Armour Dance Theatre Students Shine at the Universal Ballet Competition – Palm Beach

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This past weekend, the Armour Dance Theatre family traveled to Palm Beach to participate in the Universal Ballet Competition, and our students returned with far more than awards. They returned with confidence, growth, and the kind of artistry that comes from months of dedication, resilience, and trust in the process.

Competitions like UBC offer students an opportunity to step onto a professional stage, perform alongside dancers from across the region, and receive meaningful feedback that supports both technical excellence and artistic development. For our dancers, this weekend was a powerful reflection of the work happening every day in the studio.

Behind the scenes, this success was made possible by the tireless efforts of our faculty and leadership. From late-night coaching and rehearsals to registrations, warm-ups, and open stages, our teachers continue to create an environment where dancers are challenged, supported, and inspired. Together, our Armour Dance Theatre community showed what teamwork, mentorship, and a shared love of dance can accomplish.

Student Highlights & Awards

Each Armour Dance Theatre student brought their own voice, strength, and artistry to the stage. We are so proud to celebrate their individual accomplishments:

ANA CERDA – Junior Intermediate🏅 High Gold – Ballet

Ana Cerda on the right.

ANABELA RIVERO – Senior Competitive🏅 High Gold – Ballet

ABIGAIL DECARLO – Primary Intermediate 🏆 UBC Platinum 🏅 5th Overall – Ballet 🏅 High Gold – Contemporary

AVA SCHEINER- Junior Intermediate🏅 High Gold – Ballet🏅 High Gold – Contemporary

CAMILLE VALLS – Senior Intermediate 🏆 UBC Platinum🥈 2nd Place Overall – Ballet

CECILIA MONTEIRO – Junior Intermediate 🏆 UBC Platinum 🥈 2nd Place Overall – Ballet

ELENA MONZON-AGUIRRE – Primary Intermediate🏅 High Gold – Ballet

ELISE GALLARDO – Junior Competitive 🏅 High Gold – Ballet🏅 High Gold – Contemporary

 

FYRE HODGES – Junior Intermediate 🏆 UBC Platinum🏅 5th Place Overall – Ballet & Contemporary

LILIANA FUENTES – Senior Intermediate 🏆 UBC Platinum 🥇 1st Place – Ballet

VICTORIA MARTINEZ – Senior Competitive 🏆 UBC Platinum🏅 11th Place Overall – Ballet

Victoria received a 25% scholarship to The Washington Ballet School Intensive and Repertory Week.

Want to receive this kind of dance training? Click here to start today.

Summer In New York Student Reflections 2025

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Each summer, Armour Dance Theatre sends talented high school and college students who have earned placement in professional dance intensives for an enriching experience in New York City for up to eight weeks. This privately funded initiative fully supports expenses, including chaperones, accommodations, and meals. We hope you enjoy reading about their journeys, lessons learned, and exciting adventures in the following pages.

 

Flip through the book below to read more about our 2025 Summer in New York students. 

Shaking It Up: How Dance Classes Shape Kids for Success!

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Dance classes are more than just a way for kids to have fun—dance is a powerful tool that sets the stage for success in many aspects of life. Participating in dance offers children a unique blend of mental and social benefits.  Here’s how dance classes can shape kids for success:

 

1. Boosting Cognitive Skills

Dance isn’t just about moving to the beat; it’s also about thinking on your feet! When kids learn choreography, they engage their brains, enhance their memory, and sharpen their problem-solving skills. This mental workout translates directly to better performance in school, where focus, discipline, and perseverance are key.

Flamenco Class at Armour Dance Theatre’s South Miami Academy

2. Building Confidence and Self-Esteem

Stepping onto the dance floor or performing can be a huge confidence booster for kids. Dance helps children express themselves, overcome shyness, and build a positive self-image. This newfound confidence can positively impact their interactions and achievements in all areas of life.

3. Fostering Social Skills and Teamwork

Dance classes are an excellent way for kids to make new friends and learn to work together. Kids develop important social skills like empathy, cooperation, and respect when working toward a group performance or supporting each other during class. These experiences prepare them for teamwork and collaboration in the future.

4. Encouraging Discipline and Time Management

Consistency is key to build any skill and it is especially important in dance. Kids quickly learn the importance of commitment. Showing up on time, practicing regularly, and striving for improvement teach kids discipline and time management. These habits are invaluable, helping them juggle schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and, later in life, professional careers.

Ballet Class at Armour Dance Theatre’s South Miami Academy

5. Cultivating Creativity and Emotional Expression

Dance is a fantastic outlet for creativity and emotions. Kids can explore their feelings and express themselves in a safe, structured environment. Creative expression is therapeutic and fosters a love for the arts and an appreciation for diverse forms of creativity.

