Adult Program & Classes

Our Adult program offers classes that are a respite and rejuvenation for the body, mind, and creative spirit. The Adult program offers:

• classes that encourage and emphasize kinesthetic awareness, body-mind integration, stress reduction, flexibility, core support, and fun
• classes for novice and less experienced dancers as well as the experienced adult dancer who wants to be challenged
• more complex explorations of the dance concepts as they apply to dance technique and all areas of life
• a safe and welcoming environment

We always have the ability to remodel our brains. To change the wiring in one skill you must engage in some activity that is unfamiliar, novel to you but related to that skill, because simply repeating the same activity only maintains already established connections.
~John J. Ratey, M.D.

Class Card

Age adult

An 8 class card may be purchased and used for any adult class during the current session. Unused classes do not carry over to the next session. When purchasing card online, please use Comment box to note the primary class you will be attending. Adult classes are available as a drop-in for $15 per class.

Winter Session 2013: Class Card

• 8 Week Winter Session Class Card: January 7 – March 23, 2013
• Vacation Dates: no classes February 4-10
• Cost: $120

Spring Session 2013: Class Card

• 8 Week Spring Session Class Card: March 25 – June 10, 2013
• Vacation Dates: no classes April 15-21, May 27
• Cost: $120

Exercise and Dance

Age adult

Experience improved alignment, body integration, and range of motion as you work from the inner core. Exercises build strength that comes from within. Dance allows the body full and creative expression through space. Realize the joy of working with your body in a supportive environment as you improve functional and expressive movement.

Clothing
Dance or exercise clothes, bare feet, athletic or dance sneakers are fine if you have an injury.

Winter Session 2013: Exercise & Dance Class Schedule

• 10 Week Winter Session: January 7 – March 23, 2013
• Vacation Dates: no classes February 4-10
• Cost: $145

Spring Session 2013: Exercise & Dance Class Schedule

• 10 Week Spring Session: March 25-June 10, 2013
• Vacation Dates: no classes April 15-21, May 27
• Cost: $145

Intergenerational Modern

Ages 6 yrs. – Adult

Appropriate for youth ages 6 and up, adults, and parents and children who want to experience dancing together. A brain-compatible blend of BrainDance, movement combinations, folk dances, and choreography. Fun and fitness for all! Class Dates: 1/7, 1/21, 2/4, 2/18, 3/4
    Drop-ins welcome: Individual $15/class, Couple $23/class
    5 classes: Individual  $70,  Parent/Youth couple  $105

Clothing
Girls: dance clothes such as leotards, footless tights, dance shorts, t-shirts, leggings, stretch pants, bare feet, hair should be pulled back from the face.
Boys: sweat pants/shorts, t-shirts, bare feet.
Adults: dance or exercise clothes, bare feet, athletic or dance sneakers are fine if you have an injury.

Winter 2013: Intergenerational Modern Class Schedule

• 5 Classes: January 7 & 21, February 4 & 18, March 4
• Cost: Individual ages 6-Adult $70; Parent/Youth Couple $105

Keeping on Dancing: Modern for 40+

Age adult

Includes BrainDance, floor & center work, technique, movement combinations, folk dances, improvisation, and choreography. Fun and Fitness for your fourth decade & beyond! Live accompaniment.

Clothing
Dance or exercise clothes, bare feet, athletic or dance sneakers are fine if you have an injury.

Winter Session 2013: Keeping on Dancing Class Schedule

• 10 Week Winter Session: January 7 – March 23, 2013
• Vacation Dates: no classes February 4-10
• Cost: $145

Spring Session 2013: Keeping on Dancing Class Schedule

• 10 Week Spring Session: March 25-June 10, 2013
• Vacation Dates: no classes April 15-21, May 27
• Cost: $145

Creative Dance Center
Educator/Community Workshops 2012-2013

Calling all educators, dance teachers, teaching artists, early childhood specialists, OTs, PTs, and parents. Join us at the Creative Dance Center as we learn, laugh, discover, and dance. 5% discount given for multiple participant registrations or when one participant registers for more than one workshop. Workshops are held at the Creative Dance Center in our beautiful, open, ADA accessible studio space.

