I participated in the Luna Dance Summer Institute last week; a one week professional development designed for both dance teaching artists and classroom teachers who are looking to incorporate dance into their curriculum. I’m still processing the plethora of information that was presented but I can already tell that this experience has had a big impact on me (and I don’t say things like that lightly). The way I think about and approach dance got turned on it’s head and while I’m not yet sure exactly how all of this will manifest in my own work and my work with kids, it’s definitely percolating in a profound way.

Below are my notes, reflections, and interpretations from the course. I’m noticing that, for me, immediately and thoroughly reflecting on an experience and then dropping it totally (for a few days or weeks) enables my subconscious to sort through it in a much more authentic way than I’d ever be able to do - scrambling to characterize and compartmentalize it all, to sort it all out. Here are my notes & reflections:

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PRE-DAY 1:

The questions I’m bringing with me to this workshop:
 Classroom Management: 
- Any strategies for effectively managing a classroom if I don’t know everyone’s name?
- What are some management systems that work for itinerant dance teachers that aren’t punitive and don’t involve negativity?
- Any creative ideas / games centered around moving desks and chairs when dance class needs to be held in the classroom?
- Any strategies for addressing / supporting / helping students that absolutely do not want to move?
 
Community: 
- How does Luna approach building a classroom community that is respectful, where all students feel comfortable taking risks and sharing their work?
 
Feedback: 
- What are some effective ways to have kids share feedback about their work?
- How do you keep the feedback effective, honest and non-judgmental?
 
Original Work: 
- How can I support & guide students through creating their own dance pieces?

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DAY 1: 

Pedagogy: Basic structure of a class:
Create -> Perform -> Respond
1) Opening Warm-up (Introduce concepts)
2) Exploration (Give an opportunity for discovery)
3) Improvisation (Give an opportunity for problem solving and posing)
4) Composition (Give an opportunity for dancers to make choices and set their dance)
5) Perform (Set norms for the audience and then have dancers perform work)
6) Respond & Reflect (Ask the audience non-judgmental guiding questions like: Show me a shape from this dance, What was a relationship you saw? How did they use timing? Think of a one word title for this dance etc….)

Activities: Dip various body parts into imaginary paint and then write your name in the space.

Content: Elements of Dance: space, time and energy:

Free write prompts:  
- Write about an early dance experience.
- Write about an early school experience.
- What do you want in a dance experience for your students? My answers: I want them to: be engaged, joyful, challenged, willing to go past their comfort zone, feel safe, have the opportunity to perform something they are proud of, get to learn set choreography AND create their own work, have an opportunity to give and receive constructive feedback.

Co-constructed Brainstorm on the purpose of dance in education:

Things that were said that resonated with me:
-How do you get the most (educational) bang for your buck?
-If you have one good sharp knife, you don’t need 7 others.
-It’s not necessary to shape shift dance.
- We often, as dance teachers, feel the need to prove the validity of dance by teaching something else.

Teachy, dancy language I hear being used:
-“Tease that idea out.”
-“Marry.”
-“Intersect.”
-“….. is where dance lives.”

Tid Bits:  
- Find fun ways to establish norms on the first day of class i.e. space bubbles for maintaining personal space, focus activities (especially if you have to share space with another group).

Personal reflections / noticings / connections:

No matter how in-alignment I think I am with the values of a particular group or institution, I always set myself up as the skeptical outsider. For better or worse. I know that this is based on a combination of experiences I’ve had in the past and my nature. On the one hand I wonder how much it inhibits me from taking in and on the other hand I’m really grateful that it comes naturally to me because I think that it’s absolutely imperative to get a solid understanding of the camp / perspective any particular group / institution is teaching from. Everyone likes to present their way as the right way because that’s they way they are-a-goin….. it makes sense, if they didn’t believe in it, they would be on a different path. And as a teacher a.k.a, a person with lots and lots of power in many peoples lives, it’s imperative to really process what you’re being told and not just swallow it without using some discerning judgment.  

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DAY 2
 

Content:
- Child hood development (rooted in the work of Eric Erickson (who looked at human development across cultures) and Temple Grandin.

