Residencies

OFFERINGS:
I create workshops and learning experiences of varying length and focus to suit specific groups, depending on age, mobility and intention, ranging from theraputic to educational and filling in the space between! While some workshops based on educational goals may follow a storytelling process or be lecture/instruction/perofrmance-based, others explore interior landscapes expressing emotion through movement for more theraputic purposes. Themes and topics may include:

ANDALUSIAN/GITANO DANCE AND CULTURE
Flamenco as an avenue to explore a rich aspect of southern Spanish culture and history through its fierce and playful, painded and jocular, masculine and feminine art form.

ROMANI (GYPSY) DANCE AND CULTURE
Using dance — Flamenco, Turkish Roman, and/or Egyptian Gwazee –and music as a springboard for exploring cultural diversity on the Romani road, an unfolding story conflict and co-opting. It’s dances express the culture’s history of creativity, resistance and pride in the face of oppression and has the potential to give participants an opportunity for exploring the tendancy to find a scapegoat in the misunderstood ‘other’ (whether on the personal or national level) and moving beyond that toward curiosity and understanding.

MIDDLE EASTERN DANCE AND CULTURE — w/special topics, such as:
– “Dance and Music in the Arab World” — an opportonity to see a much-maligned culture through the lens of its ancient yet evolving arts and it’s relationship to its these vehicles of expression.
– “Wrapping the Gift: Middle Eastern Dance and the Tradition of Women’s Head Covering” — A workshop focused on helping girls and women value their bodies and themselves through exploring the range of both self-expression through dance (in a safe, female-only container) as well as through exploring what it means to hold back part of one’s beauty and honor its preciousness. (grade 7 – adult, female only)
– “Jewels: Strengthening Deep Muscles Through Belly Dance” — In the folkloric dance tradition of Egypt, there are moves known as “the Jewel” which introduce women to and help us to strengthen core muscles — the ancient pre-cursor to pilates! (grade 7 – adult, female only)

“DANCESCAPES”
Focusing on a specific ecosystem, this is can be a one hour to week-long (5 – 10 hours) exploration of its flora and fauna and their interrelationship of the that system through creative movement and dance, culminating in a performance project. Ones I’ve lead in the past include:

*”Bogdance” (Group: a grade 4 class) –
An experiential exploration of local ecology combining story-telling, discussion, creative movement, and well as group dynamics as the students took a one-hour ‘treasure hunt- to find the Clayton’s Copper (a rare butterfly found only in a handful of non-acidic Maine bogs and a couple in Nova Scotia). This workshop engaged kids, beginning with their own experiences, by following a narrative structure as they morphed from one creautre to the next as they were “encountered” and then became the various ‘characters’ which create the special dynmic of a bog, learning about the relationships between species… and finding the ‘treasure’ of the butterfly at the bog’s center!
*”Waterdance: Oceans Wild” –
(Groups: one-room school-house, ages 6-13, 5 days; summer campers, ages 8-14, 2 days; both culminating in performance)
Beginning with student knowledge of local marine life (and fact-checking as needed!), we experienced movement styles of fish vs. marine mamals, as well as eels and seaweed, refining our emulations by borrowing torso-centric movements from Middle Eastern dance. Later we problem-solved the creation of a narrative structure by basing it on tidal flow and the interactions of the creatures embodied, and adding other marine amimals (birds, crabs, seals). Thus, facts dictated our fiction!
*”Waterdance”
(Group: brain trauma survivors; varying limitations of cognition and mobility, including wheel-chair-bound)
Designed for experiencing relaxation, a sense of calm, peace, and connectedness this workshop also gave opportunity for verbal and physical self-expression, and group interaction with delightful results!

LOVING AND LIVING IN OUR BODIES
Our bodies are the vehicles in which we explore this life, and as such, they are all enormously precious and powerful. This discussion- and movement-based workshop explores issues, myths, and misconceptions we girls and women hold in our bodies in order to discover some truths about the gifts our bodies are, regardless of size, shape and other variations.