Dance classes offer so much more than just physical movement. By participating in dance, kids gain valuable life skills that set them up for success. So, let’s shake things up and help our kids dance their way to a brighter, successful future!

 

Ready to see your child thrive on and off the dance floor? Register today and watch them build confidence, creativity, and lifelong skills at Armour Dance Theatre!

REGISTER NOW

 

Please visit the sites below for more information on how Dance benefits children. 

National Library of Medicine 

Dance USA

National Endowment for the Arts 

Summer In New York Student Reflections 2024

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Each summer, Armour Dance Theatre sends talented high school and college students who have earned placement in professional dance intensives for an enriching experience in New York City for up to eight weeks. This privately funded initiative fully supports expenses, including chaperones, accommodations, and meals. We hope you enjoy reading about their journeys, lessons learned, and exciting adventures in the following pages.

 

Flip through the book below to read more about our 2024 Summer in New York students. 

5 Best Gifts For A Dancer This Holiday Season

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Do you have a dancer in your life and no idea what to get them? You’ve come to the right place. We are all rushing to get our Christmas shopping done, and we’re here to help you pick the best gift for your dancer to twirl into the new year. Here are five of the best gifts to get a dancer.

The Bullet Pointe Ballet Skirt

The Bullet Pointe Ballet skirt is the best gift for the “bunhead” in your life. Elevate a ballet dancer’s class look with this top-selling item.

Holiday snow globe

Always dancing in their minds, right? Sprinkle dance magic into your holiday decorations with a cute snow globe or a sweet ballerina ornament.

Knit warm-up shorts

You can’t go wrong with warm-ups for a dancer…ever. Knit shorts are the perfect option for a dancer’s gift.

Unique leotards

Leotards are always a great gift and will certainly get put to good use. Ballet Rosa offers unique options to make a beautiful holiday gift.

Another warm-up option

Warm-up booties are trendy and are perfect for the cooler months. Grab a pair of these for your dancer to prepare for class and performances.

During the holiday season, we show our local businesses some love! Dance Plus and Ballet Boutique are the best of Miami’s dance supply stores, with everything in stock to find the perfect gift. Visit their websites and make an order, or visit their storefront in Miami.

Also, note that both stores offer discounts to customers referred by Armour Dance Theatre, and Ballet Boutique has a mailbox to leave letters for Santa. ❤️ 🙃

Armour Dance Theatre Awarded a $100,000 Grant from the Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation.

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We are thrilled to share that Armour Dance Theatre has been named a 2023 CreARTE Grant Recipient, receiving a generous donation of $100,000 from The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation.  This significant contribution is part of the third edition of the Pérez CreARTE Grants Program (CreARTE), which will distribute a total of $5,000,000 over the next two years to support 39 cultural organizations across Miami-Dade County. The goal is to enrich and invigorate the local arts community, fostering a more vibrant, connected, and stimulating artistic ecosystem.

“The CreARTE program was born of our family’s desire to expand the transformative power of South Florida’s arts community,” as Jorge M. Pérez, a globally recognized philanthropist and the founder of the Pérez Family Foundation, mentioned. “We are dedicated to identifying and supporting organizations that contribute to Miami-Dade County’s unique, vibrant cultural landscape. Every year, we are inspired by the talent and vision of our applicants and look forward to witnessing their professional achievements and contributions to our region in the years ahead.”

Armour Dance Theatre – Empowering Through Dance

At Armour Dance Theatre, we are passionately committed to harnessing the power of exceptional dance training to help every student reach their full potential. We firmly believe that arts education builds crucial life skills and has the potential to transform a child’s future. The grant funds we’ve received will enable us to create a transformative dance experience with powerful choreography that resonates universally with audiences of all backgrounds, cultures, and ages. This will be performed by our diverse troupe of young dancers in new and unexpected venues, making the arts accessible to all.

Since 2019, the CreARTE program has invested a total of $10 million across 45 unique organizations in Miami-Dade County. This investment has empowered these organizations to reach hundreds of thousands of individuals through grant-supported programming, capacity building, and impact assessment.

CreARTE is made possible through a unique partnership between the Pérez Family Foundation and The Miami Foundation, a cornerstone of the local nonprofit community that currently manages close to $445 million in philanthropic funds.

For more information about Armour Dance Theatre, please visit our website at www.armourdance.org. You can find more information about The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation, its mission, and previous donations at jmperezfamilyfoundation.org.

 

Summer In New York Student Reflections 2023

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Each summer, Armour Dance Theatre sends talented high school and college students who have earned placement in professional dance intensives for an enriching experience in New York City for up to eight weeks. This privately funded initiative fully supports expenses, including chaperones, accommodations, and meals. We hope you enjoy reading about their journeys, lessons learned, and exciting adventures in the following pages.