• Pre-K: living in the moment, difficult for them to decenter, egocentric (difficult to see things from a diff. point of view), might not be potty trained, power & autonomy is a big explored, difficult for them to make circles or lines as a group..
• K: Egocentric, Concrete, coordination and balance is varied, not able to decenter yet.
• 1st: Learn by moving, egocentric but transitioning to being able to work with a partner.
• 2nd/3rd: Able to symbolically represent, peer groups become important, there is a move from the individual to the partner or the group, starting to understand that there is a world beyond the classroom.
• 4th/5th: Reading to learn, able to meta-cognate.
• Middle School: Able to abstract, have different points of view, and role play. Biologically maturing to reproduce.
• High School: Grappling with identity, want to make a meaningful contribution, starting to be able to empathize, sexual.
• Young Adult: Practicing a chosen or given identity, starting to be able to have intimate relationships, grappling with questions of morality, their ability to empathize is maturing…

- The Brain Dance (Anne Green Gilbert)

- Laban’s Planes (Vertical (Rise - Fall), Horizontal (Spread - Close), and Sagittal (Advance - Retreat).
- Working with impulse (internal and external). - You need a reason to travel.
- Exploring axial and locomotor movements (movements that take you through the space: walk, run, leap, gallop, slide, skip, jump, hop…)

Activities: Mirroring, Shadowing, Chopsticks (dancing with a partner while having to keep a chopsticks between your hands).

Locomotor Movements: (movements that move you through the space): walk, run, leap, gallop, slide, skip, jump, hop….

Free write prompts: How do children learn?

Things that were said that resonated with me:
-“Any human endeavor that is a process has room for play and adventure.”
-“It’s totally legitimate to just say ‘reset’ when things aren’t working.”
-“When you are giving and example to students, think about the examples you are giving carefully.”
-“It’s better to say ‘tracing’ a shape vs. ‘making’ or ‘drawing’ a shape.”
-“If you want students to explore with a partner, give them time to explore on their own first.”
-“They’re going to fool around at first but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad lesson.”
-“You always need a reason to travel.”
-“Impulse is why you go.”

Teachy, dancy language I hear being used:
-“….mines into…. “
-“….tease out part of the phrase..”
-“Language system.”
-“Multi-modal device.”

Bits & Pieces:  
-Homolateral crawling - crawling with the same arm as leg.
-Contralateral crawling - crawling wit the opposite arm as we leg.
- It’s important for Per-K’s to slither. - An interesting area to explore: working with internal and external impulse (sneeze, hiccup, breath) = tension and release.
- flow = ongoingness. What do you have to do with effort to keep the flow regardless of environment?
- think about the age group and what’s going to get them at a particular concept?

Personal reflections / noticings / connections:

- I should write a blog posted titled “defensive teacher”. I am so defensive about my activities! I know how to play the role of the “super open teacher who genuinely wants constructive feedback on her work.” but underneath that layer of pretense there are 101 and defense mechanisms going up.

- This is where I get stuck as a teacher - not particularly as a dance teacher but just with the idea of teaching and learning in general:

I still grapple with this question “Is all communication a form of manipulation?” The part of me that doesn’t feel comfortable with education (with institutionalized education especially) is the part of me that views teaching as the ultimate manipulative act. Ideally, you want to create experiences for students that enable them to come to their own conclusions and develop their own sense of understanding, right? But is that really the way institutionalized education works? Kinda. Maybe - I’ve seen some truly excellent professors try to “carve out a space” (ooooh, ahhhh! look, I’m using my new edu-vocab ;) for that within the context of institution but, even with the best of intentions, as human beings, don’t we all have a (conscious or unconscious) agenda? And if you are developing lessons / activities / setting up experiences for students with that agenda, how can you treat all of your students realizations as equally valid? While at the same time corralling their ideas into the areas / ideas / perspective that you want them to “get”? In some ways it’s even more manipulative (and effective) than just straight up indoctrination because exceptionally-able teachers know how to make you leave class with a particular idea / concept / perspective AND make you feel like you got there ON YOUR OWN (which we all know is much more powerful than just telling someone something - the self-realization has sticking power!). It’s a weird line and area for me. I get stuck when I teach because I know I’m teaching from a perspective, from a particular set of conscious and unconscious belief and values, and I wonder about my right to impose those on other people.

- Good feedback givers, always start with something positive, are genuinely excited (or are really good at faking being genuinely excited) about your lesson, don’t pander too much, and tend to do the positive / constructive / positive feedback sandwich thing.

- Sound / music naturally creates an environment, a sense of “something is happening in here” even if nothing is really happening in the class. It’s easy to walk away with that impression and feeling as both an observer and participant. So that’s one reason not to use it, cause it’s kinda like cheating. However, I like sound. I like music. It’s inspiring to me. And if I’m genuinely excited and inspired, I can convey genuine excitement and inspiration to the kids. I’m always trying to find a balance between doing things that interest me as a teacher (because if I ain’t engaged there is no way I can engage students) and following the students lead.

