International High School Adds Dance Studio

Normally the hallways at The International High School at Prospect Heights would have been quiet during after-school hours. But this week, they were vibrating with the sound of African dance and drumming.

They were alive with the sound of a student performance that was part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate a new dance studio and cultural center on Monday. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz attended the ceremony and the Afro-Latin dance troupe, Abakuá, gave later that evening.

What was once a typical classroom is now a dance studio, revamped with gleaming wooden floors, full-length mirrors, ballet bars and a screen for projecting videos. 

The day marked the culmination of a project the high school started in 2008.

Four students who interned with a major engineering firm helped create floor plans; the high school's administrators, community members and local artists cooperated on the grant proposal and Borough President Markowitz allocated $200,000 to the school, from the office's capital budget for brick and mortar projects.

Arts education is being incorporated into the curriculum, taught by local dance, music, martial arts and yoga instructors in exchange for use of the studio, located at 883 Classon Avenue.

The International High School at Prospect Heights is public and serves 420 immigrant students who arrived in the New York City four years ago or less. The school works with students learning English as a second language.

Noting students' frustration in learning subjects like science, social studies and literature in a language foreign to them, Special Programs Coordinator Dariana Castro said that music and dance were good outlets for the school's population.

"Sometimes students need ways to express themselves without language," said Castro.