The Art of the Possible
Twenty-five years ago, we watched children who believed they couldn't do anything discover they could do everything. Celebrate the Beat began in Colorado in 2000, built on one belief: that every child deserves access to transformative arts education, regardless of financial means, background, or ability.
That belief traces back further, to 1976, when dancer Jacques d'Amboise founded the National Dance Institute on the same conviction. Celebrate the Beat carries his legacy forward as NDI's Colorado associate. "My interest, my belief, my obsession," d'Amboise once said, "is that the arts liberate a person's heart and mind to all kinds of possibilities."
How It Works
Two professional teaching artists and a live musician enter a classroom together. No fees. No auditions. Every child participates. Our musicians score each moment live, adding rhythm when a child takes a brave first step, building to a crescendo when a whole class moves as one.
The Impact
More than 55,000 children across Colorado have discovered their own art of the possible. Many return years later as teaching artists themselves, giving the next generation what they once received.
Why Your Gift Matters
Every dollar sustains this legacy, funding the live musicians and teaching artists who make free programming possible in schools across Colorado. This Colorado Gives Day, we invite you to join our 25th Anniversary Campaign with a three-year gift. Your commitment will help us cross the finish line of our $1.4 million goal and bring Celebrate the Beat to the 1,000 children on our school waitlist.
Your donation to Celebrate the Beat qualifies for the Colorado Child Care Contribution Tax Credit.
Celebrate the Beat (CTB) provides in-school and after-school dance programs that improve childrens’ physical health and well-being, inspire them to believe in themselves, and establishes a standard of excellence that positively impacts every aspect of their lives. For youth-at-risk who have little access to a high-quality arts education, CTB’s dance curriculum can be life-changing, teaching them not just the art of dance, but the art of the possible.
In 2000, Tracy Straus, a Tony Award winner and Artistic Associate at National Dance Institute (NDI) in New York, founded Celebrate the Beat (CTB). Ms. Straus had the dream of bringing arts education to under served schools of Colorado. She began with 120 school children from four different schools in Colorado as an outreach program for the Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet. In 2004 Ms. Straus established CTB as an independent nonprofit company closely affiliated with NDI as an associate organization. Ms. Straus' work with NDI and its founder, Jacques d'Amboise, prepared her to grow a teaching organization that brought the arts directly into schools that were willing to integrate dance into the curriculum and include all children, not just a select few. By 2017, in close collaboration with teachers and school officials, CTB grew to successfully bring its program to over 4,000 children annually in several Colorado counties, summer programs in each of those areas as well, and numerous schools in Nayarit, Mexico.
CTB has collaborated with individuals such as cellist Yo Yo Ma, former NYC principal ballet dancers Damian Woetzel and Heather Watts, and current NYC ballet star Misty Copeland. CTB has also partnered with organizations like the Vail International Dance Festival, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Colorado Legacy Foundation and the Healthy Schools Summit, the Colorado Association of School Executives, and the Crested Butte Music Festival. In 2013 and 2016 Celebrate the Beat students from the Adams 14 school district were invited to perform for the Colorado Education Initiative's Healthy Schools Summit, demonstrating our successful program to over 800 of Colorado's leading educators, including the Lieutenant Governor of Colorado.
Organization name
Celebrate the Beat
other names
CTB
2004
Tax id (EIN)
20-0670553
Category
Education
Organization Size
Medium Organization
Colorado State Tax Credits
Colorado Child Care Credit
Address
5933 S Fairfield StMailing
PO Box 6381Denver County, CO, US
Eagle, CO, US, 81631
Delta, CO, US, 81416
Frisco, CO, US
Littleton, CO, US