This class includes a series of standing warmups, floor work, and 2 movement sequences to practice. These movements have been gathered through my various experiences in my undergraduate dance program at Sweet Briar College. I have been teaching dance in private studio spaces and public school systems for the past 3 years, and performing at…
Category: Arts Education
Teaching “PLACE”: A Creative Dance Lesson Plan
Introduction Lesson (1): PLACE Creative Dance: Ages 3 – 5 Start by circling up standing, with each person on one of the stars which have been placed in a circle prior to class. The teacher goes to the center of the circle and says her name and does a dance movement, she then high fives…
Infinity in The Arts
Hello bloggers! I’ve missed you. I have a story to share with you about the time that’s passed since I last posted here. It’s a story about love and loss. Or…perhaps it’s a story about finding the silver lining. Maybe it’s a story of the lack of support for the arts, or a story of…
How to Tell if Your Child’s Instructor is a “Time Waster”
It is shocking how many dance instructors I have worked with like to simply run out the clock with kids rather than engage with them in meaningful dance education. I recently met a dance studio DIRECTOR who was in the process of INTERVIEWING ME who actually stated “I love to waste time.” I cannot fathom…
Stretchy Toddlers Taking Over Dance
I think that the mistaken modern day perspective is that if a child does not have the flexibility, coordination, and stamina of the stretchy toddlers on “Dance Moms” it is not worth giving them an education in dance – they will simply not be good.
A Brief History of the Mother of Modern Dance: Martha Graham
In 1911 Graham spotted a poster of dance legend Ruth St. Dennis in a store, advertising her performance, and begged her father to take her to the performance in Los Angeles, which he did. She came to worship Ruth St. Dennis and five years later went back to Los Angeles for a summer course at Dennis’ company, Dennishawn….
Expanding Student Minds with the Vocabulary of Movement (Action Research with 8th graders, using Dance to teach Reading and Writing)
Introduction As a kinesthetic and linguistic learner, and someone who has studied in both the fields of Creative Writing and Dance I often find myself exploring ways in which movement and language might connect or support one another. In the past I have done this through my own performances, choreographing dances in which I also…
Character Sketching Exercise
Some writers come up with characters for their stories based on people they know, conversations they observe, or other characters in stories they have read. I have always had a personal love for writers whose characters seem to be variations on themselves. There is a certain psychology to it that I like. One prime example…
An Artistic Haven in Brookneal, Virginia
I am currently working on a project involving the start-up of a dance program, a promotional concert, and a little spot of arts heaven out here in rural Brookneal Virginia. Moving down here to Brookneal for a teaching job, I had feared greatly that I would be leaving my dance ambitions behind for at least…
Big Dance
What is “Big Dance”? This is the question I found myself asking a couple weeks ago at the 2018 Panpapanpalya Joint Dance Congress. My first thought was that it was dance aimed at larger people, and standing at 5 foot 1 inch I concluded that it was not for me. Boy was my assumption wrong!…
Not Just Words 