- What is the role of the artists in an institution? In public education?

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DAY 3

Big Ideas:
- Spiral learning & constructivism vs. linear teaching, climbing the ladder, mastery, and practice.

- Technique vs. style based dance: it can be argued that all technique is style based dance. We were encouraged to redefine technique for ourselves - > knowing your body so well that you can execute _______________ safely to achieve a desired goal. (I had a really great dance professor who said the same thing!).

Activities:
- Scarf Activity: (I love this!!!) Start in a circle have one dancer move the scarf in some way (drop it, twist it, throw it, shake it etc.) and then every one in the circle does what the scarf does. Extend this to have dancers work in pairs, one person manipulating the scarf and another embodying the scarf -> move across the floor -> introduce vocabulary pairs (above / below, high / low, open / close) -> have dancers work back to back - how do you follow the scarf when you can’t see it? -> Make a dance: 1) decide where you start 2) decide how to travel 3) Pass the scarf at some point 4) choose a relationship (above / below, high / low, open / close).

- Making a dance and writing a legend: I adored this activity as well. After a few explorations we created our own dance and kept track of it on a legend. Our prompt for this was “Find a way of representing the stage on your paper.” Then we would go out into the space and, fox example, decide on a starting point and ending point in the space. Then the facilitator would say “Ok, now come back to your paper and mark your beginning point and ending point on your map.” Then we would go out into the space again and establish our pathway from our staring point to our ending point and then come back and record it on our legend. We continued like this, playing with pathways, shapes, focus, place, rest / duration, and locomotor / arial… until we had a dance - in our bodies and represented on our legends. Then we were assigned a partner. We performed our dance for one another and gave each other input / suggestions. Then split the group in half - half performed and half watched and then we switched. Here is my dance map :)

Basic Structure of this activity: Explore -> Compose Parts / Make Decisions -> Compose MAP or legend -> Continue to improvise and compose -> Show (watching one, watching all) -> Reflection (reflecting on our own pieces, reflecting with a partner), Revise (with partner input - it’s important to pick the right questions for the feedback giver to answer). How could we extend this? “Trade dance maps with your partner - now do your dance on their map.” “Straighten your dance.” etc.

Great audience questions:  What surprised you? Can you describe a transition?

Presentation from Axis Dance:
- Axis Dance is a physically integrated dance company.
- Most disabilities are invisible.
- When you have dancers / students in your group with disabilities it’s an opportunity for them to find the dancer within them and for everyone to learn something new.
- Never assume that you know someone’s story.
- You can practice the dance a lot but you never know what it will be like for the students to be in front of a big audience.
- You never know how just being visible is going to effect people / students / performers.
- It’s important to talk about kids with disabilities in the classroom and answer the often tacit questions that many in the community might have like ‘who are these kids?’ ‘where are they going?’ ‘why do they always leave?’
- Try to incorporate every modality possible into your teaching (voice, visual cues - cue cards, tactile & kinesthetic instruction…)

Switching Spots: As a way to get students ready to move in the space without touching you can start in a circle and ask 2 people to switch spots without touching, then 4, then 5, then 6……. This helps kids how it can be done.

Strategies: for a dancers who are very sensitive to noise - turn lights on and off to get their attention. For a dancer that is deaf - have them hold a balloon close to the speaker so they can feel the vibrations, also percussive movements are good to get their attention, like stomping for example. For dancers with autism, deep pressure is more effective than light touch. Tactile environments are good for dancers that are blind - for example, if dancers are barefoot, you could use sandpaper to outline the boundaries of the space so they can feel it with their feet. *Dancers that are visually imparred will rely on sound so keep ambient noise down. *Dancers that are deaf will rely on their vision so make sure they aren’t looking into the light.

Things I heard that I connected with: 
- Something you can tell any helpers you have in your class (for example 4th graders supporting your 2nd grade class) “If you’re not helping you’re doing.”

Bits & Pieces:
- A helpful way to get dancers think about modifying their dances: “Make that the most important part of the dance.”
- Participated in a great dance activity that a colleague did about molecules and their different states (solid, liquid, and gas). That theme is rife with opportunities to move!
- Re: Pre K Activities: they don’t always have to be complete the important thing is to keep them moving. 
- For Pre K’s, it’s difficult for them to decenter and they can’t sequence yet so keep that in mind when you are creating activities for them.
- “How else can we fall? Bottom first? Hands first? etc..”
- Say your goal upfront.
- One way to deal with self consciousness, especially with teens, is to make the activity even more challenging.

