“To begin, the professor must genuinely value everyone’s presence. There must be an ongoing recognition that everyone influences the classroom dynamic, that everyone contributes.” – Bell Hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as a Practice of Freedom
teaching
recognition
2023 New Jersey Governor’s Award for exceptional leadership, commitment, & contribution to dance education
2021 presidential award from the National Dance Education oRganization, for contributions in Equity, diversity, and inclusion
photo Carlos Neira/Point2Media
dance education
Teaching brings together my devotion to working with young people, to serving my community, to research/investigation, and to shared creative experience. In 1999, after some years of dancing professionally, I had the opportunity to build a dance program at County Prep High School in Jersey City. I knew immediately that teaching was something I was meant to do. Watch below for some highlights of this journey. For more information and archives of this program, visit HCSTDANCECHOREOGRAPHY
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Teaching history can be found here:
responsive teaching practice™
In my 20+ years of teaching dance, I’ve come to understand that teaching is most effective as a mutual collaborative process. As a teacher of an incredibly diverse population of students, it is imperative that the way I share information both recognizes and empowers the student. Through the exchange of ideas and building creative confidence, I allow students the freedom to forge their own paths and determine their own values. As a result of much reflection and collaboration with my students, I have developed the Responsive Teaching Practice™, which is an approach to teaching that places questioning and student input at the center of the classroom. I am in the process of formalizing a shareable resource publication of this teaching method.
yoga
I’ve been teaching yoga since 2006. My practice is fluid and intuitive, and I encourage students to listen to their bodies, to respond to their instincts, and to make space for playfulness.
Yoga for Teens
Teens need space to express and explore themselves. It’s an incredibly challenging time, being asked to both continue submitting to authority figures (parents, teachers) but also to acknowledge and accept personal responsibility. I have devised a curriculum that uses yoga practices and concepts to help teens better understand themselves, their relationships with other people, and their place in the world.
creative process
What does it mean to be creative? It’s not something you are, it’s something you do. No one should ever think they don’t ‘have’ creativity. To pursue this belief I’ve built a program for developing creativity through a series of activities and games using visual arts, music, video, movement, and other undefined forms. I share these tools as a series or separately in workshops, as a way to facilitate connection and creative confidence. I had the good fortune of exploring with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters network in 2018. More about that workshop here.
