Ballet Aficionados Toe Line, Study Finds

A study commissioned by the St. Joseph Ballet has confirmed what ballet organizers say they already knew: that participation in the program greatly benefits inner-city youth.

“Contact with the ballet is building the kind of assets in our youth that will help them avoid at-risk behavior,” said Kathy Michaels, managing director of the ballet company, founded 15 years ago in Santa Ana. The company’s mission is to give low-income youth a sense of purpose and accomplishment by teaching them to dance.

“This study confirms what, instinctively, we knew we were doing,” Michaels said. “But feeling good about it and knowing that it works in scientific terms are two different things. We can see the kids and know what’s happening, but seeing the scientific validation meant the world to us.”

Conducted by a team of researchers at UC Irvine, the study--based on interviews with 190 youngsters--indicates that high-school age, long-term participants in the program are less likely than their peers to use alcohol or drugs or to engage in sexual activity.

It also shows that participants are three times more likely to believe in the importance of spending at least an hour a day on homework and significantly more likely to report high levels of support from their families, positive influences from their peers and constructive use of their time.

“These impacts are long-standing,” the study concludes. The St. Joseph Ballet “has a profound and positive effect on the lives of those children who join the ballet, and those effects are increased for children who stay in the ballet for more than one year.”

Michaels attributes the results to a variety of factors, including the consistency created in the teens’ lives.

Since 1983, about 32,000 low-income youths ages 9 to 18 have attended class at St. Joseph or participated through outreach programs in area schools. A study conducted five years ago showed similar results but had a narrower scope.

The most recent findings, Michaels said, should help the nonprofit dance company raise some of its $500,000 annual budget, most of which comes from grants.