Too many young people leave school much too early, because they have not motivation any more or because they got the general impression that they are not able to achieve reasonable goals at school. We have been observing this phenomenon during our many years of organizing conferences in the educational field and now we want to participate in combating early school leaving. Dropout is a high individual, social and economic cost and has been recognised as one of the main challenges of the European society. Reducing drastically the numbers of young people leaving school early is fundamental for EU growth. High level of ESL is a bottleneck for smart and inclusive growth, it effects negatively on youth employment and increases the individual risks of poverty and social exclusion (Recommendation on Policies against early school leaving, DGEAC 12/2010). The project thus finds a clear reference into the European EU2020 that takes the reduction of ESL to 10% by 2020 an headline target. Within the Education and Training Programme 2010, EU set itself the reduction of the European average rate of ESL not more than the 10% by 2010. Although the situation in Most Member states has improved, this target was not reached. Lack of education and training contributes to the problem of social cohesion and democracy in European societies. Increase the skills and the employability of young people saves social welfare costs, increases tax revenues and helps enterprises. In the Protestant Academy of Bad Boll we are developing a program against ESL as our central focus theme for the next years. We use theatrical elements to help young people being able to open themselves and to reflect their behavior. Traditional music and dance are elements for instruction in school ,which demonstrate youngsters and their audience: "I am able to master something!" Traditional dance symbolizes by its circular form: "We do not leave anybody alone - no child is left behind!" Early school leavers need a "handrail" : This is why we do not use free expressional dance as a method. However we offer dance with a given pattern. In all Southern European and Eastern European countries traditional dances, like Tarantella or Pizzica, are enormously coming into fashion. Traditional dance is conceived as a means for building up a personal and regional identity. People who are involved in this movement wear a button to clearly express their intention. Therefore we send a colleague to Southern Italy /Sardinia and Hungary / Romania, to ask cultural institutions, schools and dance ensembles about their specific experience in teaching school drop outs in folk dance. We want to find out which methods are the best and which dance types and music styles help to reduce early school leaving. These interviews will be recorded to use them for inhouse and public further education. Our colleague participates in group dance in a way, that he is able to train others in these dances. He produces semiprofessional films, which will be published on our home page as trailers and as full version in our seminars. In several basic and vocational schools we experiment with these methods. Independant observers will realize in a pre-post-test design, how effective the method is. The criteria are: After a training in folk dance the students will be more able to stick to their tasks in school. Well achieving students give a show in an opera house to demonstrate to the public, how effective they are in learning. During our focus theme, which spans several years, we are going to offer seminars and conferences: Fundamental conferences for experts in research- theory building - politics - industry, multiplicatory conferences for trainers, and basic seminars for teachers of all types of schools, but mainly for the intermediate vocational sector and for teachers of highly gifted students, who are frustrated.