K-12 Curriculum

The Zen Art of Improvisation

Advance class

Improvisation has become a staple of the dance world. It is used as a tool for creating, a measure of ability and utilized by most current choreographers somewhere in their process or work on stage. The act of improvising is often intimidating and challenging; as you must listen, reaction, make choice and stay full present in the movement all at once. The class begins by going through our habitual movements, without judgement to find what bring us joy then examining our patterns to find counterpoints to the cliché actions in order to discover new and exciting ways of moving while honor our personal aesthetics and technique.

Utilizing game-theory dance movements are organized into Six Core Skills: flexibility, strength, weight shifting, balance, traveling and spotting, allowing each student to easily identify their strengths and weaknesses. Worksheets and journaling guides them on how to build on what they are already good at, and find ways to improve in the area they need to improve with goal-setting. Additionally, using task-analysis to breakdown movement and explain all small or subtle actions of a dance step to help overcome the feeling of intimidation caused by learning a new dance style. Regular check-ins with individual students about what they struggle with, and encouraging them to keep a positive mind-set, shows them how to harness their focus to achieve what they desire. Thru teaches goal-setting and modeling strong decision-making skills students become autonomous and thus empowered to be their best selves.

Mission Statement
Dance is fighting an uphill battle to be separated from physical education curriculum and moved to the arts departments in most schools. For this transition to occur, we need to justify our existence and prove our worth when compared to visual art and music. Emphasizing the unique ability of dance to teach goal-setting and self-discipline is the key to winning this argument. 
Our core objective of framing dance as a somatic practice is to forge a strong mind-body connection, which leads to self-discipline. Our mission is to provide a clear and concise way to empower students with self-awareness, thereby deepening their understanding of themselves so that they are better all-around students.

​

Yogea

all movers

Using vinyasa (flow) yoga as the movement language to explore the elements of dance and Laban theory: body, effort, space, shape and dynamic: push/pull, spiral/ curl and extend/ flex to deepen mind-body connection

​​​Six Core Skill Method