by Patricia Reedy, Luna’s founder

I was invited to give a keynote address at an Embodied Parenting conference held January 17, 2015 at the Roundhouse Community Arts Center in Vancouver, British Columbia. A joint project of the arts center, a consortium of Reggio-Emilia inspired early childhood centers and Julie Lebel, a Canadian choreographer and mother of four-year-old twins, the conference brought together artists, parents and educators to explore the intersections of human interaction in and through art-making, performance and teaching. It was a unique and inspiring experience.

Preparing for the conference reignited my fascination with early childhood development. I returned to Berkeley excited about Luna’s partnership with Alameda Headstart, co-teaching Saturday morning three-year-old dance class and writing about attachment and play. In this article I share some thoughts on early learning, my reflections on being back on the teaching saddle, and some food for thought for parents and teachers of our youngest citizens.

It is widely known that young children develop and learn through three main processes: 1) Children learn in relationship with other humans—beginning with a key attachment to a parent or primary caregiver, later through relationships with peers, teachers, neighbors–friends and foes. 2) They learn through Exploration and Play–through relationships with objects and space and through trial and error. Their innate curiosity drives them to seek out new experiences and practice both the tools and behaviors of their culture (such as in role play), and also simply to discover. 3) We also know that they learn through MOVEMENT. This is related to relationship and play, but it is unique in that it is initiated through a biological drive. Piaget and the early developmental theorists found that cross-culturally children tend to engage in the world through similar physical interactions at roughly the same age. The burgeoning field of brain science has supported these earlier developmental theories—continuing to reveal the relationship between body and mind. It makes sense, then, to follow children’s natural propensity to learn in these ways. Child-rearing practices might be more rewarding, and ultimately successful, if we maximize children’s tendencies to learn through movement, play and relationship.

I’ve had the fortune to study neuro-developmental, mind-body work with the somatic and Laban practitioners Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, Peggy Hackney and Anne Green-Gilbert. Bonnie is the foremost expert in the study of early development, beginning with embryotic maturation and moving through infancy. Throughout the first two years of life, young humans engage in a spiral process using the same 8 neurological patterns to advance agency on the world. Sometimes referred to as the “Brain Dance” the patterns are: breath, tactile, core-distal, head-tail, upper-lower, body half, cross lateral and vestibular. Typically developing children do these patterns naturally. Parents and teachers can learn to support them in daily routines or through curriculum. Somatic practitioners and dance therapists help children and adults repair lost moments or arrested development through rehabilitative practice with the patterns. Others, like Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, continue scientific inquiry about them for decades.

Educators and parents have the opportunity to witness first-hand the many ways children learn through exploration and play. At first, everything is novel and explored, then becomes familiar and practiced. We get to watch children make connections between the known and unknown right before our very eyes. Every day.

Educators who value exploration and play are able to see how curriculum emerges from it, through the careful attention of a trained observer. The mentors of my youth emphasized the importance of developing strong observation skills and later, I recognized the power of the Observation/Reflection process: as an artist—the art of seeing; as an educator and parent—the art of listening; as a program developer—the art of the inquiry/reflection cycle.

Reflection and Observation are parts of the same process. Self-reflection allows us to critically examine our own beliefs, our reactions to situations, our behavior and ask ourselves if our thoughts, words and deeds align. Self-reflection keeps us honest. When we examine our teaching practice or our parenting, we see where we get our buttons pushed—if we can be patient, loving and forgiving with ourselves we can make small toggling adjustments in our behavior—coming closer and closer to walking our talk. Paying attention through keen observation helps us see what is going on at home and in our classrooms and make in-the-moment decisions to shift perspectives, open up dialogue and new possibilities. When observation and reflection are aligned, the process becomes less about analysis and sorting children into certain pre-conceived “boxes” and instead becomes a rich tableau of possibility. I see the connection between the reflection-in-action we use in parenting or teaching and the skills of improvisation. Finding that “aha” moment, and going with it, is at the root of improvising, parenting, teaching; and, maybe, just engaging in a rich life.

