JOIN THE DANCE!
Dance for At-Risk and Underserved Communities
Saturday, October 9, 2010 8:30am-4:00pm
Theater and Dance Wing of the Trinity Commons
240 New Britain Ave, Hartford CT 06106*
Fees (including lunch): CDA Members $25; Non-members $35;
Students of CDA members $15; Students of non-members $20.
Parking should be available in the rear parking lot. Participants should enter
by the rear entrance to the building. For campus map and directions go to:
www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/VisitingTrinity/DirectionsToTrinity.htm
This one-day conference will explore dance as a tool for learning, growth, and
transformation in the lives of people of all ages and abilities who live and
work within communities at risk. We will bring together experts in the field of
both dance and the communities for the purpose of education, inspiration, and
the development of dance projects for at-risk communities. During the day,
current successful dance programs will be explored and discussed through
participatory workshops, video, lunch focus tables, a panel discussion and a
showcase performance.
PLAN FOR THE DAY
Registration 8:30am
9:00–10:00
Workshop for all participants
Beyond the Boundaries /Judy Dworin & Kathy Borteck Gersten
Movement class exploring issues of incarceration for all levels of dance
experience.
10:00–10:30
Presentation/Collecting data for research purposes /Stacy Lopez
10:45–11:45
Shared ability workshop
Brad Roth / Dancing Day
OR
Stretching for Life
Dance program for inner city children
Olivia Sabulao Ilano-Davis
11.45–12:30
Lunch with “focus tables” for informal conversations with Jacqueline A. Coleman,
Olivia Sabulao Ilano-Davis, Brad Roth or Susan
Sandel
12:30–1:30
For all Participants: Video / Judy Dworin Performance Project / York
Correctional Institution and
Panel: Joe Lea, Michele Bauman, Kathy Borteck Gersten, Karen Oein
Moderator: Judy Dworin
1:45–2:45
Dance Therapy / Healthy-Steps / Susan Sandel
3:00–4:00
Showcase performance
Workshop leaders:
• Judy Dworin & Kathy Borteck Gersten, Artistic and Associate Artistic
Director of the Judy Dworin Performance Project have presented for the last five
years a remarkable residency combining dance with text and song at York Women’s
Correctional Institution, CT.
• Brad Roth, Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Day, Inc., a company
that has promoted “shared ability” dance for people of all ages, abilities, and
disabilities, since 1995.
• Olivia Sabulao Ilano-Davis, Artistic Director and founder of Spectrum
in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble and creator of Stretching for Life, an
inspiring dance project for Hartford children based at Charter Oak Cultural
Center, Hartford.
• Susan Sandel, a distinguished dance therapist who has had a long career
in this field and who is currently working with patients with cancer and other
chronic diseases through Healthy-Steps, a program of integrated medicine, at
Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center.
• Stacey Lopez, a research assistant for the Children with Incarcerated
Parents project, a collaboration between JDPP, Families in Crisis, the Institute
for Municipal and Regional Policy, Charter Oak Cultural Center, and York
Correctional Institution.
Panel members:
Michele Bauman, Director of Education &
Outreach for Connecticut Ballet which currently has a partnership project with
CSSD Juvenile Probation and Detention Services; Joe Lea, Media Specialist
& Arts Coordinator at York Women’s Correctional Institution; Kathy Borteck
Gersten and Karen Oien, Deputy Warden, York Women’s Correctional
Institution and moderated by Judy Dworin.
Workshop leaders’ bios and workshop descriptions:
Kathy Borteck Gersten (Associate Artistic Director, JDPE,
Moving Matters! Residency coordinator) has been collaborating with Judy Dworin since 1986. She
was a founding member of Dance Services Network and its Director for 6 years,
Past Dance Vice President for the Connecticut Association for Physical, Health
Education, Recreation and Dance, on the Artist selection panel for First Night
Hartford, Dance Committee member for the Connecticut Standards for Dance and the
State Guide to Arts Program Development K-12, Artist panel for Art/Artists
Residencies, Arts Development Grants, and a board member of the Connecticut
Dance Alliance. Currently, Kathy is a Teaching Artist with the Connecticut
Commission for Culture and Tourism, a guest lecturer in the Department of
Theater and Dance at Trinity College, a member of the Greater Hartford’s Dance
Umbrella, the Charter Oak Dance Coalition and a member of the Dance
Certification Committee for the State Dept. of Education.
