For instructors
You are already doing the work. We back it.
A stipend for sixteen sessions, a curriculum written for the children you teach, adaptive equipment, and an organisation behind you when you need one.
Who this is for
Dance teachers, movement therapists, special-education teachers with a dance background, and studio instructors who have been asked — by a parent, a school, a community centre — to teach a child with a disability and said yes. Some of you have taught adaptive classes for years without a budget. Some have never taught one and want to.
What you receive
- A stipend — $1,600 for a sixteen-session term, paid as a program grant through the host organisation or directly, depending on where you teach.
- A curriculum — session plans and adaptation guidance for autistic children and children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities and sensory processing differences. Training and curriculum, not a certification.
- Equipment — $600 per term for adaptive equipment and sensory tools, chosen with you for the children in the room.
- A floor — a host studio from the World Dance Foundation Atlas, or funded studio time where none is donated.
- An organisation — insurance guidance, a reporting template, a place on the platform, and someone to call.
What we ask of you
- Complete safeguarding before you meet a child under the program: a background check, acknowledgment of mandated-reporter obligations, and agreement to the child-protection policy. Read the safeguarding page.
- Run the full term and report enrolment, attendance and completion at the end of it.
- Never photograph or film a child without written guardian consent — and stop the moment consent is withdrawn.
Expressing interest is not an application to be placed with children. The form on the World Dance Foundation site collects an adult's details and nothing about any child. Placement happens only after safeguarding is complete.
Express interest
The interest form lives on the World Dance Foundation site, where the program's donations and records are kept. It takes two minutes: where you teach, whom you teach today, and what you would need to run a term.