Integration, Expression, and The Dance
In all Duncan classes, dancers move through and integrate gaze, form, and feeling to express their dance. Each technique class will study the mythologies, inspirations, and improvisations around the Duncan steps and dances to build a life-long relationship with natural movement exploration. Classes will engage students’ minds, bodies, and spirits each week to build a personal connection to the technique’s movements and repertory throughout each session.
See below for session descriptions, individual class descriptions, and required class attire.
Sessions
Winter, Spring, Summer & Fall Technique Classes
Seasonally-themed youth dance classes that explore the human experience within the natural world. Students explore how the motions of water, wind, and trees inspire the natural movements of the human body while they learn to honor the dance within themselves and each other. All sessions dance the rejuvenating and flowing cycles of mother earth and patterns in nature. Themes of the winter include the Titans, Eros, fire, and the greeting of spring; themes of spring include Aphrodite, fairies, butterflies, and May Day; themes of the autumn include the changing of leaves, Persephone and Demeter, Apollo and Artemis, and the patience of acorns.
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Learning Skills In Each Technique Class
Children explore emotional intention as it is manifested through music and physical movement. Themes include: Leadership and Following, Join and Retreat, Transition, Alone and Together, Nature as Teacher, Myth Based Dances and Improvisation. All dancers are welcome; individual needs will be accommodated and we invite questions and conversation.
Rainbowdance® (see below, ages 0-4) prepares children aged 5-18 for this program. Having an established sense of harmony and affiliation to each other and to the natural world, they move forward to explore their unique and collective beauty and expression.
Class: 5-7 year olds
Continuation of goals for RainbowDance
Taught by Kristen Kissik & Chacana Morales
Technical: Fine and gross motor coordination; bilaterality (moving from weight on one foot to another); coordinating gesture, gaze, and steps; waltzing, skipping, leaping, recline and rise
Artistic/Metaphorical: Changing dynamics of expression: gentle to strong, quick to slow and lyrical; expression of personal images or stories through body movements
Interpersonal Relationships (Social/Emotional): Value placed upon diversity: Beauty inherent in all nature’s creatures; inclusion; honor; flock versus mob perception of group; experience of solitude and affiliation; biological need to be both individual and part of tribe experienced in embodiment
Class: 8-12 year olds
Continuation of goals for ages 5-7
Taught by Kristen Kissik & Chacana Morales
Technical: Patterning; Joining, retreating; Skip hops and turns; Victory leaps; waltzing varied tempos; serpentine path from Solar plexus; initiate movements from solar plexus (physical and emotional); distinguish varied runs and skips
Artistic/Metaphorical: Maintaining connection with partner/gaze; expression of emotion, image; contemplative and expressive variations
Interpersonal Relationships (Social/Emotional): Embodiment of shift between leadership and follower; self and group reverence and respect; access and expression of beauty; understanding of time and place for varied “roles”
Technique Class: Ages 13+
Continuation of goals for ages 5-7 & 8-12
Taught by Cynthia Word
Classes are designed to find or re-gain the joy of movement and to deepen in our movement practice. The Duncan technique is accessible and very effective in helping us to integrate life into our dance and dance into our life. It is an excellent dance foundation that will complement all dance styles. Students learn the use of breath as the initiation of movement, expression of emotion through movement, and choreographic studies derived from the authentic dances of Isadora Duncan. We build cardiovascular strength and increase flexibility through our floor work, barre, and locomotor motifs.
Composition Class: Ages 13+
The Art of Performance
Taught by Cynthia Word
In this class we explore how dances are created. We do this via discussion, experimentation, improvisation, viewing existing choreography, and our own creative voices in choreography. We use our self-crafted dances as structures for our expressiveness and dance excellence. Choreographic studies are shared informally at the end of each semester.
Rainbowdance® Skills
Class: 1-4 year olds — Rainbowdance®
Taught by Word Dance Theater Faculty
Technical: Fine and gross motor coordination; marching, galloping, hopping, jumping, gentleness, reaching, crawling
Artistic/Metaphorical: Maintain focus and commitment to personal goal, sharing, cognitive breath control and visualization
Interpersonal Relationships (Social/Emotional): Individual and group development, establishing trust and safety within own body and in larger group; build self confidence, experience harmony, community, and social empathy, develop self control/regulation.
Rainbowdance® gathers children (and adults) for one hour with the goal of enhancing self-regulation, self-esteem, and social empathy. Providing a symbolic journey into the world of nature and relationship, Rainbowdance® encourages the growth of empowered and self-nurturing children. Results from retrospective studies of children and adolescents show that the onset of disruptive behaviors occurs during preschool,* and that these behaviors remain stable into adulthood unless addressed during early years. Creating healthy developmental tools at this age helps mitigate the potential for future behavioral problems ranging from violence to depression. Our programming is particularly well suited to the school environment and supports academic growth. Once RainbowDance has become instilled as a regular practice, teachers integrate it into their daily routines, incorporating songs, stories, and soothing activities to help build classroom harmony and alleviate moments of distress.
Developed by Dicki J. Macy and the Boston Children’s Foundation: bostoncf.org
For more information regarding this curriculum and other trainings in the pedagogy, please contact Dicki directly (Dickijmacy@gmail.com) or go to her company website Bostoncf.org.