“I’m most proud of my students’ willingness to have candid and, sometimes, impromptu conversations about their experiences with virtual learning. In one instance, I restructured an ensemble to accommodate students who no longer wanted to perform because of “zoom fatigue” and overall lack of motivation to perform. Instead, more than half of the class received credit for submitting a response to the showcase.”

Samad Raheem Guerra
Director of Word Dance
Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, San Francisco
Summer Institute Alum 2019

Taught synchronously and asynchronously

“I love that teaching kids on Zoom brought me into their homes and closer to their lives. We often had family members, pets, and stuffed animals join us. One moment that brought me joy was when one student, who had been completely engaged in our dance class was handed a double scoop ice cream cone by an adult in his home – in the middle of dance class! I wondered what he would do when faced with the choice to dance or eat an ice cream cone. Well, this kiddo didn’t miss a beat! He just kept doing every step of our West African dance with an ice cream cone in his hand. That’s how badly this dancer needed to dance!”

Photo from one of Genoa’s filmed-at-home-with-family asynchronous lessons.

Genoa Sperske (she/her)
Teaching Artist
SF Ballet Dance In Schools and Communities
Valley Dance Theatre, Livermore
Summer Institute Alum 2020

Taught asynchronously, synchronously, concurrently, in hybrid, and in person, inside distanced + masks.

Sam Stone (she/her)
Dance Teaching Artist
SF Arts Ed
Summer Institute Alum 2016

Taught asynchronously, synchronously and hybrid.

“I was concerned about reaching my students this year and staying connected with the dance community. However, the ability to try out new ways of connecting and being placed into new teaching settings brought out confidence I didn’t know I had. The creativity blossomed beyond teaching a dance class into interacting with the space around you, using the video camera as your audience, and engaging students with emerging curriculum. I see a future in the journey I started and am excited to continue exploring new ways of dance artistry and education.”

Simone is taking this creativity and confidence into her new dance organization, CANVAS Dance Arts, offering DANCEmix, a site-specific choreography and dance film camp this summer.

Simone van der Meer (she/her)
Dance Teaching Artist
Jewish Community Center San Francisco
CANVAS Dance Arts, co-founder
SI Alum 2020

Taught synchronously and in-person, outdoors, distanced + masked, and at farmers markets!

“What a year! I felt like I grew to laser-in on key elements of movement. My overarching goals were to have students MOVE and find JOY in the movement. I had the usual early challenges – finding music, learning how to see students in little boxes, learning to translate the explore aspect of creative movement….

All changed and opened up when I brought a washing machine exploration to class. Prior to that I felt like I was not grounded in anything. The act of bringing in a very tangible real experience for students through dance brought so much kinesthetic connection to classes…and it kept on growing! We made pizzas with our bodies, pancakes, etc. There were so many ways we could explore and the dance teacher in me was giddy at the ways I could bring in dance vocab to the very Montessori-like party. I say “Montessori” only because we really took off bringing in real life home experiences, which makes sense because the students were at home. 

My biggest smile came when I was sharing with 2nd grade students about my experiences at the beach and how some seagulls had surrounded my gathering because we left pizza on the sand. And they all unanimously agreed that we needed to turn that into a dance. And dance we did! It was glorious!

It was a challenging year having to distill the dance experience into 30 minutes, but it made me more mindful and clear as a teacher.”

photo from one of Christine’s YouTube videos for students, “Breathing and Balance”

Christine Atkins
Elementary Creative Expressions Teacher
Oakland Unified School District
SI Alum 2016

Taught asynchronously through my YouTube Channel, and each class synchronously on a biweekly schedule. When my school switched to hybrid learning April 2021, I still taught synchronously in the mornings and came to site in the afternoons.

“A deep frustration I experienced most of this year was around 2 things. 1) Constantly being told I couldn’t do something because of pandemic guidelines. I had to creatively investigate other options, develop skills to find a new avenue of possibility. For example, at our school each year we celebrate Chinese New Year with a large event. Because we couldn’t sing, wear lion dance costumes, use the lion heads, be close to each other, and we were separated in small cohorts, etc., I had to figure out how to approach this. Especially because this is a big tradition for our 6th graders; it’s like a coming of age event for them. So, I learned how to use iMovie (with the help of the students, YouTube videos, and IT support) and we created a story/play with no costumes  that asked the question where are the lions? (because we couldn’t use them). We put the story in the context of the pandemic. The kids learned all the drumming patterns, and we added in socially-distanced dancing, storytelling and even some circus activities like juggling because a few of our students knew how to do it. The video was played for families as part of our Chinese New Year Celebrations. This was both a challenge and something that both the students and I felt good about.

