Teaching Background:
I have taught individual and team-based courses in the dance departments of several liberal arts dance programs across the East Coast. As an eight-year faculty member at Muhlenberg College, I taught courses in ballet, pointe, jazz, improvisation, composition, anatomy for dancers, and Pilates. While directing the Muhlenberg College Community Dance and Pilates center, I placed college students as youth teachers within the program and mentored them in dance pedagogy and entrepreneurship. I have also taught contemporary modern, jazz, and ballet in the dance departments of Cedar Crest College, Dean College, Temple University, Dickinson College, and Providence College. My academic choreography has been commissioned by Muhlenberg College, Dickinson College, Dean College, and Providence College. In addition to collegiate teaching, I maintain an active youth and professional teaching and choreographic portfolio in the Boston Metro Area. Since completing my MFA and MBA, I have organized two scholarly courses in the areas of World Dance and Dance Management. The first course, titled The Shape and Form of South Korea’s 21st Century Dance Landscape, examines the transformation of dance in South Korea following perennial unrest that spanned a 35-year Japanese Annexation, the Korean War, and 18-years of dictatorial rule. It explores the archival modalities used to import Western dance forms and ideals to Korea, the cultural changes in Korea that created an opening for different philosophies and aesthetics in dance, and the new interest in dance scholarship and science, and supposes ideas for Korea’s dance future. The second course, titled Sustaining Concert Dance in a Free Market, offers an important and timely opportunity for students to understand and contribute to the quest for sustaining dance in the midst of a devastating downward spiral in dance support and funding in the U.S. The course explores Non-Profit Status, For-Profit Status, Hybrid For-Profit/Non-Profit Status, Angel Investor Infusion, Crowd Funding Platforms, and an Outreach-Based Foundation. It also investigates the artistic benefits and compromises that result from each of these models. Finally, it rallies the next generation of dance artists/entrepreneurs to problem solve this important conundrum.
Motivation:
As a first generation college student and the only person in my family to explore a performing arts career, I entered the world of academia and dance with little knowledge of path, process, and opportunity. My road through dance and college was a series of blindly entering situation after situation and scrambling to learn quickly as I went. This was both a challenge and a gift. My constant state of being in the unknown and scared of failing forced me to work extremely hard and pay extra close attention. Many teachers and mentors provided the strategic advice and simple daily challenge, kindness, and support that allowed me to stay the course, follow a dream, and succeed.
I have an incredible passion and optimism for education. I know, through hard work and solid mentorship, the highest levels of achievement are possible. I teach because I want to be the catalyst for someone else’s success.
Teaching Philosophy:
I believe that the purpose of education is to cultivate understanding and this is why I am an enormous champion of liberal arts education. I feel strongly that breath of knowledge across disciplines invigorates creativity, in general as well as in problem-solving, and provides an array of tools that contribute to: agility, versatility, resiliency, and independence as well as an appreciation for the unfamiliar. These tools provide an easier path to compassion and understanding.
As an educator of dance to an audience with varied interests and goals, I understand that not every student will pursue dance as a profession. Thus, my teaching goals are three-fold:
1) To impart important foundational and transferable skills such as work ethic, a commitment to meticulous investigation, and a life-long curiosity
2) To transfer my knowledge and experiences in specific subject matter via organized yet flexible curricula in an effort to contribute to students’ confidence, understanding, and competitiveness in the field
3) To inspire a life-long appreciation, commitment, and open-mindedness for dance