outreach
Integrating fun with serious intent to transform lives.

KDHDC supports arts education and community well being through various outreach programs. Many of our programs benefit underserved youth. For us, it’s serious play.

The company has performed and/or taught creative dance classes at the Austin Fine Arts Festival, Caraway Elementary School, the Helping Hand Home and for Girl Scout troops. While our costs are quite reasonable, some additional match funding might be available through the Texas Commission on the Arts - especially for extended residencies. Please contact us if you are interested in bringing us to your school or organization. We will be happy to design a program for your group.

New Art Kinnections is a multi-arts enrichment program for high risk youth. It reflects our vision to share the dance company's improvisational and collaborative creative process with high risk children and teens in order to effect profound, long-term changes in their thoughts, attitudes and actions. High school students participate in Creativity Circle Workshops where they explore movement, music, poetry, and storytelling and produce culminating exhibits and performances. They also attend live performances throughout Austin as part of To The Dance. Elementary school students move bravely through space in Young Dancers, our creative dance curriculum.

With substantial funding from A Glimmer of Hope, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company provides adult guidance, peer mentoring, and in-depth enrichment opportunities for 250 children and teens residing in East and South Austin.

"We're excited about creating a space in life where youth can be creative and feel connected. We're not creating a project but building memories." says the dance company's Outreach Director, Barbara Jo Stetzelberger, LCSW, DTR.