American Ballroom Theater, Inc. (ABrT) was founded in August 1984 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Pierre Dulaine, Yvonne Marceau and Otto Cappel were the original founders of ABrT.

From 1984 through 1995 ABrT was a performing dance company, staging more than 350 performances in twenty-eight US states and seven other countries. The company made its debut at the Dance Theatre Workshop in October 1984 and in March 1986 did a two-week engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In July 1989 Pierre and Yvonne joined the workshop for Tommy Tune's Broadway show Grand Hotel and danced on Broadway for 2 ½ years, finishing with a five month run in London’s West End.

In 1994 Pierre volunteered to teach a dance class at the Professional Performing Arts School on West 48th Street in Manhattan. From this beginning, Pierre developed Dancing Classrooms, a 10 week – 20 session social development program for 5th grade children that utilizes ballroom dancing as a vehicle to change the lives of not only the children who participate in the program but also the lives of the teachers and parents who support these children...