Our Pledge: KEEP Kids Dancing!
Response to COVID-19
We may not be able to gather in-person, but the Teaching Artists and Musicians at Kids Excel El Paso (KEEP) are committed to providing life-changing, quality arts education to the children of El Paso! Things may look a little different right now, but we are determined to KEEP kids dancing!
Following the county-wide school closures in March of 2020, the Kids Excel board and staff immediately began working on an interim program model. In April, we began delivering classes virtually and thousands of children joined in from their bedrooms, living rooms, and back yards!
As the 2020-2021 school calendars continue to shift, the KEEP Board and Staff are working to provide service virtually, with the option of returning to campuses in January 2021.
The interim program model is specific to recovery and sustainability and will be implemented temporarily (over the next 12 months) to ensure that KEEP can recover, survive, and joyfully serve all campuses in each of its partner districts for years to come.
Kids Excel will provide 20 weeks of programming to each of its partner schools over the course of the 2020-2021 school year. The virtual program is structured as follows:
- Two 10-week residencies are offered to each campus (fall and spring semesters)
- Half of all 4th grade students at each partner campus will attend the Kids Excel Spring semester and half will attend the fall semester
- Each week, KEEP will distribute a link to online programming in order to serve those children engaged in distance learning
- Each week, KEEP will provide classroom teachers with SEL lessons and activities that will support and reinforce what children are learning in the KEEP classroom
Finally, the Plaza Theatre performance, scheduled for May 2021, has also been cancelled. At this time, it is impossible to predict what kind of access KEEP will have to student dancers and how (or if) people will be allowed to gather in the spring of 2021. This annual production is our only major fundraiser and the cancellation has had a significant impact on our operating budget.
We hope you will consider supporting our program during this pandemic – we need you now more than ever! You can make a gift via this website by clicking here or mail to PO Box 920144, El Paso, Texas 79902. We thank you in advance for your consideration and look forward to a time when we can all gather together again. We are eager to dance for you and share the excitement and passion of live performance. Until then, stay well and safe!
