Established in 2012, the HSDF mission is to cultivate self-respect, creativity, social awareness, teamwork, and cultural understanding through ballroom dance. HSDF is proud to bring the internationally recognized, in school program Dancing Classrooms to the children of Southern Chicago.

Dancing Classrooms Southern Chicago will be the Chicagoland branch of the program; which has been featured in three films “Take the Lead” starring Antonio Banderas, the documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom”, and the recently released “Dancing in Jaffa” where founder Pierre Dulaine takes the DC program to Jaffa, Israel teaching 10-year-old Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish children to dance together.

In our pilot year we brought Dancing Classrooms Southern Chicago to the 5th classes at Southeast Elementary in Evergreen Park. The program was a huge success, bringing a positive impact on all the children who participated, their families, and community at large. We have not only been asked to implement the program throughout district 124 in the upcoming 2013-2014 school year, we are also speaking to numerous other districts to bring the program to an additional 20+ schools. HSDF assists each classroom by covering half of the $3500 it costs to run the program. The funds are raised by generous donations made by the community, and several fundraising events held throughout the year.