Professor: Ali Duffy

Tuition: $295 member / $370 non-member

6 Weeks; 1.5 NDEO-Endorsed PDCs

Dance in Communities: Models and Methods of Building Community and Reciprocity explores dance as a critical element of thriving communities via a series of interrelated units related to community engagement, advocacy, audience building, and fostering partnerships. Additionally, students will explore the relationship between dance and communities, specifically focusing on performance’s stakes and responsibilities in the construction of culturally diverse and inclusive communities. These topics, taken together, comprise a course focused squarely on how dance can impact communities of all sizes, scopes, and geographical locations. Dance as a mode of shared ideation, collaboration, and inclusion is centralized in the course. This course is structured to empower dance educators working in K-12, postsecondary, community, and private studio environments; dance students interested in community engagement and nonprofits; and nonprofit and community administrators or leaders with the knowledge that their individual contributions with dance are artistically, economically, and educationally valuable and powerful in their communities and beyond. The ways dance educators and community individuals and organizations can forge symbiotic relationships to benefit all underlines this course’s mission. 

Questions about this Course?  Email opdi@ndeo.org

Ali Duffy (PhD, MFA) is Professor, Associate Head, & Graduate Director of Dance at Texas Tech University and the Artistic Director of Flatlands Dance Theatre (www.flatlandsdance.org). Dr. Duffy's book, Careers in Dance, was published in 2020. Her forthcoming book, Dancing Motherhood, will be published by Routledge in 2023. Additional books in progress: Research in Dance (Human Kinetics) and an open-access text, Meet the Dancemakers (Raider Publishing). Her research has also been published in the Journal of Dance Education, the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, Dance Education in Practice, the Journal of Arts Management, Society, and Law, and she presents internationally at academic conferences. Recent guest opportunities include University of South Florida, Virginia Tech, Central Michigan University, Alma College, University of Detroit, Lindenwood University, COCO Dance Festival. Her work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts, and multiple regional foundations.