Judy Dworin has been developing collaborative multi-arts residencies at
York Correctional Institution for the past five years through her non-profit,
the Judy Dworin Performance Project (JDPP) based in Hartford, CT. Founded in
1989, JDPP’s mission is centered on the important role the arts can and do play
in challenging and creating change in our universe with a particular focus on
underserved populations (www.judydworin.org). Over the past twenty years the
Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble has performed and taught residencies
internationally as well as throughout the New England region. Judy is on the
Teaching Roster for the State of Connecticut and is the recipient of the
Governor’s Arts Award, the Connecticut Dance Alliance Award for Distinguished
Service and the Charter Oak Vision Award for Arts and Education among others.
Her commitment to education has also had a thirty-nine year history at Trinity
College, where she is presently a Professor in the Department of Theater and
Dance. She has had articles published in such journals and books as Contact
Quarterly, Northeast Magazine, Ellison Findly’s (ed) Women’s Buddhism,
Buddhism’s Women, and Marjorie Agosin and Betty Jean Craige’s (eds) To Mend the
World: Women Reflect on 9/11. She was also asked to contribute a chapter to a
new book, Performing New Lives: Reflections on Prison Theatre in the United
States, edited by Jonathan Shailor, Associate Professor of Communications at
University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and being published by Jessica Kingsley
Publishers in the fall of 2010. Judy’s work with women in prison has expanded in
the last year to include children with incarcerated parents. She is presently
working on a large-scale collaborative arts project between JDPP and social
service and community organizations in Hartford as well as York Correctional
Institution to begin to bridge the divides between children and their parents in
prison through the arts.
Workshop description (Judy & Kathy):
Beyond the Boundaries
This workshop will first of all facilitate our meeting each other for this day
of discovery and sharing. It will also explore in movement and story the ways
that we can bridge the divides that make us feel separate from others. Based on
our work with women in prison and children who have parents in prison, we will
look at our own inner “prisons” that make us feel isolated—how are they the same
or different from those who are actually in prison or have experienced a loved
one who is incarcerated? How can we bridge the idea of the “other” and create
connection and community both within ourselves and with others? In a variety of
exercises, we will follow the path of these questions and where they take us in
movement, interaction and discovery.
Olivia Sabulao Ilano-Davis
(Artistic Director, Spectrum in Motion Dance
Theater Ensemble) was born in the Philippines and grew up in western
Massachusetts. She holds a BFA in Theater and Dance from Smith College and has
pursued an advanced degree in education at the University of Massachusetts. She
studied and danced at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, The Clarke Center
for the Performing Arts and Henry Street Settlement. She began teaching as an
adjunct instructor at the University of Massachusetts. She is the former
Director of Dance Programs for City Youth at Dance Connecticut and Hartford
Ballet. She is a member of the Greater Hartford Dance Umbrella and the
Connecticut Dance Alliance. Ms. Davis was honored as a "Leader for the Arts"
during the Greater Hartford Arts Council's thirtieth United Arts Campaign. She
received the 2005 Vision Award for Arts and Education from Charter Oak Cultural
Center. In 2009, She was awarded the CT Dance Alliance Distinguished Achievement
Award.
Her company, Spectrum in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble, is based at Charter Oak
Cultural Center, Hartford, where she and her company serve as the resident dance
education and performance company. She has become passionate that the role of
her company would be to grow dancers and build choreography that reflects their
experiences and their growth, while celebrating the movement and music of the
cultures of the world.
Workshop description
Olivia and the Spectrum company members direct Stretching for Life, a dance
education program serving 400 Hartford youngsters aged 4 to 17, at Charter Oak
Cultural Center. Designed with curricular links to Connecticut’s Common Core of
Learning, age and skill appropriate classes are offered as an after school and
Saturday program.
