Tiaras are part of the fun for Ballet & Books students at the Beatty Early Learning Center in Ypsilanti. After a class that Bailes describes as creative movement with ballet influence, U-M volunteers work one-on-one with the kids on a curriculum that links dance and literacy. | Talia Bailes
There the Cincinnati native taught English, worked in a health clinic, and danced with an Indigenous dance group. “I was really fascinated by the fact that all these kids were really great storytellers but weren’t really good readers,” recalls Bailes, now a U-M medical student. Once back in the United States, she began working with a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to better understand how to keep kids who are falling behind on track to learn to read. She thought, “Why can’t dance and literacy come together to get kids excited about reading and learning?”
This became the springboard for a nonprofit she founded in 2017 called Ballet & Books, where she is the executive director. It’s using dance as a way of closing the literacy gap.
“I think this intersection of dance and health is understudied,” Bailes says. “Ballet & Books is committed to helping young children and college students build a sense of community and well-being through dance and literacy.” Nationally, the program has served 1,000 children and involved 1,000 college students. Since it started in Michigan in 2023, it’s served sixty-two children.
Bailes is now in her fourth year of medical school, pursuing pediatrics. Meanwhile, the nonprofit trains college students to teach dance and mentor children ages three to nine who don’t typically have access to such programs.
The initiative here is led by Kara Roseborough, an instructor with the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and Katie Gunning, an administrator with SMTD. (Gunning made the connection after reading about the group online.)
Each Friday, SMTD students head to the Beatty Early Learning Center in Ypsilanti to provide the free programming. The first forty-five minutes is a class that Bailes describes as creative movement with ballet influence. In the second forty-five minutes, the SMTD students work one-on-one with the kids on a curriculum that links dance and literacy. For a lesson on what syllables are, they may clap out the syllables, then dance and stomp to the beat of a song.
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The semester-long program culminates in a performance at the end of the semester where the youngsters dance with the U-M students. Last year, thirty-two children participated in Michigan and 250 nationally. “We typically start programming in locations where community partners and/or local students have reached out to us,” Bailes emails. They currently have a dozen other sites, from Spelman College in Atlanta to UCLA.
Bailes says the benefits are twofold: college students learn how to work with their community while kids become “excited about dance” and develop a love for reading “while allowing them to see that they can also go to college.”
The program is funded through grants and private donors. During the fall semester, the college students get course credit for participating; they volunteer during the winter term.
Chelsea Wallington, a twenty-year-old junior getting her BFA in dance and aspiring pediatric physical therapist, has worked with Ballet & Books as a dance teacher and mentor for the previous two semesters. When one child was nervous about going onstage, she reassured her that she didn’t have to perform, but played up the tiara and costume she was wearing to make her realize it would be an exciting experience. She then asked the child if she would feel comfortable if her father stood to the side of the stage, and the child agreed. “She went out there, and you would not be able to tell she’s so nervous,” Wallington says.
“Even if the steps weren’t perfect, just seeing them have fun and seeing the joy on their face—it was amazing,” she says. “That’s my favorite part of the year.”