pre-Professional Classical Ballet Training Program
Our classical ballet pre-professional training program is an intense 25-hour-per-week commitment for accomplished dancers. Classes focus on developing superior technique, along with a beautiful sense of musicality and artistry. The program includes opportunities to perform and compete at prestigious international ballet competitions, including YAGP, IBC (Varna), and Jackson, MS. Will begin again in the Fall of 2022.
“I always wanted to dance, but growing up my parents couldnʼt afford the classes. As an adult I enrolled in my very first ballet class at TADA. I was treated as an artist from day one even with my lack of technique and understanding. After two years of training, I have been cast in professional performances and I have had the opportunity to dance as a guest artist in a professional company. This has completely changed my life—I never dreamed I would have this opportunity.”
Adult TADA student
Senior Dance Movement Therapy … Coming soon
The SDMT program is a weekly ballroom-inspired dance class for senior citizens, designed to improve the quality of life for those suffering from mild to moderate dementia. A pilot program for senior residents living at home and in assisted living facilities was ready to launch in the spring of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this program implementation was put on hold. The demand for this program is now higher than ever and planning is underway through partnerships with metro Atlanta senior residential facilities to begin to roll out Senior Dance Movement Therapy as early as Spring 2022.
MASTER ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
TADA Foundation reinforces its commitment to provide community-based opportunities for all ages, incomes, genders, and ethnicities, with and without disABILITIes, to experience the joy of movement in dance, and the learning process of creative arts. By increasing access to those often excluded from arts, culture, and the benefits of dance, the foundation aims to broaden the reach and representation of dance artists training and performing in its space, to demonstrate the universal language and power of dance which is, in fact, open to all.
The Master Artist-In-Residence initiative celebrates arts and culture, supports diverse artistic disciplines, and serves as an artistic, educational, and community resource. The foundation’s partnership with TADA – The Atlanta Dance Academy supports the promotion of lively and unique experiences for children and adults of all skill levels, through a variety of classes in dance and fitness.
Assane Kouyaté – Folk and Traditional Arts
In 2019, Assane Kouyaté joined the faculty at TADA – The Atlanta Dance Academy bringing vibrant West African cultural and educational experiences to the dance community. After developing a close relationship with studio members, and learning about the TADA Foundation, Kouyaté and TADA’s Executive Director, Kara Jacobson, recognized similar objectives in the foundation’s dedication to bringing diverse people together through dance instruction and performance, and in Kouyate’s work in providing accessible opportunities that recognize the discipline and richness of traditional art forms, with the organic celebration of diversity, culture, and community. Through a shared commitment to cultivate the arts and community, a collaboration was soon formed with Kouyaté serving as the foundation’s Master Artist-In-Residence.
The partnership between TADA Foundation and Assane Kouyaté will further enhance the community experience by creating collaborations that bridge cultural and physical differences through the arts. Kouyaté will develop the foundation’s Folk and Traditional Arts Program, and orchestrate arts programming that align with its mission of ensuring dance experiences and programmatic accessibility to diverse community members.
About Assane Kouyaté
Kouyaté, who is originally from Senegal, West Africa, is a culture bearer, griot, and multi-talented artist with 25+ years exhibiting traditional art forms in public spaces, at major performance venues, and in conjunction with local and international organizations. His experience as an artistic director, independent performer, teaching artist, and former lead dancer and choreographer with le Ballet National du Senegal and Ballet Sinomew, makes him highly sought out in the United States and abroad, with students regularly assembling to study under his tutelage. Alongside his twin brother, Kouyaté leads a 6-member world music band, combining infectious griot vocals, high-impact dance grooves, and traditional and modern instruments, with elements of mbalax, sabar, jazz, funk, reggae, and contemporary. He is artistic director of several experimental and traditional arts projects in Atlanta, established with the goal of preserving West African culture, and which have been funded by Fulton County Arts and Culture, National Black Arts, and The City of Atlanta, Office of Cultural Affairs.
Kouyaté recognizes the need to provide meaningful, affordable, and accessible learning opportunities – to foster education, diversity, healing, tolerance, and free expression, to further impact the community and to create a more collective experience