May 2, 2024 | Santa Fe New Mexican
The performances are underway. They continue through May 18. Then, beginning Saturday, it’s time for galas — all to celebrate 30 years of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico while looking to ensure many more years to come.
NDI New Mexico has spent 30 years in the state teaching children the satisfaction that comes from working hard to achieve excellence. And we’re talking a lot of children, some 150,000 since 1994 across New Mexico, with 7,500 children participating this year.
Its teachers go to classrooms, where they instruct students in dance and movements related to dance. The children learn the steps, rehearse and eventually, perform in public before friends and family — conquering stage fright is no easy task.
Currently, NDI New Mexico serves 30 communities statewide with in-school programs and teaching residencies. Despite the perception of dance as a hoity-toity art form, NDI students are from all backgrounds. 68% are Hispanic, 15% Anglo, 17% Native or Alaska Native and 4% are multiracial, Black or Asian/Pacific Islander.
The program offers opportunity and experience along with a robust introduction to the world of dance. Additionally, there are after-school programs serving children from 3 to 18 and beyond in Santa Fe at The Dance Barns and at the Hiland Theater in Albuquerque, with sliding-scale tuition.
But NDI New Mexico is about much more than dance; it teaches critical skills for life success, including how to be a hard worker and a dependable team member. Children learn discipline, develop confidence and discvocer how to keep going even when it’s tough — especially when it’s tough.
All participants learn the four core lessons at the heart of NDI: Work hard, do your best, never give up and be healthy. Those skills will make life easier to conquer, whether you remain a dancer for life or become a nurse, a teacher or an artist.
On a recent Conversations Different podcast hosted by The New Mexican, NDI New Mexico Executive Director Russell Baker said, “If you’re prepared to bring your best or be your best and to meet a challenge, then you’re ready for the world.” The goal of NDI is to help young people take on the world.
Kristen Martinez, who started in NDI New Mexico as a student in Pojoaque, now works as a nurse. She told Conversations Different her NDI lessons have serve her well: “In nursing, a mistake can be fatal, so you only have one time. That has to be your best time.”
Martinez said not only did NDI help her break her “cycle of generational trauma, but it had this generational impact where now my daughters are performing with NDI. It’s been really, really, really impactful for my family, because my parents gave up so much to help us be there every day.”
Dream Big! end-of-year performances are taking place Friday and Saturday in Santa Fe, with the Santa Fe Gala happening Saturday. Next week, end-of-year performances in Albuquerque continue, with the Albuquerque Gala on May 11.
The performance features big dreamers of the world, their stories told through dance and music, with children center stage. It’s what NDI-New Mexico has done for 30 years, with more big dreams and hard work to come.