At the request of representatives of current Visual and Performing Arts and P.E./Health MSDP schools, The California Arts Project held a four-day mini-institute on the topic of dance education at the middle school level. It was held at CSU Hayward from August 12-15, 1997.

The event addressed concerns of educators who may not have a strong dance background, but who realize the necessity of offering dance content to their students as well as the value of dance used in a cross-curricular context. All activities were designed to increase participants' comfort levels in the discipline of dance. Time was spent on the elements of dance, understanding warm-ups, choreography, creative dance, traditional recreational dance, use of technology in dance education (especially making as well as viewing videos), using dance in a cross-curricular context, gearing dance activities to the developmental levels of middle school students, and viewing live performances.