The Pathways Partnership
One continuous pathway into dance.
It begins in a first-grade classroom, where a child who has never seen a ballet class dances with California Dance Institute.
It continues at the barre at Westside School of Ballet, on full scholarship, with attire and transportation provided.
It grows with more students on the Westside of Los Angeles transformed by the joys and power of studying dance.
With every step supported by two organizations committed to expanding access to the mental, physical, social, and academic benefits of dance.
SERVED
SUMMER INTENSIVE
3 PARTNER SCHOOLS
GRANTS AWARDED TO DATE
WHY THIS PARTNERSHIP EXISTS
According to a 2024 National Center for Education Statistics survey, dance is offered as a standalone class in only 13% of U.S. public schools, against 84% for music, and the gap falls hardest on high-poverty schools and communities of color.
For children in public elementary schools, this can mean never having the opportunity to discover dance as a vehicle for building lifelong skills, enriching their development, and supporting academic achievement. It can also mean never imagining dance as a passion or a career.
The obstacles for pursuing dance, beyond the lack of discovery and exposure, include the cost of tuition and attire, the availability and affordability of transportation, and the historic racial and economic exclusion embedded in rigorous dance training, especially in ballet.
"Talent, enthusiasm, and commitment, not circumstance, decide who has the extraordinary opportunity to receive ballet training from Westside Ballet."
For 25 years, California Dance Institute has brought free, in-school dance instruction to over 20,000 children in under-resourced Los Angeles neighborhoods, ensuring that more students can realize the many benefits of moving their bodies joyously, collaborating with peers, and finding the confidence and accomplishment that come with performance.
For 55 years, Westside Ballet of Santa Monica has been the premier provider of pre-professional ballet training in Los Angeles, co-founded by Yvonne Mounsey, a former Principal & Soloist with the New York City Ballet, and Rosemary Valaire, a former soloist with the Royal Ballet.
Together, these organizations have created The Pathways Partnership, a collaboration that combines their expertise into a single, clear route that opens doors for more children to achievement through dance, and demonstrates what rigorous, joyful ballet training can do for a child's future.
71%of low-income students with deep arts involvement go on to attend college, compared to 48% of students with no arts access at all.Read the full NEA report on arts and achievement in at-risk youth (PDF) →
HOW IT WORKS
Three stages. One pathway. No handoffs.
CDI brings a multi-week residency into public elementary schools during the school day. Every child dances: no audition, no fee, no travel.
Students who light up in the residency are invited into Sunday and summer sessions at Westside School of Ballet in their Dance to Dreams program: a real studio, real training, and the first taste of what serious dance asks of you.
Dancers ready for the academy are offered full scholarships, including funds for attire, and transportation, piloted and proven with HopSkipDrive, so no child misses class for lack of a ride.
From pilot to proof.
The Pathways Partnership is no longer a concept. It is a working model, with results.
THREE PARTNER SCHOOLS
TO DREAMS SUMMER INTENSIVE
SCHOLARSHIPS OFFERED
FOR 2026–27
Behind every number is a child who encountered dance for the first time, or who discovered through dance something they hadn't known they were capable of.
What the pathway can look like for a child.
SOPHIA · PATHWAYS SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
“As parents, Loc and I can't thank you enough for giving Sophia a chance to better herself in all life phases. CDI's relentless efforts and willingness to help others were how Sophia got into Westside Ballet. With Sophia in ballet, she will learn respect, discipline, and a work ethic she will carry for the rest of her life. These are earned, not given — and because of that, we are so grateful.”
“I love ballet. It is the best!”
KARSON · DANCE TO DREAMS SCHOLARSHIP
Not every child enters the pathway at the same step. Karson started her journey with the Dance to Dreams summer session, which includes CDI instructors, instead of the in-school residency. What the pathway program found in her was unmistakable.
“She is an exceptionally talented young dancer. Not only does she show the physical attributes ideal for a classical ballet dancer, but also a steely resolve and focus well beyond her years. Surely there is a bright future in store for Karson.”
“Knowing she had a safe ride meant Karson never had to miss ballet.”
The second scholarship offer reflects the same principle: that talent, commitment, and potential, not circumstance, should determine who gets access to rigorous ballet training.
The Pathways Partnership is designed to grow. By 2030, the goal is twenty partner schools and forty annual scholarships: a continuously running program in which new cohorts of first-graders encounter dance every year across the Westside, with a pathway always moving from classroom to studio to scholarship.
The pilot has proven the model works. What comes next is building it to scale.
PILOT PROGRESS REPORT · 2024–2026
Everything on what has been built, what has been learned, and what comes next: the MOU, the selection rubric, the transportation pilot, the funding picture, and the 2030 plan. Enter your details and you'll get instant access.
WITH GRATITUDE
NSI funded the first two phases of this work: the Exploratory Grant that let CDI and Westside Ballet find out whether a shared pathway was even possible, and the Planning Grant that turned that answer into an MOU, a rubric, a transportation model, and three partner schools.
Patient, unglamorous funding for the planning stage is rare, and it is the reason there is progress to report at all. We are profoundly grateful. NSI believed in this pathway before there was a single scholarship to point to, and that belief is what made everything below possible.
Now we're asking you to help write the next chapter.
SUPPORT THE PATHWAY
Gifts to either organization fund the same pathway: the residency that starts it, the training that sustains it, and the ride that makes both possible.
STAY WITH IT
Learn more about the partner organizations
CALIFORNIA DANCE INSTITUTE
Follow the residencies as they move from school to school across the Westside.
CALIFORNIADANCEINSTITUTE.ORG →WESTSIDE BALLET OF SANTA MONICA
Performances, summer intensives, and the dancers coming up through the pathway.
WESTSIDEBALLET.COM →WESTSIDE BALLET OF SANTA MONICA
FACILITATED BY MORE CANVAS CONSULTING
EXPLORATION AND PILOT FUNDED BY NONPROFIT SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE