Education Exchange

Teaching Artists, Chloe Gonzales and Emily Scott, discuss the Teaching Artist training and the benefits of the In-School Teaching Artist residencies.

In-Service Workshops for K-12 Teachers

Our teacher in-service workshops highlight tools K-12 teachers can use to integrate movement into the classroom. Adding physical activity to classrooms will result in more focused, better-behaved students who can accomplish even more throughout the school day, and adding creative movement strategies which can be integrated into current curricula can result in higher levels of learning. Some goals for our in-service workshops include: Increasing the confidence of classroom teachers to use dance and movement to reach curricular goals and incorporating movement into daily classroom practice helping to address social, behavioral, and emotional needs of students.

Teachers from the Lansing School District say:

"I love the hands-on activities, especially the "baking the gingerbread cookie" to engage students in the "brain dance," using the 8 types of movements to prime students' brains for learning/attention"

"The dance part was pretty cool. I guess I never realized math could be incorporated into it."

In-School Teaching Artist Residencies

Our in-school dance residencies are designed to be integrated with school curricula, and are taught by our highly trained Teaching Artist Professionals. Dance residencies can be long-or short-term. As an example, Happendance has an ongoing partnership with the Wharton Center Institute for Arts and Creativity which is now in its 14th year. Funded completely by Wharton, each year this project provides 8 weeks of classes to 4 classrooms in a single school. Radmoor Montessori in Okemos has a 12-week after-school program during the winter and spring each year. And, in partnership with the Lansing School District, dance is offered in its summer camps for 3-4 weeks each summer. There are also shorter engagements available on occasion.

Goals of the residency projects are to:

  • Expose students and teachers to the rich benefits of using creative dance and movement in the regular classroom

  • Use dance as a vehicle for self-expression within the classroom through the kinesthetic, affective, cognitive, and aesthetic dimensions of the movement discipline

  • Provide standards-based dance lessons that offer quality arts experiences and outcomes

  • Offer useful and legitimate methods for assessment of student learning in dance

  • Broaden perceptions of what a quality general education can and should include, beyond traditional approaches like the three R’s and STEM. STEM should be STEAM.

In-School Performances

Happendance To-Go Performances are choreographed and performed by the Happendance professional company. Many of the performers are also teaching artists. Happendance To-Go can be taylor-made for different grade levels and is geared towards youth. The diverse performances range from 30 minutes to an hour and incorporate school curricula. The shows are entertaining and are also informative and interactive. Many performances can be integrated into teaching artist residencies and teacher in-services, or they may stand alone as a separate event.