Moving Together: Passion For The Planet
In this collaboration with L'Ana, 2nd graders will be able to make a natural connection between content and movement.
L’Ana Burton—Decades of Creative Dance
1969 Syosset, NY
It has been several weeks since I returned home from the 21st Annual HOT School Summer Institute and I continue to feel energized.
The Summer Institute was filled with tools for teachers, principals
and teaching artists. As it is every year, the week is invaluable. I have
been a Connecticut Office of the Arts Teaching Artist since HOT
Schools’ inception 21 years ago and have taught upwards of 50 arts
residencies in HOT schools as well as nonHOT schools throughout
Connecticut. Every year, as I depart the 5 day Summer Institute, I
experience a surge energy that I harness and reflect upon before I
release myself into summer relaxation. This year I found myself re
flecting upon when I first discovered, the dance form, Creative
Dance. I grew up dancing, but never had heard of Creative Dance
until I was 17 years old.
As a child, I studied ballet under the tutelage of Madame Vera and Serge Vladimiroff in Glen Cove, Long Island. Later as a high school senior, I commuted to New York City on the Long Island Railroad to study at the Joffrey School of Ballet and at the American Ballet Theatre. I soon realized that I would not fit into the very profession that I had practiced for and longed to be a part of. The reason: my body and my spirit did not flourish within the rigidity of ballet.
Luckily for me, it wasn’t long after this realization that I attended a workshop at Adelphi University, instructed by Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Bruce King (1925993). It was there that I discovered something that changed everything for me. During the workshop Bruce led a class for preschool children while the work shop participants, myself included, observed his method and style. As Bruce instructed, I was able to observe the childrens’ joy—and
As a child, I studied ballet under the tutelage of Madame Vera and Serge Vladimiroff in Glen Cove, Long Island. Later as a high school senior, I commuted to New York City on the Long Island Railroad to study at the Joffrey School of Ballet and at the American Ballet Theatre. I soon realized that I would not fit into the very profession that I had practiced for and longed to be a part of. The reason: my body and my spirit did not flourish within the rigidity of ballet.
Luckily for me, it wasn’t long after this realization that I attended a workshop at Adelphi University, instructed by Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Bruce King (1925993). It was there that I discovered something that changed everything for me. During the workshop Bruce led a class for preschool children while the work shop participants, myself included, observed his method and style. As Bruce instructed, I was able to observe the childrens’ joy—and
2013 New London, CT
it was a pure, unadulterated joy—as they ran and leapt and made shapes, created tunnels, bridges and
roads with their bodies. Bruce was teaching Creative Dance.
With a flash of insight, I knew that this was to become my pathway to discovering one’s own movement and to instructing others to discover their own individual, and therefore personally meaningful, movement vocabularies. Rather than mastering the inspired technique of Martha Graham, or the precise and disciplined technique of ballet, I realized that this form of dance, Creative Dance, was for me. And from that day onward I knew should refer to myself, and every student I would ever meet, as a dancer. The year was 1969.
Creative Dance opens doors for people of all ages to discover the dance within them. Creative Dance does not teach steps. Creative dance teaches concepts. It provides the opportunity to explore and play.
With a flash of insight, I knew that this was to become my pathway to discovering one’s own movement and to instructing others to discover their own individual, and therefore personally meaningful, movement vocabularies. Rather than mastering the inspired technique of Martha Graham, or the precise and disciplined technique of ballet, I realized that this form of dance, Creative Dance, was for me. And from that day onward I knew should refer to myself, and every student I would ever meet, as a dancer. The year was 1969.
Creative Dance opens doors for people of all ages to discover the dance within them. Creative Dance does not teach steps. Creative dance teaches concepts. It provides the opportunity to explore and play.
connued on page 9
FALL 2014
ISSUE 06
Decades of Creative Dance continued
L’Ana teaching preschool students, Garden City, NY 1969
I had already been teaching Creative Dance for years when in 1994 I was first trained by the State of Connecticut to instruct Creative Dance in HOT Schools. I was thrilled, although not surprised, to find that Creative Dance fits like a glove upon the Higher Order Thinking Schools philosophy. Implicit in the art of Creative Dance is the act of Demo cratic Practice. In Creative Dance we encourage in dividuals to speak and be heard. Creative Dance champions leadership and full community partici pation—it strives to foster student connection. The Creative Dance teacher is a facilitator for col laborative voice and action. Just as HOT Schools advocates that the arts are rigorous academic subjects each with its own sequential curriculum, Creative Dance holds true that dancers and dances are enriched from exposure to poetry, theatre, music and visual art.
