Practitioner Exchanges create time and space for educators to connect, build a peer community, and explore issues of practice through informal conversations facilitated by Summer Institute alumni.
Get inspired with new ideas or perspectives, ask for help with your challenges, and share your own expertise. Each month centers on a different topic and a Practitioner Exchange is often paired with workshop offerings as an opportunity to integrate and revisit information throughout the year. Practitioner Exchanges are included in the cost of workshops as follow-up discussions. Take both Workshop and Practitioner Exchange for a full 4.5-7+ hour learning experience.
Practitioner Exchanges are held on the second Tuesday of the month, 4:30-6pm Pacific, unless otherwise noted. In ’22-23 they are held on Zoom.
Upcoming 2022-23 Exchanges
SEP
20th
Restarting & Reimagining
As you get back into teaching, how are you restarting, how are you reimagining your curriculum, your classroom, your practice? How are you holding space for yourself and your students as artists, as co-learners, as community members? Connect and reflect with fellow dance educators in this casual conversation hosted by teaching artists Genoa Sperske and Maura Whelehan.
OCT
20th
Curriculum Brainstorm & Share
Come riff with us! Let’s freshen up our dance curriculum together in this creative space. What new things are you trying? What old things can you revive and share? How will these ideas support our learning and teaching goals? Join teaching artists Meg Glaser Teran and Rosalina Macisco in this fun and generative casual conversation. This Exchange happens on a Thursday.
NOV
17th
Engaging Families/Family Dance
What new ideas can we experiment with to allow for connection, trust, and relationship-strengthening? How can creative movement support co-regulation and communication as families dance together? How can we continue involving families in dance, even when they can’t join us in the studio/classroom? How can relationship-based dance support the social-emotional learning and community building that is so important right now? Join family dance educators Julie Lebel & Rossana Alves as they ask these questions and more in this peer-to-peer conversation. Bring your questions too! This Exchange happens on a Thursday.
DEC
6th
Making Dance Visible
How can we communicate all that happens in the dance classroom – the magic of the creative process, the physical-social-emotional learning, our own teaching inquiry, and more – with parents, administrators, the larger community? What role can performances or informances play in this? Beyond performance, what other platforms can we cultivate to share what we see, particularly to those who might not be familiar with dance or have expectations about how it should look? Join dance educators Deborah Karp and Heather Stockton as they dive into these questions and more in casual roundtable conversation. All welcome!
JAN
26th
Investigating Our Patterns
As you enter into a new calendar year and find yourself midway through the school year, what do you want to return to and what do you want to let go of? Do you have new habits or old patterns? What rituals do you cultivate in your classroom that let your students know they are part of the dance community? What rituals do you have that remind you that you are part of the dance community? Join dance educators Erin Walter and Michaela Summers as they jump into these questions and more. Bring your questions too!
FEB
16th
Early Childhood Idea Exchange
Let’s brainstorm together! What early ed dance ideas are you playing with right now? What do you want to try out? What do you do when you come with an idea and your students are interested in something else? What’s challenging/fulfilling in the planning and in the moment? How do you plan and also leave space for emergent curriculum and kids’ ideas? Generate new ideas in this casual conversation with preschool teacher Bernadette LaNoue, teaching artist Rossana Alves, and other peer dance educators. This Exchange happens on a Thursday.
APR
20th
Dance in Special Ed & Inclusion
coming soon!
MAY
9th
Restarting & Reimagining 2.0
coming soon!
More topics to be added! Check back regularly for updates.