 

Flip through the book below to read more about our 2023 Summer in New York students. 

 

 

Armour Dance Theatre is Celebrating its 75th Anniversary

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Our Story, Our Legacy

Armour Dance Theater has a rich history of blazing new trails.

Our namesake, classical ballet dancer Thomas Armour, knew the thrill of performing on the world’s preeminent stages. However, his performing career was cut short by World War II when he was drafted to serve as a military intelligence officer in Paris. After the war, Mr. Armour returned to Florida and opened the Miami Conservatory in 1949. As the area’s oldest dance academy, it has fostered generations of talent. 

Two years later, in 1951, Mr. Armour became founding Artistic Director of the Miami Ballet. The company provided first-class training and stage experience to aspiring dancers through full-scale classical ballets with celebrated guest artists such as Fernando Bujones, Natalia Makarova, Edward Villella, Peter Martins and Violette Verdy, to name a few. 

More than 30 years ago, Ruth Wiesen, today’s artistic director, approached Mr. Armour about making quality dance training more accessible to underserved youth by offering scholarships. He agreed, opening the door to children for whom the study of ballet otherwise would have been impossible. 

Our programs continue to grow in scope and impact. As we enter our 75th year, we continue to uphold a tradition of exceptional dance instruction. We are very proud that the quality of our program has put us among 18 nationally accredited dance schools recognized by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Precollegiate Arts Schools. In addition, we are excited this year to add a fifth neighborhood program site where we can provide a safe, nurturing, and accepting environment that helps maximize the potential of our students.

The study of dance instills crucial life skills of discipline, attention to detail, tenacity, teamwork, and focus on long-term goals. With an emphasis on exceptional training, our programs work to remove obstacles, open doors, and inspire dreams, using dance as a vehicle to success.

 

We hope you will join us in celebrating 75 years of transforming lives by sharing this exciting news, attending and bringing friends and family to upcoming events, and, most importantly, learning more about supporting Armour Dance Theatre programs. Explore our website and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @armourdancetheatre

 

Armour Dance Theatre will be performing an excerpt of “Battlefield” an iconic piece choreographed by Alvin Ailey’s artistic director Robert Battle

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“Battlefield” is an iconic piece choreographed by Alvin Ailey’s Artistic Director Robert Battle. Armour Dance Theatre will perform the finale section on April 1st and 2nd.

ADT has a long history of highlighting our alumni as guests in the annual spring concert. Dancer, choreographer, and now director, Robert Battle began his artistic journey as a child here in Miami. We are thrilled to showcase this excerpt from “Battlefield” the captivating work that was initially choreographed in 2001.

Elisa Clark, freelance repetiteur and former Ailey company member, staged this work over the course of three days at our South Miami Academy. Once the work was staged, Kelly Robotham rehearsed and coached the 19  dancers to display the power, unity, and athleticism that Battlefield is so famous for. Ms. Robotham heads the ADT Contemporary faculty and is a former member of the Ailey company.

Join us on  April 1st at 7 PM and April 2nd at 2 PM at New World School of the Arts. Tickets are available to purchase for $20 right now! Use the button below to buy your tickets now.

PURCHASE TICKETS

Dance As A Vehicle to Success

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For the past 30 years, Armour Dance Theatre (ADT) has created opportunities for the youth of Miami through dance-focused programming. 

Our Community Programs serve over 400 children in four diverse, under-resourced neighborhoods. When these students reach middle school age, ADT helps guide families through the magnet-school admission process to ensure all students have access to the best schooling opportunities.

Intermediate level students performing at the annual spring concert.

STOPLIGHTS TO SUCCESS

Obstacles arise when students are accepted into “A-rated” magnet programs too far from their homes, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) cannot provide suitable transportation. ADT offers support through stipends for private transportation.

Each year, an average of 29 students graduating from our Community Programs require transportation assistance to get to school and ADT’s main site Academy, where they continue receiving advanced dance training. Transportation stipends amount to $1,380 for each student per year. 

Community program students at Little Haiti Community Program site.

“YOU’RE IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT!” HELP DRIVE ADT’S MISSION

ADT aims to raise $40,000 annually to ensure we not only support our students in their admission to “A-rated” magnet schools, but we support their ability to attend them.

Will you join us today by helping to support our transportation fund? 

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the first $20,000 raised will be matched dollar-for-dollar!

Please consider… 

  • A $30 one-time donation provides a student transportation for one week.
  • A $115 monthly donation supports one student’s transportation to a brighter future for one year.
  • A $1,380 one-time donation provides a student transportation for one year. 
DONATE NOW