Ballet for All Kids - Encino

Bonnie Schlachte has worked extensively with children and adults with Developmental Disabilities in various settings for the past twenty years. Since 1992, Bonnie has developed and/or supervised over 50 programs from Behavioral based Day/Residential Programs to Quality Assurance/Staff Education Programs. Bonnie has been in senior management in various companies serving people with disabilities including North Los Angeles County Regional Center, United Cerebral Palsy, and People’s Care, Incorporated. In 2008, Bonnie founded Ballet For All Kids, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide a classical ballet education to ALL children regardless of their abilities or disabilities. Bonnie developed the Schlachte Method™ – an occupational therapy program to assist children with disabilities to gain the most out of a classical ballet education. This is the first Ballet Therapy Program helping children achieve benefits such as Social Skills development (eye contact, reciprocity, interaction with peers and adults); Improvements to self-confidence and self-esteem; Proprioceptive skill development and stimulation; Motor planning, balance, sense of center, hand-eye coordination; Self-Discipline (extended visual, physical, and mental attention and focus); Abstract information processing and sequential memory and recall; and enhanced auditory discrimination and internalization of rhythmic cues while facilitating gesture and motion in response to music. This therapy program has helped many children learn how to be more confident and self-assured all the while strengthening their bodies and minds. Bonnie was trained in the Royal Academy of Dance system through the Intermediate level and become a Maryland Arts Scholar in Dance and a Maryland Creative Arts Scholarship recipient. Bonnie graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Theatre Arts. Bonnie currently teaches over 100 children with special needs classical ballet in the Los Angeles and Ventura areas. This program is the synthesis of Bonnie’s two career paths – first of dance then of working with people with disabilities.