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COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

Using technology to add interest to their movement-stories

Cristina

“Working with and learning alongside children has been a life-worthy pleasure. Again and again, children have proven to me that the authority of their “inexperience” is edifying and inspiring. Listening to children’s stories has had a deep impact on how I engage students and design classroom environments, whether they be virtual or in-person.

The past year of learning, even in a pandemic, was no different. At least once a week, I taught two classrooms of five to seven year-olds creative dance. At the beginning of the school year, the class had never met in-person and some of my students had never been in a dual language environment (I teach in a Spanish Immersion context). Still, children improvised and composed their own short dances, in small breakout rooms via Zoom. It was challenging and delightful. 

I’ll share how one small group of three dancers particularly surprised me; this dance experience demonstrates the importance of creating structures that support risk-friendly environments. Lydia and Lucía were new to our school and Irving often struggled to engage while learning remotely; yet he always lit up when it was time to choreograph. One day, these three children returned from their breakout room early and insisted on presenting their dance first to the audience (their classmates). What they performed was completely unexpected. The children did a few movements and all turned off their cameras at the exact same time. Then, the three children simultaneously turned their cameras back on and did several movements and turned their cameras off again in unison. Finally, Lydia turned her camera on and did a piece of choreography and froze; Irving turned his camera on and did a different, but related, piece of choreography and froze; and Lucía did another movement and froze. Together, they all bowed.

When the audience gave feedback, Ellis said “I liked how you used the screens in your dance. Who thought of it?”. Quietly, Lucía responded that Lydia had thought of turning on and off their videos. Irving explained it was “like a curtain going up and down”. This completely original idea came from the children. In the following weeks, students used technology in novel ways to add interest to the movement-stories they composed. Witnessing each other’s choreography inspired new and richer compositions.

This vignette illustrates that children engage and thrive in autonomy-supportive* environments, both online and in real life. I trusted young people to make mistakes and make magic in breakout rooms on Zoom. The students didn’t need me to help them figure out what they wanted to say. They had something important to share and my ideas may have interrupted or watered down their thinking and process. We had done work exploring dance structures and defining the elements of dance we saw in the world and each other’s compositions. But I didn’t teach the children any choreography. I asked questions such as: “Why do people dance? What stories do people tell through dance?” Children also gave each other feedback by asking questions and explaining what was interesting about each other’s dance compositions. The questions and feedback that children gave each other was as insightful as my own. Luna Dance has helped me to create structures and routines so that children can learn optimally from each other, so they can listen to and create new and true stories of themselves.”

*”autonomy-supportive” from Amado, Diana; Molero, Pablo; Del Villar, Fernando; Tapia-Serrano, Miguel Ángel; and Sánchez-Miguel, Pedro Antonio. (June 2020). Sustainability. Implementing a Teacher-Focused Intervention in Physical Education to Increase Pupils’ Motivation towards Dance at School 

Cristina Paul, she/ her/ ella
Dual Language Teacher
UCLA Lab School
Summer Institute Alum 2020

taught synchronously and in-person, masked and distanced

Jochelle Perena
August 31, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

Meeting on Zoom has brought us closer

Marina dancing

“Our elder women’s ensemble Impromptu No Tutu did not miss a beat when we were shut down. I learned Zoom on a crash basis on March 17, 2020 and then taught it to many members who had never used it and had older computers. Even without ideal viewing conditions everyone showed up every week for class. Meeting on Zoom has brought us closer. Many members of the group live alone and the class was a weekly infusion of wild creativity and community. I used the Zoom rectangles as something to stretch against, to break out of “the frame,” moving fully into the kinesphere at home. Movement brought us an exhilarating expansiveness in our separate spaces. Gradually we started meeting outdoors at the Berkeley Marina once a month, masked and “dis-dancing”. In June when we held our first elated maskless class in a park in Albany it was clear that surviving the pandemic together through movement has strengthened us for the future in every way.”

Greacian
Greacian Goeke she/her
Teaching Artist, Impromptu No Tutu
Bay Area

Taught asynchronously, synchronously, and in-person outside, masked & distanced at Berkeley Marina, Oakland Township Commons, Albany parks

Jochelle Perena
July 17, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

I started to see the humor and humanity and the commonality we all had

Kirah

“One of the greatest challenges I faced was becoming well-versed enough in technology to create positive, relevant and meaningful classes through distance learning. I clearly remember the first time I faced the camera, thinking how impossible, sad, weird, bizarre and wrong it felt to be staring at a screen of heads, in my living room and trying to create an experience for my students through movement and music. Aside from these emotions, I had NO IDEA how to share my screen, mute, unmute, get on and off Zoom and Google classroom correctly, and was constantly finding difficulty with some variation of technology. I remember clearly thinking to myself that this was the way it was going to be for a while so I had better try my best and slowly, and I do mean slowly, I rose to the challenge. I started to see the humor and humanity and the commonality we all had facing this pandemic together in the arts online, and I began to see how the arts could STILL fill the great voids felt all over the world on so many levels. I figured out my lighting, created cool Zoom tricks, fun phrases, crazy games, dance choreography and compositions, warm-ups, team-building, and finally started to get into the groove after the third or fourth month of the pandemic. I can’t believe, looking back now, how almost a year and a half ago I knew absolutely nothing about technology and tools for teaching online, and how now, I’m proud to say I mastered myself, the screen, and feel ready for almost any future technology challenge!

