Wyoming Arts Council

Dancers’ Workshop Brings Dance to Schools in Jackson, Lander, Pinedale, and Big Piney

Featured News | April 15, 2014

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News from Dancers’ Workshop:

Dancers’ Workshop moves bodies and minds through their residency work this spring! DW instructors will spend April and May teaching a variety of dance and arts curricula to students in kindergarten through high school in communities around Wyoming.

In March this year, Dancers’ Workshop instructors worked with Jackson Elementary Kindergarten students on The Dancing Alphabet (in collaboration with pARTners).  In April, DW instructors continue working with Jackson Elementary students, in collaboration with music teacher Linda Edington, on Animals of Jackson Hole Dances in a project that will culminate with a performance on the stage at the Center for the Arts.  In both of these residencies, students explore concepts through movement that connect with concepts they are studying in their academic, music, and visual art classes.

Students in both Pinedale and Lander look forward to the weeks they spend with Dancers’ Workshop instructors, and as a result have been able to develop a base of dance and movement knowledge that expands every year, starting when they are in kindergarten and continuing through high school.  April 21-25, Dancers’ Workshop instructors will present lessons on the elements of dance for students in grades K-5 in Pinedale.  That same week, Big Piney Elementary students will also work with DW instructors learning elements of dance and creative movement during their PE classes.  Then, April 30-May 2, Pinedale High School students will take Zumba classes with a DW instructor during their phys ed classes.  These residencies are all supported by the Pinedale Fine Arts Council, and are part of a yearly curriculum which Dancers’ Workshop has been teaching in Pinedale since 1998.

Earlier in this school year, instructors traveled to Lander to teach the Dancing Alphabet curriculum, designed to integrate writing practice with movement for kindergarten students just learning the alphabet. With the support of PALS (Promoting Arts in Lander Schools), Dancers’ Workshop instructors will be in Lander again April 28-May 2 teaching K-6 students during their physical education classes.  Elements of dance—shape, space, pathway, level, and quality—will be presented in creative movement classes for K-5 students.  The 6^th Grade students will focus on one specific style of dance – Hip Hop – during their classes with DW instructors.  This  is part of a curriculum that DW has been teaching in Lander since 2000. 

For fifteen weeks a year, Dancers’ Workshop brings the heart and soul of the organization to communities throughout Wyoming. The vision for this residency work is to create divergent thinkers by asking questions and exploring classroom concepts using movement as a vehicle for learning. Basic movement concepts bridge gaps, inspiring new ideas and changing perspectives. For close to 20 years, artists from Dancers’ Workshop have been collaborating with classroom teachers to shape residencies that emphasize connections to language arts, science, math, social studies, art, and music. 

FMI: Visit www.dwjh.org or contact Babs Case at 307.733.6398.

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