Starlings: An Exploration of Community Engaged Dance Education Methods

Presenter

Sophie Schilling

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Mari Castañeda, Commonwealth Honors College, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A42, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 3 (A41-A60) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

"Starlings" is an exploration into community engaged dance education methods. It was created through a dance education workshop series that engaged children and college students throughout the fall of 2023. The workshop series invited participants to investigate various themes and ideas around community using the language of dance, translating the dancers' interpretations and experiences into dance phrases and improvisational scores. The two age groups began separately, before being brought together to teach one another their movement styles and ideas from the workshops. The participants were also paired up one-to-one, college student to child, and created duets that captured the freedom and beauty of each mover effortlessly. The resulting piece will be performed by the undergraduate cohort in March of 2024. The final piece utilizes the actions, qualities, and ideas of every participant, child and adult alike, and communicates an air of longing and sadness that comes with growing older. The undergraduate students used to be just like their child counterparts, but as dancers, we train creativity, silliness, confidence, and our love of dance out of ourselves as we grow older. This piece offers the performers, and the audience, a chance to come home to themselves, to revisit that version of who they were. My research will further the field of community dance education, as new methods of intergenerational dance making emerged through my process. I hope to advance the way that educators consider teaching dance to diverse learners, as I did in my project. 

Keywords

Dance performance , Dance education, Community engaged research, Intergenerational

Research Area

Education & Educational Research

SIMILAR ABSTRACTS (BY KEYWORD)