99% of the students I’ve taught have been immediately comfortable with Creative Dance because, I believe, the Creative Dance learning process is a personal one and individuals are therefore able to be authentic. No one has to memorize a particular step or do it in any particular way. No one person is perceived as better or worse than another. No one comes to the front of the class to demonstrate how the movement should look. No comparisons or judgments are made. The words clumsy and awkward are not used because such words have no use in Creative Dance. The notion that one is not meant to be a dancer because of height, weight or range of motion is of no importance. Everyone belongs. Everyone dances. Everyone
L’Ana teaching preschool students, Garden City, NY 1969
I had already been teaching Creative Dance for years when in 1994 I was first trained by the State of Connecticut to instruct Creative Dance in HOT Schools. I was thrilled, although not surprised, to find that Creative Dance fits like a glove upon the Higher Order Thinking Schools philosophy. Implicit in the art of Creative Dance is the act of Demo cratic Practice. In Creative Dance we encourage in dividuals to speak and be heard. Creative Dance champions leadership and full community partici pation—it strives to foster student connection. The Creative Dance teacher is a facilitator for col laborative voice and action. Just as HOT Schools advocates that the arts are rigorous academic subjects each with its own sequential curriculum, Creative Dance holds true that dancers and dances are enriched from exposure to poetry, theatre, music and visual art.
99% of the students I’ve taught have been immediately comfortable with Creative Dance because, I believe, the Creative Dance learning process is a personal one and individuals are therefore able to be authentic. No one has to memorize a particular step or do it in any particular way. No one person is perceived as better or worse than another. No one comes to the front of the class to demonstrate how the movement should look. No comparisons or judgments are made. The words clumsy and awkward are not used because such words have no use in Creative Dance. The notion that one is not meant to be a dancer because of height, weight or range of motion is of no importance. Everyone belongs. Everyone dances. Everyone
learns. Everyone feels good. Democratic Practice
is always at work in a Creative Dance whether it
takes place a private studio or a HOT Schools
classroom.
With Creative Dance the learning “how to do” organically links to the curriculum so that the Creative Dance making happens fast. And the reason, I believe, this happens quickly is because that with Creative Dance the students are the creators of the dance vocabulary and instead of proficiency, experimentation is the goal.
With Creative Dance the learning “how to do” organically links to the curriculum so that the Creative Dance making happens fast. And the reason, I believe, this happens quickly is because that with Creative Dance the students are the creators of the dance vocabulary and instead of proficiency, experimentation is the goal.
L’Ana leads a TAC at John C. Daniels, New Haven, CT 2012
Children begin applying their new dance tools to the curriculum without being encumbered by the dance itself. As they think about the curriculum that they are learning they find comfort in play ing with dance to describe their knowledge. The curriculum always comes to life in a HOT Schools arts residency. I have witnessed again and again how kinesthetic learning engages students who might feel otherwise lost—without Creative Dance it’s all too much in their heads.
As a recent arts residency came to a close, a 5th grade boy wrote in his thank you letter, “ I didn’t know dance was like this. I could be a dancer. Thank you for bringing this dance to our school. I will never forget our time with you.” I believe that he felt something similar to what I did when I observed Bruce King teaching Creative Dance over 45 years ago.
Children begin applying their new dance tools to the curriculum without being encumbered by the dance itself. As they think about the curriculum that they are learning they find comfort in play ing with dance to describe their knowledge. The curriculum always comes to life in a HOT Schools arts residency. I have witnessed again and again how kinesthetic learning engages students who might feel otherwise lost—without Creative Dance it’s all too much in their heads.
As a recent arts residency came to a close, a 5th grade boy wrote in his thank you letter, “ I didn’t know dance was like this. I could be a dancer. Thank you for bringing this dance to our school. I will never forget our time with you.” I believe that he felt something similar to what I did when I observed Bruce King teaching Creative Dance over 45 years ago.
