About HYDI

| Objectives & Skills | HYDI's History | Meet the Director | Organization

HYDI's Objectives

First and foremost, HYDI’s objective is for children to gain the confidence and the ability to step on the dance floor and have a good time with a partner.

It is also HYDI’s objectives to

• Provide structured social activities during which children can learn valuable social and personal skills.

• Provide healthy, aerobic exercise.

• Promote self-esteem through participation in scheduled dance functions and presentations.

• Provide an outlet for individual creativity and expression through movement.

• Introduce students to the different cultures and styles expressed through dancing.

Skills Taught Through Dance Cooperation and courtesy through dance partnering. Personal responsibility for self-improvement through practicing dance steps and routines. The concept of collective accountability through group performances.

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HYDI's History

Michèle Evans was casually teaching dance as a volunteer for an after-school program when her daughter started kindergarten. While at a competition, she saw a large group of Russian children dancing ballroom and thought: Why couldn't we do that? A few months later, while watching the kids dancing at a Christmas party, she realized that their exposure and experience in dance was very limited. It was then that she thought: We must do that.

 

Through a rich repertoire of ballroom dance and dance music, the children learn to feel comfortable with their own physical skills and to feel comfortable interacting with each other.

There is an opportunity for the student to be part of a Dance Team - fully costumed and choreographed. The team has performed in various places such as... the Big E, First Thursday in Hartford, Mark Twain Days, Hartford Swing Dance, Ted Hershey Dance Marathon, The Great Connecticut Jazzfest, Bushnell Park and many other local organizations.

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 Meet the Director

Michèle Morin Evans has won every major competition of Theatrical Ballroom in the United States and abroad with her long-time partner David Rosinski, including: the 1985 and 1986 United States Championship, 1986 World Invitational in Blackpool, England, the Silver Medal at the 1995 United States Championship and second place in the 1995 World Invitational.

She has made several television appearances; among them, CPTV’s Championship Ballroom Dancing, Star Search, a special presentation at Walt Disney World for Telemundo and at Madison Square Garden for ESPN.

She was featured with her partner in the New York Times in 1989 and again, in the spring of 2001 when her work with HYDI was part of an article on Ballroom Dancing for youth.

Michèle has been teaching in Connecticut for 24 years. She has been a faculty member of the Hartford Ballet School, and she has taught at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Fred Astaire Studio, and the U.S. Dance Club. She has also taught young children and senior citizens at Community Centers in Rocky Hill, Bloom field, Windsor, South Windsor and West Hartford.

Organization

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