The executive director of the Dance Institute of Washington teaches Middle Schoolers why movement matters.

When Kahina Haynes ’07 asked the 7th and 8th graders in Danielle Madrid’s movement class what came to mind when they heard the word “ballet,” the responses could have just as easily applied to detention, interminable homework, and orthodonture. Words like “torture,” “boring,” and “painful” snaked through the dance studio in the Pearson Athletic Center amid dramatic groans and pronounced eye rolls. But Haynes, the executive director of the Dance Institute of Washington, was undeterred—and even acknowledged the students’ reaction with a slide show featuring a photograph of one of Degas’s ballet dancers, complete with tutu, bun, and pointe shoes. The next slide, however, didn’t just upend that stereotype; it confounded the kids.

That was the point. Haynes showed them a photograph of enslaved African men and women in the belly of a boat bound for the West. “I love dance for its ability to communicate things other forms of art and communication are not able to,” Haynes said, noting that movement is the earliest form of storytelling, pre-dating language. When people think about what is essential to life, they think of food and water, Haynes said. But during the slave trade, “there were no essentials—no consistent food or water, no security, no shelter,” she said. In that void, “suddenly, dance is important.” In a world of stark realities, dance, music, and storytelling all became vital to survival and to maintaining a connection to humanity.

Redefining “ballet” as part of a much larger movement tradition is just part of the Dance Institute of Washington’s mission. The organization also promotes a theory of change that reimagines ballet as something everyone can participate in—which means eliminating socioeconomic barriers to dance classes, destigmatizing ballet as elite, and creating space to allow a variety of lived experiences in. It is also an organization Haynes was meant to lead. While at Sidwell Friends, Haynes trained as a ballerina with the prestigious Maryland Youth Ballet—eschewing sports, theater, clubs, socializing, and so many other experiences on offer after the school day ends. In college at Princeton, Haynes did a concentration in dance but moved into a more academic realm and subsequently pursued graduate work at Oxford University, where she studied evidence-based social interventions—that is, disrupting traditional barriers and recreating traditional systems. Marrying ballet with social intervention at the Dance Institute of Washington is thus a culmination of her life’s work.

In the studio at Sidwell Friends, Haynes linked dance to protesting and marching for change. “Dance has been present at every rebellion, resilience movement, and revolution around the world,” she said. “It is a way of processing the world around you.” To that end, she asked the students to break into groups and to use 16 beats of movement to illustrate a typical day at school. But there was a twist, one person from each group was secretly told to “go off script” at the end and do something new. The assignment “helped me connect with my peers about our common school experience,” said Maya Ruben ’29.

In fact, in Ruben’s group, a carefully choreographed quartet ended with three dancers in sync and one, Livia Chen ’29, who mimed the act of shrugging themself into a hoodie in a poignant commentary on anti-social angst. While the students seemed to find such unplanned disruptions funny, Madrid and Haynes were clearly captivated by how effortlessly the kids had created something truly profound.

Haynes finished by teaching the students a quick combination of fun moves—and before they could say, “But that’s not ballet,” Haynes did something simple: She pointed her toes and did the same moves. It was ballet—and the kids liked it. So, Haynes asked again what came to mind when they heard the word “ballet.” Now the students said ballet had a broader definition, included more body types, and signaled a wide range of movement. “Now I feel like things I do every day could be dance,” said Brooklin Ma ’30. “Yes!” beamed Haynes. “Everyone is a dancer.”