Movement integrates and anchors new information and experience into our neural networks. Movement is vital to all the actions by which we embody and express our learning, our understanding and ourselves.
~Carla Hannaford, Ph.D.

Exploring Sensory Processing in Childhood
September 23, 2012 1:00-4:00pm
Carey Goldenberg

Every one of us is a sensory being. We explore through our seven senses and make sense of the world around us. We use these experiences for learning and for developing more adaptive and refined skills as we move through typical development. Come learn about the seven senses: touch, hearing, vision, taste, smell, proprioception, and vestibular. We will explore how to encourage the development of these systems and how to support children who may be experiencing sensory processing difficulties. Learn about sensory processing disorders and effective communication tools to use with families. This workshop is appropriate for educators, PTs, OTs, dance educators, parents/caregivers, and anyone who works with children.

Carey Goldenberg has been a pediatric occupational therapist for over a decade. She opened Giant Steps Children’s Therapy in August 2005 and co-created Seattle Therapy Network in May 2009 to extend the services she could offer families. Carey received her degree in occupational therapy from the University of New Hampshire and holds an advanced post-professional master’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Puget Sound. She trained and mentored under skilled clinicians at Yale New Haven Hospital, Georgetown Child Development Center, Cambridge Hospital, and Pediatric Occupational Therapy Services where she began her study of sensory integration. She holds a certificate in high-risk infant assessment from the University of Washington. Ms. Goldenberg has dedicated herself to empowering families and unlocking abilities in children. In the Republic of Georgia she produced research on the impact of disability, educated occupational therapists in sensory integration, and provided outreach/consultation to rural areas. She is involved in her profession locally, nationally and internationally. She has been adjunct faculty at the University of Puget Sound and is dedicated to training future leaders in the field of occupational therapy. She has advanced trainings in a variety of modalities including sensory integration, The Alert Program, DIR/Floortime, Integrated Listening, Constraint-Induced Therapy, Brain Gym, Handwriting without Tears, and Social Thinking.

BrainDance Foundations
November 18, 2012 1:00-5:00pm
Terry Goetz

This workshop will dive into and explore the foundations of the BrainDance. Everything you wanted to know about the BrainDance but were afraid to ask will be covered! Developed by Anne Green Gilbert, the BrainDance is a full body-brain warm-up for children and adults. This 4-hour workshop will provide a foundational understanding of the eight developmental movement patterns that healthy human beings naturally move through in the first year of life. We will delve into the somatic and cognitive benefits of isolating and focusing on these patterns of breath, tactile, core-distal, head-tail, upper-lower, body-side, cross lateral, and vestibular movements. Done in an orderly progression, the BrainDance helps us awaken the parts of our visceral and muscular system that support our body structure and help us cope with the world in an embodied way. The benefits of the BrainDance are many: reorganization of the neurological system; increased blood and oxygen flow to the respiratory system and brain; enhanced core support, connectivity, and alignment; and deeper understanding of the elements of dance technique. The BrainDance may be used as a warm-up for dance class or physical activity; before tests, performances, and presentations; after sitting for long periods of time; as a break during computer work; and to increase energy and reduce stress. This workshop will cover BrainDances appropriate for all ages that can be done in a variety of settings. Whether the BrainDance is something you are already familiar with or is brand new to you, you will leave with a deeper embodied cognitive understanding of the BrainDance.

Terry Goetz is the School Director for the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington. Terry has been on the faculty of the Creative Dance Center since 2000 and began training intensively with Anne Green Gilbert in 1997. Terry has taught in preschools, elementary classrooms, and dance studios throughout the Seattle area since retiring from Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1995. Prior to performing with PNB, she was a member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater from 1986-1988. She presents to PEPS groups, Early Childhood specialists, and at Early Childhood conferences focusing on the importance of movement in the early years of life. Terry presents workshops locally, nationally, and internationally, training dance teachers, educators, and teaching artists in BrainDance and Brain-Compatible Dance Education. She has presented at the National Dance Association and National Dance Education Organization conferences. Terry has taught for the International Dance and the Child Finnish Chapter, Kuopio International Dance Festival, Edmonton Orff Schulwerk Association, Indiana Orff Schulwerk Association, and at Universities in the US and Canada. She worked with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in WA state as a Dance Specialist developing updated K-12 Learning Standards for Dance. Terry is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization and is the Past-President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington.

