TEACHING IS LEADING: Embracing our Impact & Opportunity as Dance Educators : NDEO

Start/End Date

09/28/2023 - 10/01/2023

Time

8:00 AM - 8:30 PM

Registration Deadline

09/28/2023

Location

TEACHING IS LEADING: Embracing our Impact & Opportunity as Dance Educators Event Image

Dance teachers wear many hats. We are educators, choreographers, mentors, directors, artists, coaches, coordinators, decision-makers, advocates, and LEADERS. As dance educators, we may not always identify as leaders. We may think that only those with certain job titles, qualifications, or in select sectors qualify for this title.

At NDEO’s 2023 National Conference, Teaching is Leading: Embracing Our Impact and Opportunity as Dance Educators, we invite you to explore the diverse ways you lead in the classroom, the studio, your communities, and elsewhere. Regardless of which setting we teach in or where we are in our career, dance teachers are constantly guiding, managing, developing, advocating, directing, creating, and communicating. We set the tone for our classes; we build relationships with students, parents, and administrators; we overcome obstacles for the sake of our programs; and we advocate for dance and demonstrate its tremendous impact through our teaching. This year in Denver we come together to explore and embrace our impact as leaders. Join us as we raise respect for the field of dance education and make the implicit explicit. If you are a dance teacher, you are a leader.

Held annually in the fall, a typical in-person NDEO National Conference includes three full days of over 250 workshops, master classes, panel and paper presentations, social events and performances. A full day of pre-conference intensives precedes the official start of conference. The full conference schedule is generally released online over the summer before that year's conference.

**Please click the Pricing tab above to view conference registration prices. Below you will find information on booking your hotel room with our host hotel.**

Cancelation & Refunds:

CANCELATION & REFUND POLICY: $50 administration fee charged. No refunds after 8/31/23.
CHANGES TO REGISTRATION: Any changes made to registration after payment may incur a $50 admin fee (per registration). No changes after 8/31/23.

Conference Commemorative T-Shirt

Long sleeve featuring NDEO's 25th Anniversary Logo - $30 - add on to registration

Conference Hotel

Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center
650 15th St
Denver, CO 80202

Discounted Room Rates:

$209 + tax / night (single and double occupancy)
$234 + tax / night (triple occupancy)
$259 + tax / night (quadruple occupancy)
Discounted rates are available through August 23, 2023 or until rooms sell out, whichever comes first.

Click here to book your hotel room.

Registration Fees

Member Late Rate

$495.00

9/29 One-day Late Rate

$250.00

9/30 One-day Late Rate

$250.00

10/1 One-day Late Rate

$250.00

Non-member Early Bird Rate (ends 5/31)