Personal reflections / noticings / connections:

- I had a really interesting experience today. We were going around the circle, doing a check in, sharing our thoughts / feelings / questions. In general I’m still processing it all but this is what I shared:  “Everyone is teaching from a camp and I wonder about the role and responsibility of the institution when it comes to this.” One of the facilitators responded to my comment by telling us about an experience she had with Paulo Freire (yes THE Paulo Freire!). She said that he told her something to the effect of “You have to acknowledge your beliefs / perspective / camp / stance / position to yourself and to your students FIRST. Then you must passionately follow through on those beliefs in front of them.” When she said this something in me totally clicked. You have to acknowledge it to yourself and to them right at the beginning! And then follow through. This has helped me tremendously!!! :)

- We have been presenting activities to each other and I have noticed that good teachers keep us moving and keep us engaged. It’s also a good sign when the person who is assessing you is having difficult time wearing both hats - that of participant and observer. That means they are engaged!

Questions:
- “How do you have an authentic dance program with a fragmented schedule?”

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DAY 4

Big Ideas:
- There is what a person shows and what a person sees and where those two things meet is where art lives. With regard to dance, what you choose to see / notice comes from your experiences as a mover.

Content:
Co-constructed brainstorm on how children learn:

Great audience questions:
- What did you see?
- What stood out to you?
- How do they use space and time?
- What did you perceive to be the most important part of the dance?

Time:
- External time (beat, accent, rhythmic pattern, measure, meter, phrasing, duration).
- Internal time (internally motivated movement and rhythm).
- Syncopation (when there is at least one odd and one even accent).
- Usually rhythm is taught by teaching kids how to walk on the beat BUT often the kids that need dance the most are the ones that know how to conform.
- We all hear rhythm differently - we all start on a different part of the “Go.”

Responding to dance: - Involves: Description (what did you see?), Interpretation , Judgment (can use as a tool for self reflection, it’s a good way to edit dances, might be good for high schoolers with regard to where they’re at developmentally). Examples of diff. response questions you might ask diff. grade levels:

Pre K:
- What did you see?
- Who saw a high shape?
- If you say a high shape, make a shape with your body.
 
1st - 2nd:
- Lots of describing.
 
2nd - 3rd:
- Description
- Interpretation
- How would you title this dance?
- Write down 3 words that this dance reminds you of.

4th - 5th:
- What happened before this dance?
- 4th and 5th graders should be doing lots of interpreting but they should be describing first so they can see clearly, so they have the tools with which to interpret.
 
Middle School:
- What new things did you try today?
- What surprised you about this dance?
- Notice what movements you tend to repeat a lot?
- What do you never do in your dances?
- They need a sense of power and privacy.
 

High School:
- Focus on judgment.
- Why do you like __________?
- Why do you not like ____________?

Prompting Students:
- 1) Say what you see 2) Ask them to change something 3) Modify even further. For example: “I notice that everyone is at the same level. Can you change your level? At some point in your dance add a ___________.

Personal reflections / noticings / connections:
- There is one facilitator in particular who has the ability to disarm me and I very much appreciate it.
- These people know their stuff!!
- One of the women in our group, a high school teacher, told a story about how she had a teacher that used to talk about  “stretch marks.” however he didn’t mean stretch marks in the way we probably think of them, a mark that occurs when your skin stretches.  Instead he encouraged his students to seek out  “stretch marks,” experiences that would make them stretch, and leave a mark. She now does this with her students. I really like that :)

Teachy, dancy language I hear being used:
“My experience with your dance was _________.”

Bits & Pieces:
- Basically, you are meeting artistic perception standards when you teach a dance and have students perform it.
- You are meeting creative expression standards when they are making their own dances.
- Historical & Cultural Context standards are the standards that are most often interpreted.
- In California there is no dance teaching credential (yet). You have to get it’s equivalent via another route like P.E. or a supplementary subject matter authorization.’

