Ballet For All Kids at Mount Sinai
Ballet For All Kids is proud to be part of groundbreaking research supporting inclusive ballet education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
A team of dedicated medical students, united by a shared passion for dance and a commitment to serving individuals with developmental disabilities, partnered with BFAK to launch ADAPT (Approach to Dance for Autism Through Personalized Teaching). Using the Schlachte Method as its foundation, the program provides weekly adaptive ballet classes for children with autism spectrum disorder, with the goal of supporting motor development, social connection, and self-regulation.
The ADAPT program is one of many examples of how inclusive ballet classes for kids can create meaningful and lasting change, not just in the studio but in every area of a child's life.
The Team Behind ADAPT
Noy Alon
Fourth-Year Medical Student, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Noy is a lifelong ballet dancer who trained for fourteen years at the Boston Ballet School. She also has a passion for working with children and adults with developmental disabilities and led a tutoring program for this population during her undergraduate education at Brown University.
While at Brown, she met founder Bonnie Schlachte through a professor and collaborated on a qualitative study interviewing parents of long-time Ballet For All Kids dancers about retention factors of inclusive ballet classes for kids with autism spectrum disorder.
When she was accepted to medical school, Noy knew she wanted to continue her work with BFAK. She became one of the leaders of the randomized clinical trial assessing the impact of the Schlachte Method on the motor and behavioral development of children with autism spectrum disorder. Since then, she has taught numerous classes and helped train new teachers and volunteers in the Schlachte Method and Ballet For All Kids. Noy is applying to Psychiatry in the upcoming cycle with the ultimate goal of becoming a child and adolescent psychiatrist specializing in children with developmental disabilities.
Michelle Adler
Fifth-Year MD/PhD Student, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Michelle grew up dancing in the Bay Area alongside her older sister with Down syndrome, beginning ballet at her local recreation center. A lifelong dancer, she has performed in annual productions of The Nutcracker, competed on her high school dance team, led a student-choreographed dance company in university, and continues to lead weekly dance workshops for medical and graduate students at Mount Sinai.
Her passion for working with individuals with developmental disabilities is deeply personal and shapes both her research and clinical goals. As a PhD student, Michelle currently studies the immune system in individuals with Down syndrome and hopes to become a physician-scientist specializing in research and clinical care for the Down syndrome population.
At Mount Sinai, Michelle sought to bridge her interests in medicine and dance and was fortunate to connect with medical students who shared this goal. Through this collaboration, she has helped lead a clinical trial assessing the impact of the BFAK curriculum for children with autism. Michelle believes that ballet is a wonderful and meaningful discipline to learn, and she hopes this work will help expand access to Ballet For All Kids so more children can experience the joy, structure, creativity, and community that dance can offer.
Eliana Elikan Freilich
Third-Year Medical Student, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Eliana has a longstanding commitment to serving individuals with developmental and other disabilities. At Barnard College, she co-founded a tutoring program for children of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, including those with special needs. She developed and led a Zumba program for girls with special needs abroad and worked as a job coach and support counselor at a month-long residential sleepaway camp for individuals with developmental disabilities.
At Mount Sinai, Eliana joined the Ballet For All Kids randomized controlled trial, first as a volunteer and now as part of the leadership team. She has completed training under Bonnie Schlachte and attended classes at Ballet Academy East in order to teach participants. Eliana aspires to become a child and adolescent psychiatrist, with a particular interest in integrating primary care and psychiatric services to build more accessible, comprehensive models of care for children, adolescents, and individuals with developmental disabilities.