Easy Informances & Recitals
January 13, 2013 1:00-4:00pm
Terry Goetz

Dancers need to share their work and accomplishments beyond the classroom or studio, but recitals can become overwhelming for dancers, families, and teachers! Continuing to teach and not drill as performance time draws near is a fine art. This workshop will offer effective and easy tools to make your recital/informance as stress-free and educational as possible for you, your students, and their families. Exploring dance concepts, practicing many steps and combinations, collaborating with others, and creating dances is much more valuable to students than months of practice on a dance created by the teacher. Learn how to incorporate explorations/improvisations, combinations, and student-generated choreography from class into a structure that can be put together easily as performance time draws near. Helpful hints will be shared on educating parents and audiences about the choreographic process, dance concepts, and choreographic devices and principles. Bringing the creative process into your performances is enriching and satisfying for dancers and audience alike. Join us for this fun workshop and take away new ideas that will inspire and invigorate your next recital/show/performance/informance!

Terry Goetz is the School Director for the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington. Terry has been on the faculty of the Creative Dance Center since 2000 and began training intensively with Anne Green Gilbert in 1997. Terry has taught in preschools, elementary classrooms, and dance studios throughout the Seattle area since retiring from Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1995. Prior to performing with PNB, she was a member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater from 1986-1988. She presents to PEPS groups, Early Childhood specialists, and at Early Childhood conferences focusing on the importance of movement in the early years of life. Terry presents workshops locally, nationally, and internationally, training dance teachers, educators, and teaching artists in BrainDance and Brain-Compatible Dance Education. She has presented at the National Dance Association and National Dance Education Organization conferences. Terry has taught for the International Dance and the Child Finnish Chapter, Kuopio International Dance Festival, Edmonton Orff Schulwerk Association, Indiana Orff Schulwerk Association, and at Universities in the US and Canada. She worked with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in WA state as a Dance Specialist developing updated K-12 Learning Standards for Dance. Terry is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization and is the Past-President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington.

BrainDance Variations for All Ages
February 3, 2013 1:00-4:00pm
Anne Green Gilbert

For participants familiar with the BrainDance, this will be a chance to spice up and enliven your BrainDance repertoire! New and fun BrainDances will be shared. Learn BrainDances that disguise themselves as fast and easy folk dances. Find ways to use props in meaningful ways. Learn how to integrate technique and different dance styles into the BrainDance patterns. Gain confidence in layering dance concepts into the BrainDance, opening up a world of endless possibilities and variations. Critical-thinking, problem solving, and social-emotional interaction will be in high gear as you discover how fun BrainDance “stations” can be. Prior experience with the BrainDance is beneficial, as we will not delve into the background and origin of the BrainDance in great detail. If you do not have experience with and understanding of the BrainDance we recommend you attend the BrainDance Foundations workshop on November 18, 2012 before attending this workshop. Since developing the BrainDance in 2000, Anne Green Gilbert has been expanding on the versatility and variety of this unique movement tool. Join Anne as she shares novel and engaging ways to keep the BrainDance fresh and fun!

Anne Green Gilbert started her teaching career as an elementary school teacher in Chicago where she first used movement to teach the academic curriculum. In 1981, Anne founded the Creative Dance Center, a school specializing in dance education for infants through adults and Kaleidoscope, a modern dance company of young people. Anne is the author of Teaching the Three Rs Through Movement (1977), Creative Dance for All Ages (1992), and Brain-Compatible Dance Education (2006). She has produced two DVD’s, Teaching Creative Dance (2002) and BrainDance (2003). As a member of the Arts Education Standards project, she helped write the Washington State Dance Standards and Learning Goals. Anne has received a number of awards for her teaching and service to dance education including the prestigious American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Honor Award (1999) and the NDA Dance Scholar/Artist Award (2005). In October 2011 the National Dance Education Organization presented Anne with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Anne directs the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers, now in its 19th year at the Creative Dance Center, and is in demand throughout the world for her fun, engaging, and transforming workshops.