Dance scholarship has students jumping for joy

04:17 PM PDT on Tuesday, October 18, 2005

KING Staff

SEATTLE - A dance scholarship has students jumping for joy.

Seventy-five third graders from Seattle and Bellevue have been hand picked to take part in a free arts program called Dance Chance.

Tuesday was their first day of class. Teachers from Pacific Northwest Ballet helped the boys and girls with the basics, from stretching to plies.

KING

Both boys and girls participate in Dance Chance.

For the instructors there is one main goal for these children.

"A lot of students don't know that they have a gift for dance so we really want to give them that gift and it would be a tragedy for them not to know that they are really special," said Dance Chance coordinator Jennifer Termaat.

PNB started Dance Chance in 1994, and one of their first students has just become a professional dancer with the Oregon Ballet Theatre.