MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A class of young aspiring ballerinas is under the watchful eye of Ruth Wiesen, the executive director of Armour Dance Theater in South Miami.
She watches them practice their graceful moves. Whether physically in class, at home virtually, or across the county in the satellite programs, all the dancers are under the watch of Wiesen.
“The mission of Armour Dance is to use dance to give children across our entire community more opportunity and to open avenues of choice that were not previously open to them before,” Wiesen explained.
In the 1980s, Wiesen was a teacher at what is Miami’s oldest youth dance school, Thomas Armour Youth Ballet.
Wiesen, along with a group of dancers, presented a lecture to students in Carol City and had an eye-opening interaction.
“At the end, a little girl came up and said, ‘I just love ballet!’ she just gushed. And I asked her ‘Do you take classes?’ and she laughed and said. ‘No, only…