In this workshop, Olivia will introduce participants to the Stretching for Life
program.
Brad Roth has a Masters degree in Movement and Dance from Wesleyan
University, a Bachelors’ degree in Economics from Cornell University, and is a
Certified Laban Movement Analyst. He is a Teaching Artist with the Connecticut
Commmission on Culture and Tourism. University teaching credits include the
Hartt School of the University of Hartford, Eastern Connecticut State
University, Fairfield University, Hampshire College, Trinity College, University
of Bridgeport, and The Yale School of Music.
He is a Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Day, Inc., promoting “shared
ability” dance for people of all ages, abilities, and disabilities, since 1995.
Performances have been given in schools and community centers, at the
Connecticut Special Olympics, and at the Special Olympics World Games.
Workshop description
Brad will present a shared ability workshop for conference participants, both
with and w/o disabilities with Q & A at the end. Brad will share the format he
uses with the participants. No previous dance experience is needed, only a
desire to concentrate, create, dance, and share.
Shared Ability Dance: Shared ability dance is dance that is inclusive of dancers
with disabilities, wherein the dancers of varying abilities share their skills
in the creation of choreography. This field has also been called “inclusive
dance,” “integrated dance,” and “wheelchair dance,” and has a thirty-plus year
history, with many fine inclusive dance companies throughout the United States
and the world combining dancers with and without disabilities to create
beautiful and moving dances.
Susan L. Sandel, Ph.D., BC-DMT, LCAT, CLM
is a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist and is certified in The Lebed
Method, Healthy-Steps (formerly Focus on Healing). She has a doctorate from The
Union Institute in movement psychotherapy and gerontology. She is also a
licensed nursing home administrator. For more than thirty-five years, she has
integrated creative arts therapies into her work in hospitals, nursing homes,
and community centers. Her early work with older adults is included in the film
Dance Therapy: The Power
of Movement. She is the co-author of Waiting At The Gate: Creativity and Hope
in the Nursing Home (Haworth, 1987) and the author of many articles about
movement and healing. She was the principal co-investigator and co-author of a
research study about the effects of The Lebed Method program with breast cancer
survivors. The results were published in Cancer Nursing, Vol. 28, No. 4, 2005.
Dr. Sandel currently conducts the Healthy-Steps program at two different
locations for the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center’s Center for Survivorship and
Integrative Medicine. Her groups are part of an array of many integrative
medicine therapies for both cancer patients and community members. She
facilitates dance/movement therapy groups at the Meriden Senior Center and for
the Meriden Housing Authority. Dr. Sandel also teaches creative writing
workshops for both the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center and the Meriden Senior
Center. She is a sculptor and a Pet-Facilitated Therapist.
Workshop description:
Healthy-Steps™, Moving you to health with The Lebed Method
Healthy-Steps is a joyful, life-affirming therapeutic exercise and movement
program to music that is rooted in the healing elements of dance. It emphasizes
positive energy, mutual support and empowerment. It is designed to promote both
physical and emotional wellness among the participants, outcomes which have been
validated by several studies. Healthy-Steps improves range of motion, balance,
strength and endurance. It is especially helpful for survivors of breast cancer
and other cancers, lymphedema, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, frozen
shoulder and other chronic conditions. Healthy-Steps is a gentle, total body
program; therefore, many people discover they can do it even when they are
unable to engage in more rigorous types of exercise.
This workshop will guide the participants through the stages of a typical
session, along with explanations about the potential therapeutic benefits of
various movements. There will be an opportunity at the end for questions.
Stacey Lopez, workshop description
A short presentation on collecting data for research purposes.
Lunch will be organized in Focus Tables to enable participants to have informal
conversation with the specialists. There will be Focus Tables for Olivia Sabulao
Ilano-Davis, Brad Roth, Susan Sandel and Jacqueline A. Coleman, Artistic
Director, Office of Academics, Hartford Public Schools.
Click here to
download the application form.
Deadline for applications September 28, 2010