TEACHING Philosophy
As a university instructor, I create learning environments that perforate the divide between dancing and theoretical/historical studies of dance. I have seen how embodied learning sharpens critical thinking, and how immersion in critical theory and history creates artists who are engaged with the world around them. No matter where my classes take place—around a seminar table or in a dance studio—I emphasize dancing and writing as equally valuable ways to explore a topic and to communicate one’s ideas. My teaching philosophy includes a strong focus on campus-community collaborations that are reciprocally beneficial for college students and off-campus partners.
I began my career as a high school teacher of English and Drama, and continue to work with youth as a teaching artist of dance and theater in public schools.
I began my career as a high school teacher of English and Drama, and continue to work with youth as a teaching artist of dance and theater in public schools.
Teaching Videos
These videos play best when using Safari or Chrome. If you are having trouble seeing the videos, try clearing your cache and opening the website again.
Community Dance Class, Limón/Humphrey Principles, 8-30-15. I offered a series of three dance classes, free of charge, to dancers in Philadelphia at Mascher Space Cooperative in the summer of 2015. Each class focused on a different aspect of the principles established by Jose Limón and Doris Humphrey. This class focused on the principles of suspension and opposition.
15 Minute Excerpt of Two-Hour Class
Community Dance Class: Limón/Humphrey Principles, 9-5-15. This class focused on the principles of gesture and focus. Our class culminated with this phrase, choreographed by Rachel Carrico to Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should Have Come Over."
"Introduction to Improvisation in Dance: From Salsa to Vodun to Tap Dance" End-of-Quarter Showing, Winter 2016. In "Introduction to Improvisation in Dance" at Stanford University, undergraduate students split their time between seminar and studio to learn about a range of improvised dance forms. Their final performance staged some of the questions, theories, and reflections about improvisation explored during the course. The clip below features a segment entitled "Meticulous List of Names," in which students combine a contact improvisation exercise with b-boy scholarship.
Three-minute excerpt: "Meticulous List of Names"
Full 15-minute performance
"Introduction to Dance" class Final Performance, Fall 2011. In "Introduction to Dance" at the University of California, Riverside, beginning dancers learn the basics of improvisation and composition in 10 weeks. At the end of the quarter, they create a final performance to show what they've learned. This class's final performance puts to use several workshops, assignments, and exercises explored throughout the quarter, including body percussion; improvising human sculptures using positive and negative space; and "equivalents," an exercise from Liz Lerman in which the dancer creates one movement to equate with each word of a phrase. The content of our performance was inspired, in part, by our collective viewing of Urban Bush Women's "Hair Stories," and by this open-ended question: "If you could tell the world one thing, what would it be?"
Also available on Vimeo.
Teaching Experience
Courses Developed and Taught
- African Diaspora Dance Studies, Reed College (Spring 2019)
- Special Topics in Choreography: Parades, Processions, Protests, Reed College (Fall 2018)
- Contemporary Arts Graduate Seminar: Improvisation- Dance & Other Contexts - online course, Wilson College MFA Program in Visual Art & Choreography (Spring 2018)
- African Dance Aesthetics in Global Contexts, University of Oregon (Winter & Spring 2017)
- Shall We Dance? Social Dancing as Political Practice, Stanford University (Spring 2016)
- Introduction to Improvisation in Dance: Salsa to Vodun to Tap, Stanford University (Winter 2016)
- Introduction to Dance: History & Culture, Reed College (Fall 2018)
- Dance, Gender, Sexuality, Reed College (Fall 2018)
- Anthropology & Popular Culture, graduate seminar University of Oregon (Spring 2018)
- Folklore, Performance & Politics, graduate seminar, University of Oregon (Spring 2018)
- Introduction to Ethnographic Methods, graduate seminar, University of Oregon (Winter 2018)
- Anthropology & Aliens - online course, University of Oregon (Winter 2018)
- Cultural Approaches to Dance, Colorado College (Fall 2017)
- Historical Approaches to Dance, Colorado College (Fall 2017)
- Introduction to Dance, University of California, Riverside (Fall 2011, Fall 2012, and Winter 2013)
- Dance: Cultures and Contexts—Writing Intensive, University of California, Riverside (Spring 2012)
- Dance Repertory: South Asian/Asian American Cultural Shows, University of California, Riverside (Winter 2013)
- Contemporary Dance II, Reed College (Spring 2019)
- Softening to Gravity and Stretching Time: Humphrey/Limón Inspired Movement - A three-class series at Mascher Cooperative Dance Space in Philadelphia (August-September 2015) and Dancing Grounds in New Orleans (December 2015)
- Body Talk: Dinner, Workshop, Performance (April 2017) - Organizer, event for Sexual Violence Prevention Week / National Dance Week; University of Oregon, Wesley Center, local choreographers
- MoveMore at UC-Riverside (Winter 2011, 2012, 2013) – Curriculum designer and teaching artist
- Building Community through the Arts at Tulane and Xavier Universities in New Orleans (Spring 2009 and 2010) – Coordinator, community-based learning & Project Manager, HOME, New Orleans? (2008-2010)
- Community-Based Theatre at Tisch School of the Arts/New York University (2006-7) – Coordinator, community-based learning
Charting the goals of HOME, New Orleans?
