Jacques d’Amboise, who was raised on the streets of New York and went on to become the first male ballet star in the United States, now leads the field of arts education with a model program that exposes thousands of school children each year to the magic and discipline of dance. In 1976, while still a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, Mr. d’Amboise founded the National Dance Institute (NDI) in the belief that the arts have a unique power to engage and motivate individuals towards excellence. Over the last 30 years NDI programs, in New York City and their affiliates, have reached and influenced well over two million children.