When Shanell White wants to secure her win in a dance battle, she pulls out one of her favorite hip-hop moves — the helicopter.
The 9-year-old uses her hands to balance her body on the vinyl wood flooring of the dance studio while her left leg swoops and rotates from underneath her.
Dance duels have become more common for the Fort Worth fourth grader since she started taking lessons at Above the Clouds Texas, a faith-based nonprofit offering free ballet, theater, hip-hop, jazz and vocal lessons to children ages 5-17.
The program, based in Wisconsin, arrived in Fort Worth two years ago and aims to make arts education accessible to families who would not be able to afford it otherwise, said Tina Washington, director of the nonprofit’s Texas chapter.
“I remember being that kid where my mom couldn’t afford to put me in a class,” Washington said. “Knowing that I can be a part of something that can be a barrier eliminator for that is big.”
Above the Clouds Texas offers classes at the William M. McDonald YMCA, the Las Vegas Trail Revitalization Project, known as LVTRise, and the Leadership Academy of Forest Oak Middle School.
The program relies on shoe and costume donations from dance studios. Financial donations and grants help pay the dance instructors. That allows parents like Shanell’s mom, Shantel White, to register their kids for free.
White used to do ballet and jazz when she was a kid and wanted her daughter to have the opportunity to do the same. However, the day-to-day costs of sustaining the family of five left her without enough money for Shanell to take dance classes at a studio.
When White heard that Above the Clouds Texas offered its services at the YMCA, White remembers signing Shanell up immediately.
“She wants to dance, but at the time, I could not afford it,” White said. “She loves to dance … and it gives her time she needs to be a girly girl and to hone down on her skills.”
Above the Clouds Texas’ prison ministry origin
Above the Clouds was co-founded in Wisconsin in 2001 by artist and professional dancer Linda Wade. She brings worship and dance to incarcerated women in Wisconsin and Texas prisons through a ministry called Discipleship Unlimited.
Wade formed the nonprofit as a way to make art a form of self-expression for kids with adverse childhood experiences and prevent them from being incarcerated later in life.
Adverse childhood experiences are linked to both poor mental health and adverse social outcomes, including arrest and incarceration, according to The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
Washington met Wade while volunteering with Discipleship Unlimited, where Washington shared her journey of finding her faith in a Texas prison. Prior to her 2009 incarceration, Washington described being in an abusive relationship with her then-husband.
“We had lots of fights and then in one of those fights, it got really bad,” Washington said. “I was so traumatized from him taking things and doing things to the children in the midst of that I ended up shooting him, and he didn’t live after he was shot.”
Washington served a total of four years in the William P. Hobby Unit in Marlin, Texas. She spent two of them in a faith-based dorm operated by Discipleship Unlimited. In 2019, Wade asked Washington to help her form an Above the Clouds chapter in Fort Worth.
Nearly half of the children in the program are in families who have been impacted by incarceration, Washington said. She hopes the program can serve as a safe space for kids to explore the arts and express themselves.
Participants are also given a prayer teddy bear that wears a white T-shirt with red text that says “All Things Are Possible With God,” referring to a line of scripture from the Book of Mark in the Bible.
“This may be their only outlet. They’re able to express how they feel through what they’re doing,” Washington said. “For all my life, I wrote, I sang, I drew, I danced and I sewed, and to have an organization that can help any kind of family, I wanted to be a part of that.”
Looking ahead
Above the Clouds Texas has served more than 250 kids since its inception, Washington said. Within the next year, Washington hopes to expand the program in Dallas and bring in licensed chaplains who can offer spiritual support to families in need.
In the future, she hopes to visit incarcerated women to share how children have benefited from the program — and how their own kids can get involved.
“Being introduced to this program as an artist who was formerly incarcerated, a mom who was formerly incarcerated and a child who has experienced trauma and seeing it kind of circling together just gives me hope that God will continue to do what he’s already done in the future,” she said.
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or @marissaygreene. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.