Things I heard that I connected with:
- “Lots of teachers succumb to prompts like: Start with a free flowing movement, then do a punch, then end with a stop.” But this is too narrow and doesn’t give students the opportunity to really create.
- “Composition is about making choices to communicate your intent.”
- “If your activity doesn’t lend itself to making a phrase eventually…..(it may not be worth it).”
- “Not all dance in the world is meant to be seen.”
- “The best teachers are good observers. Sharpen your observation skills.”
- “You must walk your walk.”
- “You have to state what your view is and then act on it in front of your students.”
- “All we can do is be present with where we are. Right now. In this room. On Thursday.”
- “You can’t be everything for everyone, all the time.”

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DAY 5

Teaching for Understanding:

- We were asked to solve this problem: “There are 4 people going to the movies. How many different ways can they sit together?” We were allowed to using anything that would be helpful to us. After a majority of the people had solved it, a facilitator asked us “What did you learn about your learning?”

What I learned about my learning:
- I don’t particularly like working in partnerships or in groups.
- If I don’t have a firm grasp on the solution, hearing how other people got to their solution doesn’t really help me. It just confuses me even more. I really have to solve it first, for myself, by myself. Even being near other conversations is distracting for me.

The talk that followed:
- The big idea: people learn in different ways and they have to construct knowledge for themselves.
- People learn in a developmental pattern. They follow this pattern in their own time.
- You want to create a curriculum where there’s something easy and something challenging for everyone.
- Constructivism = a theory about how people learn. People learn through their own experiences. You don’t get it until you construct the knowledge for yourself.
- Children won’t go somewhere they can’t go. BUT it might look like they are because of trained behavior.
- The big people and ideas:

Energy Actions:

Things I heard that I connected with:
- “It’s important to be ok with habits until you’re comfortable with letting them go.”
- “Since nobody values it [dance] anyway, it’s our opportunity to set the norms.”
- “We’re so used to having to be the underdog, to defend - but we don’t need to have a defensive attitude.”
- “Try everything on your own body first. Walk yourself through all of your prompts.”
- “Don’t always go to the easiest thing first.”
- “Middle school is living in transition.”

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DAY 6

Adult Learning:
- a characteristic of adult learning is sorting while you’re learning: “that is me, that isn’t me..”
- It’s ok. You can let in new information and you will still be you. (Said, probably, for my benefit).
 
Stand Alone Dance Classes:
- the way you meet the dance standards.
 
Arts Integration:
- teaching a subject through dance - when a teacher knows so much about the art form that they can use it to teach a subject.
 
Activities:
Dance your telephone number. This was another great activity. You basically write the number 0-9 on the board or on butcher paper and then you call on dancers to give you some kind of locomotor or axial movement for each number. So 1 might be turn and 2 might be slide and 3 might jump etc. Then you ask the dancers to make a dance our of their telephone number. How cool is that? After some kind of showing you can ask dancers to reflect: What was easy? What was challenging? What was your strategy in numbers repeated?
 
My lesson:
We all had to create an activity and present it. Mine focused on shape:

What do I need to teach? Our co-constructed list:

Props and Inspiration. Our co-constructed list.

Free write prompts & reflections:

At the end of our time together we were asked to think about and answer these questions:

 #1 was my absolute favorite reflection question because it gets at the very core of what we do and why we do it. My answer is below:

So much of what kids learn in school is unnecessary b.s. and I’m driven by the fact that I can give them an opportunity to be themselves, to possibly feel a little more free, and to hopefully equate learning with fun. I had a professor once who said that she thought that one of her roles as a teacher was to ‘hold the elevator door open’ so speak. She wanted to give kids the chance to just be themselves for a while because pretty soon the world would close in on them, pressuring them to make all kinds of choices and decisions. She wanted to keep those pressures at bay and give them some time and space, to just be. That image is a powerful one for me. Also, I just feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing right now. Plain and simple.

Things I heard that I connected with:
- I really have so much power.
- Burnout is not inherent in this profession.
- I want people to be able to be a dance teacher without needing to have a spouse with a ‘real job.’
- On dancing in classrooms: Have the kids move stuff before you get there.
- For kids that seem like they’ve had to do adult things or have adult responsibilities before their time - the biggest gift you can give them is to just let them be their age.
- Don’t let insecurities drive the car.
- When you want people to be organic its best to be direct.
- If you want to give kids an opportunity to do whatever they want, you have to mean it (with regard to my Hip Hop Circle question).
- You don’t have to worry about people buying, if you aren’t selling anything.
- We are so far ahead of the curve.
- Keep the bar high.
- Modifiers - what’s the biggest bang for your buck?
- You gotta walk your talk.
- ALWAYS BE YOURSELF. KIDS CAN SMELL A PHONY A MILE AWAY.