It is our desire to keep young people off the streets by giving them creative alternatives to drugs, gangs, violence and failure.

The goal of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) School is to provide the excellent training needed to develop well-rounded dancers with expertise in modern, jazz, ballet, African dance, tap and other dance styles. We want to give talented young dancers the skills they will need to perform with our dance company or to pursue professional dance careers elsewhere.

For students who do not want to become professional dancers, we enable them to enjoy the enrichment, character development and positive benefits that come from an involvement with dance. We also teach them to have an appreciation and love for dance. We want our students to be well rounded, culturally aware and internally enriched individuals who will remain lovers of the arts for the rest of their lives. We encourage and prepare our students to teach, to lead, to choreograph and to be good people.

We also use dance as a tool to help young people develop the internal confidence they need to be successful in life. These include developing a strong work ethic, self-determination, self-esteem, and a positive attitude about life and respect for others. We have seen many of our students go on to be very successful in life and in school as a result of the character building essentials they received in dance classes at LWDT.