[ti:Dance Offers Street Children Path to Education] [ar:Bob Doughty] [al:Education Report] [by:www.chinavoa.com] [01:13.42]From VOA Learning English, [00:02.55]this is the Education Report. [00:05.56]American LaMar Baylor spends most of his time in New York City, [00:11.75]he works as a performer in the Broadway musical - The Lion King. [00:17.30]But since 2011, he has also spent weeks in Kigali, [00:22.49]the capital of Rwanda. [00:24.68]There, he teaches dance to boys who live on the street. [00:29.68]His teaching is part of an effort by the Rebecca Davis Dance Company. [00:36.37]The project helps young people learn more about dance [00:41.12]and learn how to behave in a classroom environment. [00:46.67]LaMar Baylor describes his students as genocide survivors. [00:52.16]They have lost all of their families, [00:55.16]some have been in jail, others have sold their bodies for sex. [01:02.51]"They have been through things [01:04.11]that no one should ever have to go through," said Baylor. [01:06.46]He says, dance classes provide the children with structured learning [01:11.61]and self-expression that they've never had before. [01:16.46]Rebecca Davis is the founder and director of the dance company. [01:22.46]She says she got the idea for the project [01:26.22]after she visited Rwanda in 2008. [01:30.62]She remembers meeting a large number of street children who were dancing, [01:36.30]and she thought that dance could be used [01:40.11]to get them off the street and into a safe place. [01:45.35]Rebecca Davis believes that learning to dance is a step toward education. [01:52.70]"When you start to play music in Rwanda, [01:55.50]these kids come out of nowhere and they enter the center. [01:59.00]And it's because of dance that they have a way [02:02.50]of exchanging their physicality, their survival skills [02:06.04]that they learn on the street, and their strength, [02:08.78]into something that's actually artistic and aesthetic," said Davis. [02:11.79]She says children can take classes in information and technology [02:16.78]after they have learned to attend classes and follow directions. [02:23.18]Boys who have done best in the classes win scholarships, [02:28.33]and are sent to the Sunrise Boarding School, [02:32.58]about 30 boys have won this kind of financial aid. [02:37.82]She says all the students are male, [02:41.73]because few girls in Rwanda live freely on the street. [02:47.42]The Rwanda program is the largest one set up by the Rebecca Davis Dance Company, [02:55.56]but Ms Davis has also set up dance programs in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Guinea. [03:03.69]About 2,000 children in the three countries [03:07.71]have taken part in the project since it was launched in 2010. [03:13.10]As for LaMar Baylor, he knows from his own experience [03:18.67]how dance can lead to a better life. [03:21.73]He is from Camden, New Jersey. [03:24.98]Camden has sometimes been called America's poorest and most dangerous city. [03:33.03]Mr Baylor says that growing up in Camden, [03:37.35]it took a long time for him to find out what he want to do. [03:42.97]He now thanks dancing saved his life. [03:47.18]And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report, [03:53.74]I'm Bob Doughty. [03:55.74]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊchinavoa.com