HOW R&B WORKS

We don’t fund moments. We fund trajectories.

One pipeline. One cohort. One community. Three years of infrastructure that outlasts any single season.

Two smiling women sitting close together, one with dark curly hair wearing earrings and a white off-shoulder top, and the other with long black hair wearing a brown top, both wearing blue jeans.

THREE WAYS TO BE PART OF R&B

Find your track.

Whether you’re a coach, a family, or a studio — there’s a track built for you.

  • Tier A 🪷 — HS Dance Teams

    TEAM INVESTMENT

    Who this is for: Cedar Valley HS coaches, ADs, and team parents

    R&B funds registration fees, state competition fees, and summer training for high school dance teams whose athletes have the talent to compete at state level — and have never had the infrastructure to get there. Every Tier A team receives a Team Mentor and access to R&B’s Saturday Pipeline and quarterly Garden events.

  • Tier B 🪴- Dance Studio Scholars

    INDIVIDUAL SCHOLAR TRACK

    Who this is for: Competitive dancers ages 8–18

    PROGRAM INCLUDES: A mentorship family of 4 per scholar. A partnership with R&B, not a handout. Individualized resource allocation to actively support our scholars’ families.

  • Tier C 🌻- The Sunflower Circle ACCESS

    Our weekly, training pipeline, The Sunflower Circle: free, open-access workshops every week launching Q1-Q2 2027.

    The Sunflower Circle participation is how scholars are identified, relationships are built, and readiness is proven before any scholarship is announced. Not just dance. The circle garden will experience financial literacy, emotion regulation, dream building, and so much more. Building the young human behind the athlete.

  • Tier D 🌳 - Generational Grove — Sibling Families

    FAMILY TRACK

    Who this is for: Families with two or more siblings in competitive performing arts

    The Generational Grove is R&B’s named track for sibling families where the generational impact is exponentially larger. Accepted every 2–3 cohorts. Selective. Intentional. The Schilling sisters — Brylee, Isla, Esmae, & Amoura — are R&B’s first Generational Grove family.

“The sunflower grows tall before it spreads its seeds.”

THE MENTOR FAMILY

Every scholar gets a whole team.

Not one mentor — a Mentor Family. Four distinct roles, each filling a gap the others cannot. This is what separates R&B from every other performing arts access program in the country.

  • 🌿 Root Mentor

    SCHOLAR NAME: ANCHOR

    Weekly presence. Tracks the whole scholar — not just dance. Shows up every week regardless. Life navigation, academic accountability, generational cycle-breaking.

  • 🌸 Bloom Mentor

    SCHOLAR NAME: VISION MENTOR

    Monthly vision work. Holds the scholar’s future when they can’t see it themselves. Asks: who are you becoming? Future-casting, identity development.

  • 🪴 Stem Mentor

    SCHOLAR NAME: RESILIENCE MENTOR

    Competition-activated. Pre and post-performance presence. Must have lived experience with high-stakes performance. Biography is the credential.

  • 🌻 The Garden Mentor

    COMMUNITY ANCHOR

    The community architect of the cohort. Cultivates belonging, trust, and relational health across every scholar and family. How do you stay true to yourself while building lasting community? How do you give to the people who hold you? The Garden Mentor answers those questions In real time, with real relationships.

30 years of research says this is the one.

WHY THIS MODEL WORKS

  • $56K

    EXTRA LIFETIME EARNINGS, MENTORED YOUTH

  • 92%

    HS GRADUATION, THREAD BALTIMORE

  • $7

    RETURNED PER $1, FRIENDS OF CHILDREN

A 73-study meta-analysis confirmed that intensive small-cohort programs produce dramatically stronger outcomes than larger lighter-touch models. R&B’s 16-scholar cohort cap is not a limitation. It is the evidence-based discipline that produces those outcomes.

The Mentor Family model mirrors the structure that Thread Baltimore used to produce 92% graduation rates among students who entered with sub-1.0 GPAs. This is a proven model applied, for the first time, to competitive performing arts in the rural Midwest.

LOOKING AHEAD

Dance is the starting point. Not the finish line.

R&B is a performing arts equity organization. Dance opens the door because it’s where our founder’s expertise runs deepest. But the barriers we’re breaking don’t stop at the studio.