That feeling of joy and being-in-the-moment found in teaching three year olds returned immediately on that first Saturday back. Katherine and I are crafting skillful, developmentally sound lesson plans each week, but in reality, the curriculum necessarily must include the child’s curiosity and current interest, her blossoming sense of autonomy and her vibrant sense of ME. An outside eye watching my class might not find a sense of order or purpose—but active learning is going on at the three-year old level. This requires of me a level of alertness, observation and presence that is extremely rare. I love it because it makes me feel so alive—something I seek out in meditation and nature, but have only experienced at this level with my own child or performing on stage.

Moving forward in my role as Luna’s Director of Teaching  & Learning, I feel the best way for me to help teachers improve their practice of working with very young children is to support their efforts to develop a habit of seeing the child for who she is at any given time, and reflecting on whether or not any action is actually needed. The ego-centric three-year-old thrives by being seen and appreciated for who she is right now. While it is sometimes difficult for we adults to stand back and do nothing; sometimes nothing is the best course of action.

Tips on Observing & Reflecting

• Breathe
• Move among the dancing children. It is helpful to remember that 3-year-olds don’t necessarily understand the concepts of being in a circle or standing in a line. They want to dance very close to others or run freely in the open space. It is helpful to ask yourself if they are safe and be OK with just keeping your eyes on them.
• Stay open about the order of your lesson. Three year olds are totally in the here and now. By capturing their momentum—going with their flow, you may actually cover more of your planned concepts than if you try to make sense of them in a chronology that 3-year-olds can’t comprehend.
• Delight goes a long way. Most of us choose to teach this age because their liveliness is captivating. Enjoy it! Have fun! If you’re having fun, most likely so are they.
• Recognize feelings that come up for you, note them and reflect on them either in the moment or as soon as possible after class. Are you uncomfortable if children don’t follow your directions? Do you get lost or panic in what appears like chaos? Are you comfortable with parents?  It is OK to have fear. A regular practice of noting and reflecting will help you find that very fine line between child-centeredness and utter chaos and time your interventions accordingly.
• When things aren’t going as planned, you can always fall back on simply stating what you see. Whether it is “I see an upside-down shape,” or “I see Miranda needs to check on her mom,” or “I see two children dancing very close to the mirror, let’s move out so no one bumps,” children will feel seen, and you will have created a bridge to a relationship with you as a learning ally—keeping them safe and encouraging them forward on their own trajectory.

By Nancy Ng, Luna Teaching Artist

Segregating artistic, administrative and development departments are the typical structure of 99% of US non-profit arts organizations. My colleagues who work in such institutions experience chasms between departments and waste time bickering and competing for an even share of resources. Aside from the intention of human resource efficiency, I have never understood the acceptance of this structure.

Upon leaving graduate school I was fortunate to co-lead a small organization, Asian American Dance Performances, where there was no division between the artistic and administrative staff. I happily danced and choreographed while writing my first grants and figuring out excel spreadsheets. I always loved math and spatial relationships, which were the modalities I used to learn dance. After completing a graduate program where my portfolio included a written thesis, performance thesis, and written and oral comprehensive examinations, I was able to talk and write about dance with ease. I could make a case for my artistic work and the work of my fellow artists.

In my dual role as Director of Community Engagement and Teaching Artist at Luna Dance Institute in Berkeley, California I use the skills I honed on a daily basis – talking, writing and teaching dance. Since 1998 I have worked as a salaried employee at Luna where inherent in our mission and values there is no division between our artistic and administrative staff. This has always been a core value at Luna. We place the art of dance at the center of our work, we believe administrators should not be paid more than artists, and we believe artists bring integrity, flexibility and risk-taking to all phases of program design and implementation. Working with this model of organizational development has its challenges and successes, but after 16 years it is clear that the benefits outweigh the problems we have encountered, and solving these problems has made Luna a stronger more viable organization. As a nimble and tight team we are accountable to each other in all areas – artistic, administrative and financial; this accountability has kept our mission and vision intact and made our programs stronger.

