National Dance Institute (NDI) was founded in 1976 by New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d'Amboise. NDI works with mainstream, bilingual, and special education classes.
NDI has classes that are taught by professional artists, who work with 6,500 New York City school children each week throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Most NDI dancers come from low-income communities, and all NDI programs are offered to children free of charge. Among NDI dancers, 32% are Latino, 24% Asian, 23% Caucasian, 19% African-American, and 2% other non-white minority groups.
History with the Macy's Parade[]
NDI first danced at Macy's at the 1982 Parade where they performed "A Nightmare Ballet" on the new float "Heidi's Song".
The dancers would perform next year at the 1983 Parade with the music of "Flashdance... What a Feeling" from the movie Flashdance and of their third time at the 1984 Parade as they danced to "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" with Maureen McGovern.
They would return for the 2007 Parade and The 90th Anniversary Parade in 2016.
The organization recently performed with The Cast and Muppets of Sesame Street in 2019, as they welcomed The 93rd Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade at 34th Street.