I want to just reiterate how the arts have been a gift for me and my students during the pandemic and how Covid highlighted, more than ever, that all art forms are relevant at all times, especially during crises. I observed so many students come out, some just slightly and others in huge ways, of their shells and open up to me, each other and the world of dance and music through this past year. I ran through the roller coaster of emotions, just the way my students did, concurrently feeling the angst, joy, pain, uplift, release and all the other host of emotions that came along with Covid. It felt like a true privilege to be a teaching artist during these times and I feel even more encouraged than ever to keep doing what I do.”

Kirah Caminos
Teaching Artist
San Francisco elementary and pre-K public schools

Taught asynchronously, synchronously, hybrid, and in-person, outside, distanced & masked

Jochelle Perena
July 11, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

Tiny audiences rotated from studio to studio

Sonya studio
“In September of 2020 just as schools were starting with all their various hybrid/cohort/virtual protocols over 2000 homes burned in our closest neighboring towns. Knowing that the Halloween parade, a centerpiece of fall fun in Ashland, was canceled, I connected with a neighboring dance studio and a gymnastics studio to give everyone something to look forward to by dreaming up a way for the kids to perform safely. We rehearsed dances (in masks and distanced from each other) to the same songs, collected our zombie and monster costumes and were ready to go. We used our three neighboring studios, all with bay doors opening into the same parking lot; synchronized our music-playing, made seating charts for family pods to maintain distance sitting or standing outside. The kids danced, the tiny audiences rotated from studio to studio, and a bit of Halloween magic was shared.”
Sonya Smith
Director & Teaching Artist at Le Cirque Centre
Ashland, OR
Summer Institute Alum 2018
Taught in-person, inside, distanced & masked
We are back in the studio at nearly full capacity and preparing to unveil our new brand as Ashland Aerial Arts, a place for creativity, strength and acceptance!
Jochelle Perena
July 6, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

Zoom fatigue

Samadgreenblack

“I’m most proud of my students’ willingness to have candid and, sometimes, impromptu conversations about their experiences with virtual learning. In one instance, I restructured an ensemble to accommodate students who no longer wanted to perform because of “zoom fatigue” and overall lack of motivation to perform. Instead, more than half of the class received credit for submitting a response to the showcase.”

Samad Raheem Guerra
Director of Word Dance
Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, San Francisco
Summer Institute Alum 2019

Taught synchronously and asynchronously

Jochelle Perena
July 1, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

The choice to dance or eat an ice cream cone

Genoa at Home

“I love that teaching kids on Zoom brought me into their homes and closer to their lives. We often had family members, pets, and stuffed animals join us. One moment that brought me joy was when one student, who had been completely engaged in our dance class was handed a double scoop ice cream cone by an adult in his home – in the middle of dance class! I wondered what he would do when faced with the choice to dance or eat an ice cream cone. Well, this kiddo didn’t miss a beat! He just kept doing every step of our West African dance with an ice cream cone in his hand. That’s how badly this dancer needed to dance!”

Photo from one of Genoa’s filmed-at-home-with-family asynchronous lessons.

Genoa Sperske (she/her)
Teaching Artist
SF Ballet Dance In Schools and Communities
Valley Dance Theatre, Livermore
Summer Institute Alum 2020

Taught asynchronously, synchronously, concurrently, in hybrid, and in person, inside distanced + masks.

Jochelle Perena
June 23, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

Somehow had us all laughing and moving dynamically by the end

Samantha Stone
“With all my Zoom classes from K to 5th, I knew I had to show them ‘hey, if I’m not embarrassed, you don’t have to be too.’ And so came ‘Superhero’ day, including pushing, slicing and kicking training, a creation of a secret power move, and finally our dance-off where I arrived as a villain and they had to take me down through earthquakes, time warps and turbo mode. The whole scene was completely ridiculous, but somehow had us all laughing and moving dynamically by the end.”
Sam Stone (she/her)
Dance Teaching Artist
SF Arts Ed
Summer Institute Alum 2016

Taught asynchronously, synchronously and hybrid.

Jochelle Perena
June 9, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

Brought out confidence I didn’t know I had

Simone Zoom Teaching

“I was concerned about reaching my students this year and staying connected with the dance community. However, the ability to try out new ways of connecting and being placed into new teaching settings brought out confidence I didn’t know I had. The creativity blossomed beyond teaching a dance class into interacting with the space around you, using the video camera as your audience, and engaging students with emerging curriculum. I see a future in the journey I started and am excited to continue exploring new ways of dance artistry and education.”

Simone is taking this creativity and confidence into her new dance organization, CANVAS Dance Arts, offering DANCEmix, a site-specific choreography and dance film camp this summer.

