8th graders learn lessons on the dance floor

BENSALEM, Pa. (WPVI) -- Eighth graders from Cecelia Snyder Middle School turned the gymnasium into a dance floor.

It was all part of the nonprofit program "Dancing Classrooms," kids and parents are loving it.

"Dancing is not the easiest thing, kind of embarrassing a little bit because you have to dance," eight grader Austin Spicer said.

"Eighth grade boys, or eighth grade girls, would never look into ballroom dancing, but culturally it has expanded his mind and his horizons," parent Amy Spicer said.

"Ballroom dancing really helps to form social bonds among classmates, it works on confidence, self-esteem, team work," Kate Rast of Dancing Classrooms Philly said.

The teachers from the nonprofit work with students for ten weeks.

They focus on discipline, respect and life lessons.

"At first I was like, I'm not doing this, I'm going to mess up, I'm going to be awful, but then I was like it's not that hard, it was really fun in the end," eighth grader Kal Ivano said.

"I like the salsa i had a solo for that," eighth grader Angelina Dowd said.

Monday's ballroom dance performance is a culmination of the eighth graders hard work.

There are three times more schools now involved in the program since it began in 2007 and after today's show, the dancing classroom will shuffle onto another school.

Next, the same program is heading to Philadelphia where they will teach students in about 50 private, catholic and charter schools the same lessons.