Viewing pedagogy, practice, and inquiry as a spiral of learning for artists and teachers at all stages of their careers, Professional Learning (PL) fulfills Luna’s mission to bring all children to dance. Our programs are designed so that creative practitioners:
Manifest creative self-efficacy
Investigate teaching practice
Establish collegial communities
Cultivate dance leadership
Become change agents
Luna seeks to address the inequities of our society by strengthening the capacity for imagination, awareness, and connection of the body-mind through the art of dance. Luna has placed the artist-teacher partnership at the center of PL since our first workshop in 1994. Through diverse perspectives, new knowledge is co-constructed and the potential of dance to advance justice becomes palpable. Luna’s PL faculty, with experience as choreographers and teaching artists, understand the challenges of arts education in schools, particularly the unique struggles of implementing dance. We also see the potential of dance in settings beyond schools. There is a place at Luna for new and veteran teaching artists, studio instructors, classroom teachers, dance specialists, performing artists, speech and occupational therapists, physical education teachers, social workers, college professors, researchers, administrators and arts leaders who work in a variety of settings. Together, we shift the field as we deepen the knowledge and practice of dance learning for ourselves, our peers, and our communities of practice.
Workshops
Luna provides opportunities for dance teaching artists, classroom teachers, and other practitioners to engage in useful inquiry into the art of teaching dance. Integrating theory and practice, our workshops activate the imagination to improve teaching and create change. Workshop topics are sourced from field research and participant interest.
Institutes
Luna’s Summer, Leadership, and Family Dance Institutes provide immersive learning, intensive training, individualized coaching, and collegial support. Our annual Summer Institute (SI) brings together dance educators and classroom teachers to expand what is possible in dance education as they improve their teaching practice. Funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, SI alumni are changing their communities through the art of dance. The Leadership Institute (LI) emerged as SI alumni sought to create, expand, assess, or improve dance programs in their regions. Using lessons learned from over two decades of MPACT (Moving Parents and Children Together) inquiry, Family Dance Institute (FDI) allows participants to take a deep dive into attachment theory, trauma, social-emotional learning, and how to work effectively with social service agencies.
Creating Communities of Practice
Teaching is often an isolating endeavor, more so for dance teachers who may be insulated in the dance studio or on the periphery as a visiting instructor or itinerant prep teacher. Luna supports dance professionals in developing their own learning communities around topics relevant to their work. Activities include monthly Practitioner Exchanges, issues of practice/topic seminars, panel discussions, and informal social events.
Become a PL User
Want to engage with Luna’s dance resources and our community in an exciting and affordable way? For $30/year you can become a PL User, which provides you with several benefits. This fee gives you:
Multiple free consultations
Free Practitioner Exchanges
Library privileges
$30 reg fee waived
Dance Educator Newsletter
Resources
Luna strives to empower fellow artists and educators to advance their own learning, so we provide free consultations, an extensive library, video lessons, podcast, online resources, and a handbook written by Luna’s founder and Director of Teaching & Learning, Patricia Reedy, Body, Mind & Spirit in Action: a teacher’s guide to creative dance, 2nd ed. ©2015.
Research
As a learning organization, Luna is committed to ongoing inquiry in the field of dance education. We regularly engage in action research and topic-specific investigations on themes and questions relevant to today’s artists and educators. Our work is presented at annual arts and education conferences and through publications such as InDance and Dance Education in Practice.