Practitioner Exchanges

Dance Educator and California Poet in the Schools Amanda Chiado leads this invigorating conversation about the intersection of dance and writing. Join her as she explores such questions as How do dance and writing complement and inspire each other? How do I encourage my students to grow in both dance and writing simultaneously?  How can dance help create writing that is more powerful – and vice versa? Talk with other artist educators and teachers curious about arts integration about how to play with both kinesthetic and written communication.

Join dance teaching artist Heather Stockton to discuss ways to move beyond compliance and into inclusion. She’ll be exploring questions like How can we truly facilitate an equitable experience for all children’s needs in the dance classroom, when the needs of each child are unique? What are some of the foundational tools that we can integrate in every dance class to be inclusive? Bring your own questions to this rich and casual conversation with your teaching peers.

Daisy Valdivia is a dancer, classroom teacher, and community arts organizer. Join her in a conversation that addresses these questions: How does one cultivate and engage in a dance community? What conditions exist in one’s community to create and support a dance community? How can a dance community open up possibilities for healing, liberation and fulfilling a sense of purpose? What other possibilities can emerge? Share your own questions and experiences in building dance communities in the classroom, studio, and beyond.

Aerial dance pedagogy is still emerging and evolving. Join in this dynamic conversation led by Summer Institute alum and aerial dance educator Sonya Smith of Ashland’s Le Cirque Centre. She’ll be investigating the intersection of creativity and aerial dance technique and will ask questions like: Which elements of dance encourage the most unusual explorations in students? What are the most common movement qualities in aerial dance? What challenges do we face in expanding the qualities of movement students find accessible? How do we balance safety and creativity? At what age/skill level are you comfortable encouraging improvisation in aerial dance? What explorations and scores have you found effective? Bring your own inquiry to this informal peer-to-peer conversation.