At the National Dance Education Organization conference last week in Chicago I presented with the Luna artistic-administrative team on the theme, “Walking Our Talk: how layered collaborations lead to quality, integrity and possibility”. The panel of Luna teaching artists described our partnerships with each other and with our community collaborators eloquently and succinctly. They answered questions from the session participants with complete ownership of our organization’s mission and core values. I was able to attend another presentation by Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago and it was refreshing to see that just this past year they are also providing full-time employment for teaching artists by offering them administrative roles within the organization. Despite operating on a tight budget, our staff organized themselves as a team to apply for professional development funds to attend this conference. These teaching artist/administrators wrote grants, articulating their professional learning goals. I was also able to approach our board of directors for airplane fare because they see the value and importance of leadership development within our teaching artist staff.

The field of teaching artistry is growing by leaps and bounds. Eric Booth in the recent Guild Notes says, “ . . . this arts education asset (teaching artistry) is maturing into an identifiable field. An expertise that is relied upon broadly in public schools, in arts integration and in many community settings (e.g. healthcare, senior services, businesses, etc.) and that contributes to many innovations in arts learning, deserves recognition commensurate with its contribution.”[i] As teaching artists we can invent and power our own engine. Teaching artist leaders are running arts organizations, developing new business models while teaching and creating art. Luna has recognized this since inception. My colleague Patricia Reedy, founded Luna 23 years ago as a teaching artist, and although it has sometimes been a struggle, I am proud that we offer our teaching artist-administrators full-time employment, health benefits, paid time-off, professional development opportunities and a retirement plan.

Treating dance teaching artists as professional educators results in organic collaborations, efficiency and accountability. We are able to give teaching artists a healthy and sane structure for employment. Luna’s teaching artists work .75  to 1.0 fte. A full-time employee at Luna teaches an equivalent of 10-12 classes per week with the remainder of her time assisting, coordinating or managing a program or resource area. Cherie Hill, our communications manager is also a lead teaching artist at a school site, and she also teaches in MPACT (Moving Parents and Children Together) and Studio Lab programs. Cherie performs and choreographs (her recent choreography was presented at the Black Choreographer’s Festival). She is a parent of two children, serves on the board of directors for the Sacred Dance Guild and is a research assistant for Rennie Harris. Cherie also mentors other teaching artists as a year-long coach through our Professional Learning program. When I asked her what her thoughts were on integrating her art, teaching practice, career and family she responded, “Performing both teaching and administrative work has opened my eyes to the reality of non-profits and strengthened my understanding of Luna’s mission. When I teach in the classroom I feel confident about the curriculum and when I attend meetings or speak to press I have first-hand knowledge about the organization. Having one full-time job in the field I love enables me to take care of my family and take time off to be involved in other artistic areas.”

I started my teaching artist career 22 years ago. The creativity, fortitude, visioning and relationship skills that I used running a dance company, presenting the work of fellow choreographers and mounting full productions with a composer and lighting designer are the same skills I use in my teaching practice and in my administrative role as Director of Community Engagement at Luna. I had to chuckle the other day when my 10 year old daughter was whining about the expository essay she needed to write. She was fretting about her thesis statement and how she would present the “reasoning” to support her statement. She knows that I write a lot of grants at work, and declared,  “I never want a job like yours.”  I wanted to explain the complexities of what I do – how choreographing a dance is like writing an expository essay, how my artistic practice supports program development and grant-writing, how managing 10 dancers for an evening length production supports my relationship building and teaching skills, how putting together different ideas in a dance helped me juggle budgeting. The teacher in me knew she was not developmentally ready to process all of this so I just gave myself the pleasure of a laugh inside.

I am excited that arts education organizations are beginning to explore what it means to employ teaching artists as professionals. I hope they are doing so for conscientious reasons – gainful employment, building capacity and leadership for the field of arts education and honoring the integrity of art.