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Students will learn “performance etiquette” and build a supportive atmosphere together.

Students will explore creative dance fundamentals through games and structured improvisations.

Students will collaborate in small groups and create their own choreography.

Students will make connections to their classroom content through daily reflection.

Students will perform an original dance inspired by classroom goals/ideas.

Nicole McCall was a kid who never stopped moving.  Thank goodness her mom enrolled her in dance classes!  A lifelong dancer, Nicole started teaching and founded Dance Your Heart Out® in 1998.  Since then, she has been the the owner of Northwest Conservatory of Dance (Hillsboro, OR), a performer with the WhyNot Dance Company (Dublin, Ireland), and the Outreach Director for BodyVox (Portland, OR).  Now she’s on a mission to show students and teachers how they can use creative dance in the classroom as a fun and effective learning tool.

Dance,

K-2,3-5,6-8,

Creative Dance is a great fit for students of all talents. Unlike exacting dance technique classes, creative dance is a more universal approach. Nicole strives for (and often achieves) 100% participation in her residencies. She does this in a variety of ways.

Before students can try new things and be expressive, they need to feel safe. So the first thing Nicole does is facilitate a student discussion resulting in a self-generated list of “agreements” they will follow. Then, Nicole engages fringe students with choices and options. Even if they are hesitant and offstage, all students are given active roles. By the end, the whole classroom is smiling and participating in their final “performance.”

Nicole also takes special care to individualize her lesson plans based on teachers’ goals and known stages of child development. For example, Kindergarten students may spend more time mirroring Nicole, taking turns as partners, whereas middle school students are given more freedom to work independently and utilize peer feedback.

All students enjoy working toward a final performance. Performances may be done for each other within the classroom, for other classrooms or in an assembly, or during an evening arts night.

Creative dance is extremely versatile and can be fused well with most classroom content. Nicole takes pride in crafting residencies that support teachers’ classroom goals. Some possible topics include:

Math Moves: Creative Dance and the Common Core
K-1: Greater Than/Less Than, Addition 1-20, Subtraction
1-3: Part/Part/Whole, Congruent/Symmetrical, Fraction Basics: Whole, Half, Fourths
3-5: Multiplication: Arrays, Factors, Multiples, Angles, Lines

Locomotor Language Arts
K: Characters, Setting, Adjectives
1-2: Beginning, Middle, End, Problem/Solution, Comparing Two Versions of Same Story, Theme
3-5: Fables/ Folktales, Narrative Writing, Elements of a Mystery

STEAM: Choreography as the Engineering Process
4-8: Civics/ Social Science
This residency challenges students to go deeper: Can students “engineer” a dance that educates their audience about important civics/social science topics?

Nicole guides older students through the engineering process (ask, imagine, plan, create, improve) as a creative dance choreographer. Using Growth Mindset principles, students are held to a high standard and encouraged to refine their work several times. By the end, students will have made deep connections, be able to explain their process, and perform a short but complete piece of choreography.

Possible topics include: wealth/scarcity, consequences of cooperation/conflict, differing perspectives, role of citizens in a government, bias/injustice/discrimination/stereotypes.

Space:  
Auditorium or large space preferred
Classroom OK
Can move from class to class (10 minutes passing time needed)
Electrical outlet, poster paper, and easel are required

Travel:
Artist is driving from Beaverton, OR
Westside/Hillsboro schools are preferred.
Maximum travel distance is 20 miles each way.

Schedule:
2-4 Sessions/day are ideal
Back to back sessions are strongly preferred
10 minutes passing time between sessions, please

Availability:
Prefers to work 4 days/week
Artist is available between 9am-2pm
Some flexibility is possible

Supplies:
This residency uses common supplies: poster paper, an easel, name tags, and markers. If the school provides them, it will lower the cost of the residency.
Artist will provide sound system