Jacques D’ Amboise

Founder, NDI

How did dance become a part of your life?

My mother was little 4 foot French Canadian from Canada and immigrated when she was 8 years old. And her dream was always that her children would dance, and paint and draw and speak publicly. So starting with my sister who was 3 years older taking a dance class in a high school up in Washington Heights. And me sitting, waiting until class was over. Seven years old. And the teacher seductively said can you do the jumps as good as your sister? So the next thing - I’m up there doing a ballet class. The only boy in a ballet class. My mother said save a place for us in the fall…and the teacher said no madam…I’m not keeping a place for your children. There are better teachers than me. Take them in the fall here. And she gave up her only boy and my sister was the best in her class. And to the school of American Ballet, George Balanchine.

So I turned 8 years old that summer and that fall I was at the School of American Ballet with my sister. At the same time, I’m in Washington Heights, parochial school, running around with gangs on the streets and running off to a ballet class. And by 11 or 12, I was already performing professionally with children roles. And at 15, I dropped out of high school. I had one year of HS and joined the Quarter Ballet – that’s the NYC Ballet. And before I was 16 we were dancing in London at Covet Garden.

At such a young age, were you not intimidated?

You know, I was a teenager. And I had dreams of being a medical doctor, a priest, a geologist, a forest ranger…I thought this was only temporary. It was joyful and engaged me but I was good at it without really realizing that I could be really good at. Anyway, so it was somewhere…about 20, 21 when I suddenly realized that I don’t want to be anything but a dancer. So now, when people say describe yourself Jacques – I say I was a dancer. That’s all I need to say.

What does it take for a person to pursue dancing…or any arts?

A person should do everything they’re interested in. It’s like a child. If they’re interested in playing with this toy, then they play with it, then they lost interest, they drop it and go to another toy. That’s what you should do about learning. You should try to do learn everything you can that interests you. And now some of it will engage you. For some reason, it will grab your emotions and you’ll get passionate about it. What that happens and you really want to pursue it, then there will be a period of 2 -3 years where you don’t do anything else. You live it, dream it, sleep it. You just become it. And that makes a difference from being just a very talented, interested amateur to a pro and takes you to another level – a much higher level.

What is NDI?

The idea of National Dance Institute is to use dance as a catalyst to introduce children to the arts on a very high professional level. And to have it a performance. You don’t practice on your piano all year round and you have this beautiful show piece and now at the end of year you go into a closet and you play it alone. You come to a concert right? It’s a public expression of your excellence. And that’s what our institute does – it’s an engagement and inspiring people thought the arts.

Now how did you get that started?

I started it only because I was a product of that. Street boy that was introduced to the arts that was transforming. I can talk, speak a few words in about 15 languages – goodbye, thank you and another beer. And count. Because I’ve been to all these places dancing and doing exchanges. So I have a global mind...instead of being a narrow…its opened through the arts. So I wanted to recreate that for other children.

What have you seen arts, dance do for these kids.

Well, there’s something about learning an art a craft, it’s a skill – right? It’s not easy. It’s a craft. It’s a craft of discipline. Lift up your right foot and put it down on this note. Already you can’t go anywhere…you have to stop, it’s the right foot. Now they lift it – but you didn’t really lift it you kinda lumped it up. You put it down, don’t let gravity put it down, you place it. Now lift your leg on this note – not the note before, right on this note. Now you’re controlling time. You’re learning the discipline of how you move in a space and the time you move it in. Dance is profound. It’s the art form to express emotion using the control of how we move the world of movement, the world of time.

Does teamwork play a part in dance?

Teamwork plays a part in everybody’s life. We define ourselves by what our sense bring into us from our community, from our experiences. You’re an individual alone, as am I, but at the same time the I can only be formed by the you. So it’s always teamwork. If you isolate yourself from the other person you will lose. Your consciousness. That’s why solitary confinement is so awful right? You’re isolating the individual – they will lose their individuality. It’s teamwork in that sense.

Have any of the children from NDI gone on to become professional dancers?

Who cares?! I mean right? Did you study math in school? Well, how many people in your class went onto to become physicists? As if that’s the judgment, right? You’ve introduced children to an art form that’s transformed them right? In ways you don’t know and who cares, you do the best you can and they’re gonna do whatever they can. I always say, give children the best of everything and then don’t worry about it. They’re gonna grow on, they’re gonna use it or not, they’ll pass it on or they won’t. It’s their choice.