Oklahoma! changed the role dance played in Broadway musicals. Choreographer, Agnes de Mille’s road to Oklahoma! was many unconventional years in the making. Afterward, she felt conflicted about her success but with advice from Martha Graham, de Mille took leap after leap in the dark.
Martha Graham
From Questioning to Concert: Making Concert Dance Work
In the era of standardized assessment, there is a lot of talk about “teaching to the test”. While this generally refers to classroom teachers catering content and delivery to what may appear on those standardized tests, there is a fair amount of that happening in the dance classroom, too. What should be an exhilarating adventure […]
Hitting the Books: Two Valuable Reads from Oxford University Press
Every so often, I meet a student who seems older than their years with interests far more sophisticated than those of their peers. Despite their young age- middle school, high school, early college- their understanding of the world and their desire to see the big pictures leaves an impression and sets a tone. For these […]
History Moves: Using the Creative Process to Explore Dance History
When working with students on choreography it’s possible to get them thinking beyond steps to a more robust concept of creative process that encourages thoughtful choices about all areas of production. Heather demonstrated this with her previous article. This time, she goes a step further, showing you ways to connect these ideas with dance history to enrich students’ understanding.
Bessie’s Back
Undoubtedly, the most exciting moment of the evening was Ms. Sexton and Mr. Mizrahi recognizing the ensemble members of Paradigm with a Bessie for “(bringing) into vibrant focus the essence of what it means to dance.” Honored were Artistic Director Gus Solomons Jr. (who called for the tripling of the size of the Bessie committee, to be able to include more works in the selection process!), Carmen deLavallade, Dudley Williams, Valda Setterfield, Michael Blake, Hope Clark, and Keith Sabado.
Month by Month: March
March is also Women’s History Month so this is a great opportunity to educate your students with a little history lesson. Introduce through books, film, photos, or words, dance visionaries and groundbreakers like Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Martha Graham, Maria Tallchief, Anna Pavlova, Janet Collins, Eleanor Powell… and so so so many others!
