• Music and Dance Overview

    The Madera Elementary Foundation (MEF) is happy to announce our partnership with Youth in Arts to provide dance and music education at Madera!  Youth in Arts is a wonderful organization whose mission is to build visual and performing arts skills through innovative and in-depth programs that foster confidence, compassion and resilience in students of all abilities.

    Youth in Arts is providing Madera with an amazing instructor, Stephanie Bastos:

    Stephanie Bastos

    Stephanie Bastos started her performance career as a child with the Miami Ballet and in her teens, became one of the founding members of the internationally acclaimed Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble of Miami. As a pre-professional, she was awarded scholarships to train at American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow and Bates Dance Festival after losing her leg in a tragic car accident and subsequently, retraining herself to dance with a prosthetic leg.

    After receiving her BFA in Dance from New World School of the Arts, she has been performing and teaching Modern and Contemporary Dance throughout the United States, Germany and Brazil. Winner of the 2011 San Francisco “Izzies” Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance Ensemble with Ase West Dance Theater Collective, she has also worked with the Urban Bush Women, Axis Dance Company, Deep Waters Dance Theater, Aguas Da Bahia and Ron Brown’s/ EVIDENCE. Her teaching credits include FSU/World Dance Festival, American College Dance Festival, ODC in San Francisco and various schools and arts organizations throughout the Bay Area in California, including Destiny Arts Center and Youth In Arts. 

    MEF and the Madera community are excited to welcome Stephanie to our school!