What role can “gently Socratic” philosophical inquiry play in the context of performing arts education?I consider myself fortunate to have had the honor of participating in Dr. Thomas Jackson’s PHIL 492: Philosophy with Children (p4c) course in the Spring of 2015, one of the last courses in my work towards my MFA in Dance. The concepts and techniques have continued to prove valuable over time, so I wanted to share as a resource for fellow educators, performing artists, and dancers.
This article was originally part of my Theory and Criticism work for my MFA in Dance in 2014, and critical pedagogy and artistic practice continues to be relevant to my teaching, coaching, and creative practice over a decade later.
My perspective has continued to expand with my maturation, experience, and ongoing education, so articulating my philosophy and approach is an ongoing challenge.
Since my graduate school years, I’ve made updates based on my qualitative in-studio encounters and from others who wish to honor the tradition of dance, including classical ballet, while also supporting the whole dancer and society in a contemporary context.
Dance and yoga classes have been hot and sweaty recently, it must be summer! It is a great season for strength and mobility gains, and to build a consistent stretching habit to support your athletic and artistic goals and feel good.
For frequent flyers and folks for whom it is important that we freely move, I’m offering yummy yoga poses, practices, and a playlist full of goodies for small spaces of time and elbowroom. As always, asana, shapes and flows are adaptive to varying energy levels and needs, physical capacity and limits from within or without, which you may practice anytime from anywhere.
Last October I tried out my first Inktober Drawing Challenge, and in January I’ve kept sketching going on a weekly basis. Drawing and visual arts is really a whole other way of being creative than my usual dancing and also very relevant to the enterprise of shape, shaping and space in my dance practice as […]
It takes just minutes a day to tap into the magic of your own internal resources, so join me for an exploration of the elements within nature and ourselves so we can learn to access inner strength, the Magic Within You 4-Day Virtual Yoga Workshop.
Looking at the news today can make me feel like the world is in a downward spiral. Sometimes our individual lives feel this way as well. And maybe we’d like for things to take a turn for the better, and just continue along a linear path towards perfection. Well, life seems to follow a more […]
Dance theorists identify 7 basic movements of ballet or classical dance technique, and we can see these essential building blocks at play in every ballet pas, step, or movement. I’m excited to announce that around these 7 essentials, I’ve designed a free summer dance challenge to begin or continue your ballet journey, and you […]
Building Blocks of Dance Welcome to the latest installment of my series on the “Seven Basic Movements” of ballet and classical dancing. Thus far, I have explored Plier/to bend, Sauter/to jump, Glisser/to glide, and Élancer/to dart in blog articles, videos, and podcasts, and created a Playlist on YouTube about the 7 Movements to support learning […]
While writing about the evolution of my morning ritual, I realized that the sacred time I spend preparing for my day is as much about what I avoid doing as the actions that I choose to take. That is, in order for me to focus and get into the head space I require, there are platforms and activities that I save for when my ritual is complete, later in the day, or that I skip altogether.