2) Not having space or the space being inconsistently accessible or taken away. Yes, I enjoyed teaching outside. But with weather conditions, lack of outdoor on-campus space, and nearby local facilities not always being accessible, finding dancing space was a consistent inconsistency.  I often had to create many back-up lessons for what if it rains today and I can’t take the kids out? Or what if I take the kids to the park but where we would dance is now filled with other people from the community playing soccer? Or the lower school yard is being parsed out so that lunch, recess, and PE can happen? Now dance is being squeezed in there too. (I have to say that one of the good outcomes that came from dance happening on the yard when other grades were having lunch or recess was that many of the other kids would watch and join us in our dancing from their roped off section. I also, would see TA’s stretching with us while they watched the other kids.) How will I adjust? I made so many adjustments this year. At times, I am amazed at how flexible I had to be moment to moment. Other times I feel thoroughly exhausted and frustrated by the constant unexpected shifts. However, in the process I gained access to new ways to teach, new places to have dance, and new tech skills gained.  Most importantly, the students were happy and able to adjust. They are so resilient. They didn’t care as long as they could be with each other having fun learning.  And we did. We had so much fun learning.

I had to learn and practice self-care behaviors and encourage the students to do so as a way to manage the intense challenges. Creating an attitude of care and service became an even greater value to focus on and it really went a long way. I would hear students talking with each other with compassion and friendliness. At times, I too was the recipient of this. For example a kid ran in front and opened the door for me. I asked her, “Are you a door monitor?” her reply, “No, it’s just the considerate thing to do.” When the students pass by security, maintenance staff I hear many “thank yous” from them. Some of the students even refer to them by their names. In an age of me, me, me, and immediate gratification, this pandemic has amplified some important values among our youth –kindness, care, and service.

Dance this year was all about finding joy even if we were talking about difficult issues. So we played games, told jokes, improvised funny scenes, took breaks to just be silly. We learned to enjoy each other and our limitations as best as we could with dignity, respect, and genuine well wishes for each other.”

Nia Womack-Freeman (she/her)
4th-8th Grade Movement & Music Teacher
Chinese American International School
San Francisco, CA
SI Alum 2008

“This year I taught Dance full-time in an elementary public school in Brooklyn, NY. I was teaching in-person at my school site the entire year, except for sporadic weeks of quarantine in the fall due to Covid cases and exposure. My weeks were more packed than ever as I continued teaching every in-person and remote student twice weekly, with six back to back classes per day, four of which were taught in-person and two of which were taught synchronously on Zoom with my remote students. Students in New York were required to be 12 feet apart for vigorous physical activity, so I gratefully made use of our school’s massive classrooms to spread students out between desks and bookshelves and opted to dance with a voice amplifying microphone/speaker clipped on my hip so that students could hear me from a distance. As more and more students opted into in-person learning in the winter and spring, I started teaching in the empty cafeteria space to accommodate the larger classes. Now that the weather permits, I’ve been teaching outside on our building’s terrace more and more!

I want to hold onto the images of my students gleefully balancing atop their desks, leaping over bean bag chairs, and tapping down the staircases like the Nicholas Brothers. This was a year of turning obstacles into opportunities, and nothing demonstrated that quite as clearly for me as our site-specific choreography unit, which allowed 2nd graders to turn the desks, chairs, and bookshelves strewn about their space into dance partners. As they explored the possibilities of dancing with rather than simply amidst a crowded space, they found ways to liberate themselves from the rigidity of classroom expectations and learned how to transform any space into a studio.”

Emily Ban (she/her)
Dance Teacher
PS 770 The New American Academy
Brooklyn, NY
SI Alum 2017

“The biggest challenges I confronted were a call to be in the present and to trust that spirit recognizes spirit, even in zoomland. During one dance residency this year, I was teaching a 3rd grade zoom class and we were exploring the elements of nature. I really didn’t know how this lesson was being received, it was hard to track what was happening in the many little boxes. When we arrived at the fire element, one student suddenly unmuted herself, jumped up, and sang, “This girl is on fiiiiiiiiiyahhhhhh!!!” In that moment she gave us a gift of joyous presence, and it became our fire dance soundtrack. I return to this moment often and it still makes me laugh out loud and marvel at how we truly can trust that when we show up, dance creates magic.”

photo from one of Maura’s dance teaching videos

Maura Whelehan she/her/hers
Teaching Artist
SF Ballet Dance in Schools and Communities
SI Alum 2014

This year I taught students online in synchronous zoom classes with everyone at home, with students in school, and hybrid versions. I also created asynchronous video lessons (indoors and outdoors) of various lengths. I did not return to in person teaching.