Teaching Artist History
Play/Write: A Young Playwrights' Festival in New Orleans - In 2009, I helped to found Play/Write, Goat in the Road Productions' flagship educational program. It consists of a residency during which teaching artists visit 5th- to 7th-grade classrooms for 20 weeks to lead all students through the process of writing their own plays. The year culminates with a showcase celebrating the students' work, in which 10 student-written plays are performed by professional theater companies at Dillard University’s Cook Theater. For more on Play/Write, click here.
- Co-Founder, Curriculum Designer (2009-present)
- Project Manager (2009-2010)
- Teaching Artist (2009-2010; 2013-2014)
Fifth-grade Play/Write participants at Bethune Elementary show off their completed scripts.
Gluck Fellows Program for the Arts at UC-Riverside
- MoveMore – Dance and holistic health program for third graders at Chaparral Hills Elementary School and Towngate Elementary School (Moreno Valley, CA, 2011-2013)
- Sevillanas - Three-session workshop in Spanish social dance at Citrus Hill High School (Perris, CA, 2013)
- Dance Faculty, Gluck Summer Camp for the Arts (UC Riverside, 2013) – A weeklong course in dance composition for select high school participants
Students at Citrus Hill High School in Perris, CA perfect their arm placement when dancing Sevillanas.
KIDsmART (New Orleans, LA)
KIDsmART (New Orleans, LA)
- Workshop Leader, Dance & Writing Professional Development (2016, 2014)
- Dance Artist in Residence at Behrman Charter School (2013-2014).
- Dance Fellow, Louisiana State Program: Imagination, Innovation, and Creativity in Schools at Langston Hughes Elementary School (2014).
- Dance Teacher Educator, Arts Experiences in Schools (2014)
- Theater Artist in Residence at Bethune Elementary School (2008-2009)
First-graders at Langston Hughes Elementary School in New Orleans learn the opening sequence of Alvin Ailey's Revelations.
Other
Other
- Camp Director and Teaching Artist (Dance and Theater), Contemporary Art Museum's Emeril Lagasse Summer Arts Camp for Kids (New Orleans, 2009-15)
- Teaching Dance Artist, Escuela de Autogestion Canton Xetuj - Part of Goat in the Road Productions' Creative Exchange Residency with Grupo de Teatro Artzénico (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, 2011)
- Teaching Theater Artist, Opening Act NYC (2007-8)
- Teaching Theater Artist, Step Up Women’s Network (New York City, 2007-8)
- Dance & Theater Faculty, Missouri Fine Arts Academy at Southwest Missouri State University (Springfield, MO, 2002-4)
- Dance, Theater, and English Instructor and Variety Show Director Upward Bound at Truman State University (Kirksville, MO, 2001 and 2002)
8- to 12-year-olds at La Escuela de Autogestion Canton Xetuj near Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, dance as part of a two-day arts immersion with GRP and Artzénico.