Teaching Dance

The goal in working with children first experiencing dance is to discover movements that come naturally to each individual and then to build strength with alignment and technique.

Always referring back to that which is natural, this process done with time and patience, enables the emergence of a person who is comfortable with movement and who has an inner knowledge of their physical body and how to care for it.  The ability to cross the room with inner grace and confidence becomes a metaphor for living our lives.

Health through Movement

Humans are energetic beings who must move in order to maintain health emotionally, physically and mentally.  A body that does not move is like a machine left to sit in the rain.  Over time it breaks down and deteriorates.  What that machine needs most is to be fed with the best of lubricants and to move as it was meant to move.

Movement in the Public or Private School Classroom

Movement Class as a part of school curriculum becomes very important for the sake of the children, creating positive effects on their emotional, social, mental, and physical wellbeing.

Through movement the child can be touched on all these levels and through positive reinforcement evolve into healthy, compassionate, confident adults.

We do not learn just by seeing and hearing. Learning through physically moving can create a kinesthetic aspect to the lesson with internal and physical knowledge supporting an understanding of the subject.

Learning is a gathering of information that shapes us in our pursuits and approach to living in this world with other beings.

There is a kaleidoscope of possibilities in working with groups of children gathered together to learn.

• The movement lesson can be shaped to support the work of the main teachers and the subjects being studied.
  
  
• The lesson can work with the concepts of space, shape, time, and force instilling the connection of self in relation to oneself and others.  Students can learn to flow with, through, and around each other in harmony and respect for self and others.
  
  
• The lesson can be used to free up and allow physical movement and expression.
  
  
• When a child is able to move across the room with confidence this can translate to the way a child further moves through life into adulthood.

A Teacher

• The job of the teacher of the child is to pass on knowledge, to prepare the child for the future as an adult and hopefully cultivate in the child a respect of self and others.
  
  
• A teacher must always have an awareness of the vulnerability of the student and always seek to treat the student with respect, compassion and empathy.

• In teaching, the goal of the teacher is to free the student with knowledge and self confidence.