by Amanda Chiado, SI 2018

On October 8th I had the great pleasure of facilitating a Practitioner Exchange on Dance & Writing with the Luna Dance Institute following a year-long inquiry project which began in the Summer Institute 2018.

The PX was totally rejuvenating!  It is so important to connect with others who are working in your field.  We all shared ideas related to our creative and teaching practices. Participants discussed dance as a way to tap out of abstraction and into the body.  For example, students can dance verbs instead of doing a worksheet. Capitalizing on opportunities to connect language to the body is essential to learning.  We discussed the challenge of students growing both in dance and writing simultaneously, but determined that there can be a dialogue and fluidity between these two content areas that elevates them both.

We could have talked much longer, but here are some of the highlights:

• Creating dance sequences alongside exploring writing structure can help students learn beginning, middle and end, motifs, and revising and editing.  
• Don’t forget a student can be assessed on content knowledge by doing a dance!  
• Units centered on relevant topics that incorporate dance are powerful, such as a Dreamers Unit or a Borders & Boundaries Unit.  
• Students can dance quotes, and journal about dancing.  
• Dance the Pledge of Allegiance to engage students in a writing piece we are all familiar with.
• They can write a poem about Fibonacci and the dance of mathematics.
• Teaching is most engaging when we are trying new ideas, and when the content is student lead.  What are students interested in and what is affecting them? Depending on the age of the students, topics can range from pirates to climate change.
• Integrated approaches to creativity support health and well-being, coping strategies, self-regulation and liberation.
• It is important to observe reflect, and evaluate and this goes for you and the students.
• Working backward in your planning to creates systematic learning opportunities. 

Our conversation too, was like a dance that moves with meaning and feeling, and even a poem that flows and connects.  I really appreciated the sharing of ideas, and the dedication of the group to creating meaningful experiences for their students that incorporate dance or are driven by dance.  I came away swirling with thoughts and an affirmation of my deep commitment to my practice. Can we dance to Mad Libs? Let’s try it!

The final image that lingered on for me following our exchange was the Cinnamon Roll.  Part of the conversation entailed an experience of dancing as a cinnamon roll, and using the descriptive language connected to the delicious treat as a way to engage in the dance.  This image stays with me not just because I love food, but because it’s a concrete object that we can investigate, and use to inform our dancing and inform our writing. The delicate steam, twist and roll, the sticky, and doughy are all words that live boldly in the body.  Become the cinnamon roll!

Amanda Chiado is writer, teacher and arts advocate. She is the Director of Arts Education for the San Benito County Arts Council and is an active California Poet in the Schools.

Facilitator Victoria Albaracin and participant Aiano Nakagawa reflect on the September 10, 2019 Practitioner Exchange: Creating Space for Child-centered Work

From Victoria: I love how a community, who does not know each other personally, can come together to discuss  different topics and then brainstorm ideas to deeper our practice and pedagogy. I think we have a unique opportunity as educators to collaborate and learn from one another that we might not get in our normal teaching communities. This exchange for me was especially valuable because I am still growing as a dance educator and finding more ways to integrate into my general education classroom. I’m super excited because I’m taking over the dance program for kindergarten at my school and I plan on using the ideas that were shared during our exchange, and I feel like we have a community that can continue to share with one another outside of the Practitioner Exchange. 

From Aiano: One major question that came up was: What is the role of the teacher and in true-child centered play? We reminded ourselves that the teacher is not the center. It can feel destabilizing to stand back, like you’re not doing anything as the teacher, when, in many cases, that’s the best thing you can do. Especially in dance, we sometimes feel we have to prove we are teaching/educating, so we take more power/control over the class than necessary. It was validating to hear and agree that stepping back and letting children be is important – and essential – to their development and growth. From this place we can watch children’s own interests and inquiries reveal themselves, and as we listen deeply and ask questions, a new curriculum, one led by our students, can emerge.

Victoria Albaracin is a kindergarten teacher and newly self-identified dance educator at Ascend Elementary School in Oakland, CA.