Simone teaching outdoors
Simone van der Meer (she/her)
Dance Teaching Artist
Jewish Community Center San Francisco
CANVAS Dance Arts, co-founder
SI Alum 2020

Taught synchronously and in-person, outdoors, distanced + masked, and at farmers markets!

Jochelle Perena
June 9, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

We made pizzas with our bodies!

Christine youtube

“What a year! I felt like I grew to laser-in on key elements of movement. My overarching goals were to have students MOVE and find JOY in the movement. I had the usual early challenges – finding music, learning how to see students in little boxes, learning to translate the explore aspect of creative movement….

All changed and opened up when I brought a washing machine exploration to class. Prior to that I felt like I was not grounded in anything. The act of bringing in a very tangible real experience for students through dance brought so much kinesthetic connection to classes…and it kept on growing! We made pizzas with our bodies, pancakes, etc. There were so many ways we could explore and the dance teacher in me was giddy at the ways I could bring in dance vocab to the very Montessori-like party. I say “Montessori” only because we really took off bringing in real life home experiences, which makes sense because the students were at home. 

My biggest smile came when I was sharing with 2nd grade students about my experiences at the beach and how some seagulls had surrounded my gathering because we left pizza on the sand. And they all unanimously agreed that we needed to turn that into a dance. And dance we did! It was glorious!

It was a challenging year having to distill the dance experience into 30 minutes, but it made me more mindful and clear as a teacher.”

photo from one of Christine’s YouTube videos for students, “Breathing and Balance”

Christine-Atkins
Christine Atkins
Elementary Creative Expressions Teacher
Oakland Unified School District
SI Alum 2016

Taught asynchronously through my YouTube Channel, and each class synchronously on a biweekly schedule. When my school switched to hybrid learning April 2021, I still taught synchronously in the mornings and came to site in the afternoons.

Jochelle Perena
May 26, 2021
COVID Dance Teaching Time Capsule

I made so many adjustments this year

DT57-Kreate-staffreach

“A deep frustration I experienced most of this year was around 2 things. 1) Constantly being told I couldn’t do something because of pandemic guidelines. I had to creatively investigate other options, develop skills to find a new avenue of possibility. For example, at our school each year we celebrate Chinese New Year with a large event. Because we couldn’t sing, wear lion dance costumes, use the lion heads, be close to each other, and we were separated in small cohorts, etc., I had to figure out how to approach this. Especially because this is a big tradition for our 6th graders; it’s like a coming of age event for them. So, I learned how to use iMovie (with the help of the students, YouTube videos, and IT support) and we created a story/play with no costumes  that asked the question where are the lions? (because we couldn’t use them). We put the story in the context of the pandemic. The kids learned all the drumming patterns, and we added in socially-distanced dancing, storytelling and even some circus activities like juggling because a few of our students knew how to do it. The video was played for families as part of our Chinese New Year Celebrations. This was both a challenge and something that both the students and I felt good about.

2) Not having space or the space being inconsistently accessible or taken away. Yes, I enjoyed teaching outside. But with weather conditions, lack of outdoor on-campus space, and nearby local facilities not always being accessible, finding dancing space was a consistent inconsistency.  I often had to create many back-up lessons for what if it rains today and I can’t take the kids out? Or what if I take the kids to the park but where we would dance is now filled with other people from the community playing soccer? Or the lower school yard is being parsed out so that lunch, recess, and PE can happen? Now dance is being squeezed in there too. (I have to say that one of the good outcomes that came from dance happening on the yard when other grades were having lunch or recess was that many of the other kids would watch and join us in our dancing from their roped off section. I also, would see TA’s stretching with us while they watched the other kids.) How will I adjust? I made so many adjustments this year. At times, I am amazed at how flexible I had to be moment to moment. Other times I feel thoroughly exhausted and frustrated by the constant unexpected shifts. However, in the process I gained access to new ways to teach, new places to have dance, and new tech skills gained.  Most importantly, the students were happy and able to adjust. They are so resilient. They didn’t care as long as they could be with each other having fun learning.  And we did. We had so much fun learning.

I had to learn and practice self-care behaviors and encourage the students to do so as a way to manage the intense challenges. Creating an attitude of care and service became an even greater value to focus on and it really went a long way. I would hear students talking with each other with compassion and friendliness. At times, I too was the recipient of this. For example a kid ran in front and opened the door for me. I asked her, “Are you a door monitor?” her reply, “No, it’s just the considerate thing to do.” When the students pass by security, maintenance staff I hear many “thank yous” from them. Some of the students even refer to them by their names. In an age of me, me, me, and immediate gratification, this pandemic has amplified some important values among our youth –kindness, care, and service.

Dance this year was all about finding joy even if we were talking about difficult issues. So we played games, told jokes, improvised funny scenes, took breaks to just be silly. We learned to enjoy each other and our limitations as best as we could with dignity, respect, and genuine well wishes for each other.”

CAIS-DB-1717
Nia Womack-Freeman (she/her)
4th-8th Grade Movement & Music Teacher
Chinese American International School
San Francisco, CA
SI Alum 2008
Jochelle Perena
May 26, 2021
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