[soft piano music]
- In a community center gym,
members of the Milwaukee Ballet take the stage.
- This is a workshop we call A Day in the Life.
Trying to get the Milwaukee Ballet
out to the community in the summer
to see what we do all year-round.
- They call it Taking Ballet to the Street.
And the Holton Youth and Family Center in Milwaukee s north side
is fertile ground for the effort.
The center houses
the offices of the Above the Clouds arts program...
- Okay. Bye-bye.
- ...and its co-founder Linda Wade.
- Arts gives you an outlet.
It lets you dream.
It lets you escape for a moment.
You can get lost in that medium of dance.
- First,
second,
third,
and fifth.
- The children love the welcome and attention they get
when they come to Above the Clouds.
[soft piano music]
- A lot of our children are inner-city Milwaukee children
that couldn t afford to take our classes.
A lot of single families,
a lot of grandparents raising their children.
We have a lot of single dads coming
and bringing their daughter.
- One, two, three.
I think everybody has it this time.
- Children start at a young age at Above the Clouds,
but Linda came to dance much later in life.
As a child, she suffered from a heart condition.
- I ve always wanted to dance and do ballet,
but as a child and always being sick,
I never had the strength,
plus my parents couldn t afford it.
- Years later at church,
Linda encountered a dance performance
that profoundly inspired her.
* *
- And I told the Lord,
I said, "You know, I sure would like to do that."
And so a lady that I knew at the church said,
Why don t you just go to take a ballet class?
* *
- Linda took many dance classes and eventually
the leader of a gospel dance company asked her to join.
- She said, "Linda, do you want to go to prison with me?"
You know, that s a strange question
when somebody asks you, Do you want to go to prison?
But I always knew on the inside
that there was something else that I wanted to experience.
And so I told her, Yes.
- The visits to women s prisons in Texas
were the missionary work of Discipleship Unlimited.
- They always love it
when dancers come and to feel their energy
because they re called the women in white
because they're always wearing white.
So we purposely wear colorful dance outfits.
The music is always uplifting.
- Linda was uplifted by the experience and
connections she made with women in prison.
- I would always ask the ladies,
"What happened to get you to this point?"
Not about their crime, but about their life.
And it always would turn out
to be something that would happen in their childhood.
- Flying home, Linda would think about what she could do
to help keep young people from making those same mistakes.
She envisioned a dance program
that would inspire young people as she had been inspired.
- And we were over the clouds and
that s where I got the name Above the Clouds.
Nothing can limit you.
Nothing can stop you.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
- And we thank you for joining us in class today.
- What I love about Above the Clouds is that
they re engaging kids in their community
who might not have the opportunity to do ballet.
They re also really instilling this sense of self-confidence
and pride in everything they do.
- Can you all give me a bow curtsy and say Amen?
- Group: Amen.
- Seeing the students blossom
from being a child that is withdrawn
to running into the building to get to their class.
I love that part.
- How was class?
- Good. - It was good?
- Can I have a hug, Deanna? - Okay.
- We don t preach at them,
but let them know we're there for them.