Educator/Community Workshops

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. To receive clock hours please notify CDC three weeks prior to the workshop date. 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.

Creative Dance Center 2012-2013
Educator/Community Workshop Descriptions and Bios

Creating Foundations through Reflex Integration & Rhythmic Movement
September 23, 2012 1:00-4:00pm  $70
Sherryl DeVries

We need to move! From the moment we are born our brain requires stimulation through movement to make the connections that move us through every stage of our lives. We will review the neurological theory and development of the brain-body connection. We will discuss and walk through the reflex patterns (infantile and primitive) that need to be integrated for smooth, coordinated movement as well as good language and emotional development. Come and experience Rhythmic Movement; learn how movement dis-ease can affect the whole child and how to encourage the development of un-integrated reflexes. This workshop is appropriate for educators, PTs, OTs, dance educators, parents/caregivers, and anyone who works with children. Move and explore your own Rhythmic Movement.

Sherryl DeVries has over a decade of experience as a pediatric physical therapist. She started Relax Therapy in June of 2006 and co-created Seattle Therapy Network in May 2009 to create a broader physical and movement community. Sherryl received her master's of physical therapy degree from the University of Central Arkansas. As a former professional dancer, avid yoga and pilates student, she uses a dynamic and eclectic approach to functional body movement by integrating the ability to listen to the body’s internal and external expressions. Sherryl enjoys partnering with families and other providers to facilitate a child's exploration of their own unique physical development and support them on every step of their journey. She especially enjoys working with infants with torticollis, children with autism, children with developmental delays, and tweens/teens. She has advanced training in a diversity of therapeutic techniques including Rhythmic Movement Training; Touch for Health Kinesiology; Yoga for the Special Child; John F. Barne’s Myofascial Release Techniques; CranioSacral Therapy; Stott Pilates Reformer Advanced Training; The Sensory Integration Perspective; Treating the Infant with Torticollis; Promoting First Relationships (University of Washington); The Art of Balance–Full-Brain Rockerboard Activities; CIT Casting and casting for Cascade DAFO.

BrainDance Foundations
Nov. 18, 2012 1:00-5:00pm $90
Terry Goetz
Clock hours available. Participants wanting clock hours must bring $10 check made out to PSESD on day of workshop.

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.

Theresa 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 for Studios and Schools
Jan. 13, 2013 1:00-4:00pm $70
Terry Goetz
Clock hours available. Participants wanting clock hours must bring $10 check made out to PSESD on day of workshop.

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!

Theresa 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
Feb. 3, 2013 1:00-4:00pm $70
Anne Green Gilbert
Clock hours available. Participants wanting clock hours must bring $10 check made out to PSESD on day of workshop.

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 16th year at the Creative Dance Center, and is in demand throughout the world for her fun, engaging, and transforming workshops.