“I feel like I’m making dancers,’’ dance teacher Rashamella Cumbo says of her 4th-graders, most of whom she has taught since kindergarten, at PS 191 near Lincoln Center. But by all accounts, she’s doing much more.

“It’s the way I express my emotions,” says 10-year-old Taylor, whose smile lit up the stage one recent morning during a session of the class’s Ailey Arts in Education residency.

Gliding gracefully across the stage to the beat of a West African djembe drum, the students appear to be learning dance alone. But Cumbo calls for a quarter turn and then another. They have moved 180 degrees. Two more quarter turns and they are at 360. A lesson in geometry.

They bend and stretch one vertebra at a time. “Seven in your neck, 12 in your back, five in your lower back and five in your butt,’’ says Taylor. A lesson in anatomy.

“You exercise your bones and muscles,” says Shaquan. “It’s cool that I can see what my body can do.”

Cumbo started teaching at PS 191 six years ago after a long career as a professional dancer. “I decided to give back,” she says. “I want to give these students a good foundation and exposure to dance before I go on with the rest of my life.”

The residency brought guest artist Adesina Sampson from Alvin Ailey’s famed American Dance Theater to the school for an hour a day four days a week for a month. He drilled the young performers in modern dance, preparing them for a program to show the rest of the school what they had learned.

“I got this residency because I wanted them to have a different experience … an out-of-school, professional experience,” says Cumbo, who began her own training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and has taught at the group’s summer camp in Washington Heights. She raised the $6,000 program cost on DonorsChoose.org from supporters in the community and friends around the country.

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Erica Berger

As the residency winds down, Sampson says the young dancers have become “fully aware of what they are able to do. They are taking what they have learned and applying it.”

The students, shy and tentative when they entered the program, have gained confidence. “Now they all want solos,” Sampson says. “They want to make the culminating performance amazing.”

During regular classes, Cumbo teaches her 4th-graders creative dance composition, tap, jazz, hip-hop and modern dance. They often apply the English language arts four-step critique — describe, analyze, interpret, evaluate — to a dance, and it helps them understand how to do the same with a story.

The Ailey residency has concentrated on modern dance, in particular a technique created by Ailey’s mentor, Lester Horton. The Horton technique is built on the traditions of indigenous cultures and is known for pristine lines and powerful structure.

One minute, Natalie is alone onstage, focused on showcasing a lateral turn. The next minute, a group of dancers is leaping across the stage in sync.

“They learn discipline and self-control and how to work together,’’ says Lisa DeSimone, the general education teacher in this integrated co-teaching class. “My most struggling student is the biggest help to Cumbo.’’

“A lot of my special needs children excel in the dance room because they are kinesthetic learners,” says Cumbo.

Special education teacher Tiffany Giglio, DeSimone’s co-teacher, stresses the advantages of dance for those students. “Any type of movement is beneficial,” she says. “They get their energy out, and it helps them focus in class.”

The students “need a creative outlet,’’ says Bambela Mpongo, the UFT chapter leader.

Representatives from prestigious Ballet Tech, formally known as the New York City Public School for Dance, recently visited PS 191 and accepted four students into Tech’s 5th-grade program.

“They were choosing kids to go to their school and learn dance,’’ says Amber, who hopes to dance professionally one day. “And I was one of those kids.’’

If Amber does well, Cumbo says, she’ll get a scholarship to continue.

Cumbo still remembers Karl Friedman, the teacher at Rothschild JHS in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, who set her on this career path more than 30 years ago. Someday, she may be that inspiration for Amber.