About This Blog:
The Arts Bridge program gives elementary teachers the opportunity to have arts scholars come into their classroom and teach a specific art form (music, dance, drama, visual art). This also gives arts scholars an opportunity to work with a mentor and gain valuable teaching experience. The idea is that in the end the teacher will be able to carry on implementing the arts in their classroom. The purpose of this blog is to document my experience as a dance arts scholar. (More about the program here: Arts Bridge)
About Me:I am a Brigham Young University student majoring in dance education and minoring in sociology and social science teaching. I am interested in giving all people, especially children and teenagers, access to quality dance instruction. I hope to be able to use the skills I am learning in my school programs to not only teach dance, but also to be able to influence those I teach to communicate and connect with others through dance.
I have always loved dancing around the house since I was a little girl and I would often recruit my little sisters to perform dances I choreographed. When I was in 5th grade I learned about a studio in my hometown that taught beginning ballet and tap lessons. I begged my mom to sign me up and she did, and thus my dance journey began. |
I continued at the studio in 6th grade and then sadly my teacher retired. I thought I was done dancing forever, because I grew up in a small Wyoming town and knew of no other dance teachers in the area. Luckily, in 8th grade my middle school started an after-school jazz program. I learned how to leap, spin in pirouettes, and do the splits. I loved it! This prepared me to join my high school drill team which I performed on for 3 years. In my high school years, I also cherished YouTube tutorials to further my dance learning in ballet, tap, and jazz.
My first year of college, I joined a local folk dance group. I fell in love with learning about different cultures through their dance. After my first year of college, I took a school hiatus to serve as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Slovenia. It was as a missionary I realized that I loved teaching and that I wanted to make dance a permanent part of my life. Upon returning to college, I dived into ballet, tap, jazz, and clogging again and continued to learn other world styles, including Irish and Indian. At BYU, I have had the opportunity to dance on folk dance teams and as a member of Kinnect, a company which focuses on performing for elementary schools and teaching elementary students creative dance. At BYU, I have also fallen in love with contemporary dance.
My first year of college, I joined a local folk dance group. I fell in love with learning about different cultures through their dance. After my first year of college, I took a school hiatus to serve as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Slovenia. It was as a missionary I realized that I loved teaching and that I wanted to make dance a permanent part of my life. Upon returning to college, I dived into ballet, tap, jazz, and clogging again and continued to learn other world styles, including Irish and Indian. At BYU, I have had the opportunity to dance on folk dance teams and as a member of Kinnect, a company which focuses on performing for elementary schools and teaching elementary students creative dance. At BYU, I have also fallen in love with contemporary dance.
In addition to dancing, I love trying new cafes, crocheting, skiing (Alpine and Nordic), watching international films, listening to podcasts, reading, ice skating, hockey, hiking, rafting, soccer, and bluegrass music.
I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to share dance this semester with my 2nd grade class!