I am an arts educator and movement storyteller. I love to teach and work with all ages across various disciplines. I am skilled at using movement and story telling to connect many areas of study with dance. I believe it is ultimately my responsibility to create a class environment where multiple modalities are utilized to facilitate the evolution of the whole person. Of course, I want to assist in the advancement of each students’ technical skill level, physical capacity and mental expansion, but dance education is so much more than that.
As a constructivist educator, I believe that learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. Learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction rather than passively receiving information. My job is to facilitate and help learners on their quest. I hope to help others empower themselves in the ownership of their knowledge. It is my responsibility as an educator to be open to and encourage an environment where I am not the expert of a given thing, but have the potential to learn as much or more from my students as I teach them since each individual has unlimited, unique insights.
The art world is relentlessly changing; yesterday’s innovative ideas and/or techniques quickly become tomorrow’s history. Each artist must consequently strive to accommodate, embrace and even anticipate these changes if they want to be successful and/or impact society. Dancers, including but not limited to performers, teachers and choreographers, are not in any way exempt from this rule. Thus, the constantly expanding world expects and demands capable, adaptive dancers well schooled in multiple dance genre as well as non-dance disciplines. While I have my dance technique areas of expertise, I do not believe that any dance form is more valuable than an other. I encourage everyone I work with to bring all their dance forms and life experiences to the dancing space. These will only serve to enrich the experience.
Because my role as an artist educator is active and dynamic and because constant growth characterizes the dance field specifically and the education world in general, I am responsible to continue my own education. I must remain a student consumed by an unquenchable thirst to know more. This desire for knowledge should not be limited to the field of dance, but should make connections between the fields of art, humanities, linguistics, sciences etc. It is my responsibility to share that which I learn with others, specifically those I teach. Then, as an educator I must challenge students in the spirit of generosity and love to also obtain a broad education base and make connections between disciplines.
Agency and empowerment are important to me. Personal choice/preference is often not an option in a codified dance class. Too often in the dance field, students are encouraged to sacrifice themselves and/or their individuality for the greater cause of the art form. Old schools of thought ask students to leave their “outside” lives and/or experiences at the door. My philosophy of teaching dance requires that students feel safe in bringing themselves as entire individuals to each class. I expect each student to participate in class with full commitment in spite of, perhaps because of, life’s circumstances. Further, I insist each bring his/her unique experience and personality to class as part of this commitment. In my classes, variation is encouraged, even expected. Students are both encouraged to take care of their bodies and take risks. Individuals are in charge of their own safety-mental and physical and do not have to participate in something if they feel unsafe. I trust other humans and their intuitive knowing.
While I demand whole participation of each student in my class(es), I do not pretend to believe that my classes are the most important priorities of a given individual’s life; rather I encourage the same attitude of complete dedication to all aspects of life beyond the scope of the classroom. These dancers, feeling committed to being themselves, will at times need guidance to find their unique artistic voices. As a teacher, I am responsible for nurturing and cultivating confidence.
Human bodies are amazing. For too long, we have been told that only people with specific skills, training and bodies can and should be given the opportunity to dance and make dances. I reject this premise. I believe that all bodies are incredible. I want to encourage changing the paradigm of what “dancer’s body” means. The way I see it, if you have a body and you dance, you have a dancer’s body. Dance, even dance as a profession, is not made for a select few, “ideally proportioned” humans, but everyone. Dance is a human right. Anyone who has the desire to dance has the right to dance and make dances.
Finally, we all need to be more articulate in how we talk and write about dance. To empower each student in discovering and expressing unique voice, speaking and writing assignments are important elements of each dance series. Fulfilling these assignments help students move this vibrant art form forward. It is important for students to know where the field has been, thus be familiar with dance history, to know where it has the potential to go. Dance cannot thrive in a vacuum, and individuals who can speak and write about dance establish the integral role of dance in society.
In a very general sense, the impact of the arts in all forms of humanity is not easily understood. Whether the medium be the brush, the body, or the pen, the layers of significance embedded in all artistic works are often hard to sort through. However, it is the string of truth striking a chord in those who create, study and experience art that keeps people coming back for more, it is through personal quandary and moments of divine clarity found in the study of a Picasso or the viewing of a Cunnigham dance work that individuals are able to find meaning in their lives and consequently the workings of the universe. As an educator I expect myself to orchestrate opportunities of such introspective questioning. Through creating, viewing and analyzing works repeatedly, students should come to recognize this string of truth.
I love my role as an arts educator and dance making storyteller. I love to help others find their unique voice and develop deep, loving relationships with themselves through writing and talking about dance as well as performing movement and making their own dances. This is my life’s work and I am humbled by it every day.