Where Dance and Literacy Meet
An Interview with Talia Bailes, director of Ballet and Books
BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT
Talia Bailes is the founder and director of Ballet and Books, a national nonprofit organization striving to reduce the literacy gap through the hybrid storytelling of dance and reading. Talia founded Ballet and Books in 2017 with a belief that dance can be used as a connector across differences and as a way to build literacy. Here, she shares the impetus for the organization and how she’s seen Ballet and Books make a difference.
All photos courtesy Ballet and Books Instagram.
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Can you first share a little about yourself and your relationship with dance to give a sense of where you’re coming from?
I grew up doing ballet. I started at age three and danced until I was 18. I decided I wanted to explore the world before going to college, so I went to rural Ecuador through a bridge year program. I lived in an Amazonian town in Ecuador with a host family and danced with a traditional Indigenous dance group. We did folkloric dances local to the area. My dance worldview expanded. When I came back, I kept dancing but did more contemporary. I am now pursuing medicine, but I kept dancing through college and have done a lot of research on dance in the Americas.
How did Ballet and Books get started?
The initial idea came after the gap year. While I was in Ecuador, I taught English at a school and worked at a health clinic. I found the kids I was teaching were excellent storytellers but not great readers. When I came back to the US, I was interested in how kids learn to learn, how the environment influences learning. I worked with a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital who looked at when kids fall off track with reading. He was looking at kids’ brains through MRIs and what nerve pathways are connected when kids hear stories or are read to, as well as how primary care can be an avenue to track literacy rates.
Because of these two experiences in Ecuador and with the pediatrician, along with my own dance background, I wondered how these experiences could come together. The goal was never for it to be a giant national nonprofit. I started small in the community I was in as a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. But then I started getting interest across the country with people wanting to start their own programs in their own communities bringing together literacy and dance.
How is Ballet and Books organized?
The format of the program is driven by the community partners we work with. We work out of university campuses, so college students basically run their own mini nonprofit. The college students partner with a community organization, like a community center, library, Head Start program etc. to put on a free dance and literacy program once a week. We train the college students, and the college students put on the programming on a semester basis. We have a three-to-five-year-old class, and a six-to-nine-year-old class. The structure of the class is an hour and a half long and is divided into 45 minutes of dance followed by 45 minutes of one-on-one mentorship using our integrated dance literacy curriculum that we’ve worked with different experts on over the years to finesse. The children have the same college student mentor each week during that mentorship component. The reason we work with college students is because we feel we can empower the next generation to make a difference in their communities by teaching them how to engage directly with children.
Can you share more about the curriculum?
The curriculum we developed integrates both dance and literacy. It’s trying to teach literacy through dance. For example, we can clap to poems or clap to syllables. We do jumping, clapping, and stomping to the beats of a songs. We read books and then make up dances to the story. We basically bring in movement when we’re language learning. It helps kids who learn in different ways and gets them excited about reading.
It doesn’t sound like Ballet and Books focuses specifically on ballet.
We call it Ballet and Books, but we’re not limited to ballet. Our classes do start with first position and second position. Ballet is typically an exclusionary artform, and we’re trying to open it up, so children everywhere are welcome in our program.
Can you share the profile of the average child who engages with Ballet and Books?
Our population is traditionally children who do not have access to typical dance programs or literacy engagement opportunities, and that can be for a variety of reasons: socioeconomic, learning abilities, physical abilities, etc. Our program is entirely free. We provide leotards, tights, or dancewear that is appropriate for each child who participates. Our typical child is from the lower income bracket. We know there’s this literacy gap that exists where children in lower income families hear far fewer words than their affluent peers.
How does Ballet and Books recruit families to participate?
Critical to the program is community engagement. The local community partner is doing the recruiting of the children. They know the children and families best. We intentionally partner with community organizations who can help bring in a diverse array of children.
How is it funded?
It’s funded through individual donors, grants, fundraising, and support from universities.
Do you have a favorite anecdote to share about Ballet and Books’ work with children?
A little girl came to us when she was three in the process of getting adopted out of the foster care system. She was so shy and nervous. She came wearing a full princess dress and didn’t want to dance. She would sit in the corner with her parent. Slowly she started sitting by herself. Then she would stand next to us but wouldn’t dance during the class. When it came time for the final performance, her parents were worried she wouldn’t get onstage. It was a huge beautiful stage at Cornell with 800 people in the audience. She ended up getting onstage and performed the whole dance. Her parents sent me an email later that her new family was sitting in the audience crying. They went after and got a dancing Barbie, and the little girl named it Talia after me. I still talk to the mom, and the little girl is still dancing. She’s found her thing. And it was incredible that we were able to offer that opportunity.
Do you have any metrics on how successful Ballet and Books is?
We’re in the middle of doing an evaluation with pediatricians at the University of Michigan, so we don’t have quantitative data. But we have a lot of qualitative data, mostly feedback from parents. For example, one parent had a daughter with selective mutism. The parent told us that she saw her daughter develop over the semester she was involved with Ballet and Books, she came out of her shell and started talking more to people at home and at school. That tells us that the curriculum is age appropriate and working. Beyond that, we have data from mentors showing this program is impactful. Really the best indicator is whether people return. So many of our children return, as well as our mentors. So we think we’re doing something right.
What’s next for you or for Ballet and Books?
We’re always starting new chapters out of universities. We just started a new program out of the University of Michigan’s dance program, so their students get credit for participating. We’re also expanding our board. Finally, we’re working on this research project to show impact. Data should be finalized in the spring 2025.
What’s next for me is graduating from medical school soon. I am interested in becoming a pediatrician. Obviously, I’m interested in community health. I think medicine has a unique opportunity and plays a unique role in the health of the community. And personally, I’ll always be a dancing doc.
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To learn more, visit www.balletandbooks.org.
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