$495.00

Non-member Late Rate

$595.00

NDEO Staff

$0.00

Comp

$0.00

Volunteer

$0.00

Proposal Reviewer Late Discount

$395.00

Agenda




	Session Guest Sold Out! 0 Slots Left	$30.00
Wednesday - September 27

	Conference 2023 Commemorative Shirt Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Pre-order your 2023 Conference Shirt and pick up when you register onsite! The long sleeve shirt seafoam green shirt will feature NDEO's 25th Anniversary Logo.	$30.00
Pre-conference Intensives
Thursday - September 28
8:00 am
	#2-#8: Pre-conference Intensive Registration Sold Out! 0 Slots Left SELECT THIS TO ATTEND ANY OF INTENSIVES #2-#8. Choose from several pre-conference intensives (listed below), providing in-depth dives into different material. Registrants for this pre-conference day may attend any intensive as long as space remains. Once registered, NDEO will send you a form to reserve your spot in each intensive you'd like to attend. ***Note that K-12 Bus Tour is not included and may be selected separately. READ BELOW TO SEE INTENSIVE DESCRIPTIONS.	$80.00
8:30 am - 11:30 am
	#2: Creativity & Culture: Implicit Bias & Dance-Making with Crystal Davis Sold Out! 0 Slots Left When students develop dances in genres you are not well-versed in, how do you assist, support, and deepen learning? For students creating in a genre you know but have an aesthetic you find unappealing or inappropriate, how do you engage with students around this difference in taste? What are challenges of appropriateness, safety, and culturally relevant understandings of the dance? This workshop uses research, strategies, and activities provided in the book, Dance and Belonging: Implicit Bias and Inclusion in Dance Education, to facilitate a practice of how to disrupt the negative effects of biases when students are creating their own works. Participants will enact a choreographic process that models supporting creativity while addressing audience responses with particular care for students underrepresented, socially marginalized, or historically stigmatized in dance classrooms. Crystal U. Davis University of Mayland - College Park <p><strong>Crystal U. Davis, MFA, CLMA </strong>is a dancer, educator, movement analyst, and critical race theorist with twelve years of experience teaching in P-12 education and seven years supervising dance educators. Her work has been published in the  <em>Journal of Dance Education</em>, <em>Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education</em>, and in her book, <em>Dance and Belonging: Implicit Bias and Inclusion in Dance Education</em>. As an artist, her performances span from Rajasthani folk dance to postmodern choreography examining incongruities between what we say, what we believe, and what we do. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance Performance and Scholarship at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches anti-racist pedagogy for dance and theater, modern technique, somatics, and movement analysis.</p> <p><strong>Crystal U. Davis, MFA, CLMA </strong>is a dancer, educator, movement analyst, and critical race theorist with twelve years of experience teaching in P-12 education and seven years supervising dance educators. Her work has been published in the  <em>Journal of Dance Education</em>, <em>Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education</em>, and in her book, <em>Dance and Belonging: Implicit Bias and Inclusion in Dance Education</em>. As an artist, her performances span from Rajasthani folk dance to postmodern choreography examining incongruities between what we say, what we believe, and what we do. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance Performance and Scholarship at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches anti-racist pedagogy for dance and theater, modern technique, somatics, and movement analysis.</p>
9:00 am - 11:00 am
	#3: Types of Stretch and When to Use Them with Allegra Romita & Nancy Romita Sold Out! 0 Slots Left This active movement session addresses myths about stretch, explores new approaches, and proposes a shift in dance training constructs about stretching. It presents leading research in motor learning on the benefits of stretching to develop resilience in muscle action and enhance movement potential. Participants learn 7 different approaches to stretching and when to use them within teaching practices for maximum benefit for students. The session uses the Functional Awareness® approach to resilience in action while investigating dynamic, static, prolonged, ballistic, PNF stretching as well as neurocognitive and myofascial release effects on muscular stretch. Allegra Romita New York University <p><strong>Allegra Romita</strong> (MA, CMA, EdM, RYT) is co-creator of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action® and co-author of <em>Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers</em> and <em>Functional Awareness and Yoga: an Anatomical Guide to the Body in Reflective Practice</em>. Allegra serves as the Program Administrator and Faculty for NYU Steinhardt Dance Education program. Since 2011, Allegra has been performing regionally and nationally with Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and is the Artistic Visioning Partner with the collective. Allegra graduated from the University of Michigan with honors with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Movement Science. She received her MA in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt and EdM in Motor Learning & Control from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her passion for somatic investigation led her to certification (CMA) in Laban Movement Analysis through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. Allegra teaches at Brooklyn Yoga Project and Heatwise Yoga in Brooklyn, NY, and co-teaches in the teacher training programs at both studios. </p> <p><strong>Allegra Romita</strong> (MA, CMA, EdM, RYT) is co-creator of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action® and co-author of <em>Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers</em> and <em>Functional Awareness and Yoga: an Anatomical Guide to the Body in Reflective Practice</em>. Allegra serves as the Program Administrator and Faculty for NYU Steinhardt Dance Education program. Since 2011, Allegra has been performing regionally and nationally with Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and is the Artistic Visioning Partner with the collective. Allegra graduated from the University of Michigan with honors with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Movement Science. She received her MA in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt and EdM in Motor Learning & Control from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her passion for somatic investigation led her to certification (CMA) in Laban Movement Analysis through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. Allegra teaches at Brooklyn Yoga Project and Heatwise Yoga in Brooklyn, NY, and co-teaches in the teacher training programs at both studios. </p> Nancy Wanich Romita Towson University <p>Nancy Romita (MFA, RSME, M.AmSAT RYT) is Senior Lecturer at Towson University (<a href="http://www.towson.edu/dance/fac-wanich-romita.asp">http://www.towson.edu/dance/fac-wanich-romita.asp</a>), co-founder of Functional Awareness® (<a href="http://www.functionalawareness.org">www.functionalawareness.org</a>) is certified in dance rehabilitation training (WDPT/NYC) & current director of the Alexander Technique MidAtlantic Teacher Training Course. Romita is former Artistic Director of NanDance NYC (1981-1985) & The Moving Company 1993-2003), choreographed over 50 works at such venues as DTW/New York Live Arts, the 92ndStY, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Kennedy Center,  Her research has been presented at IADMS, NDEO, CORPS de Ballet International, Alexander Technique International Congress. She is co-author of several books published by Oxford University Press. The second edition of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers recently released June 2023.<strong> </strong></p> <p>Nancy Romita (MFA, RSME, M.AmSAT RYT) is Senior Lecturer at Towson University (<a href="http://www.towson.edu/dance/fac-wanich-romita.asp">http://www.towson.edu/dance/fac-wanich-romita.asp</a>), co-founder of Functional Awareness® (<a href="http://www.functionalawareness.org">www.functionalawareness.org</a>) is certified in dance rehabilitation training (WDPT/NYC) & current director of the Alexander Technique MidAtlantic Teacher Training Course. Romita is former Artistic Director of NanDance NYC (1981-1985) & The Moving Company 1993-2003), choreographed over 50 works at such venues as DTW/New York Live Arts, the 92ndStY, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Kennedy Center,  Her research has been presented at IADMS, NDEO, CORPS de Ballet International, Alexander Technique International Congress. She is co-author of several books published by Oxford University Press. The second edition of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers recently released June 2023.<strong> </strong></p>
	#4: Are Dance Competitions Disrupting the Power and Progress of Dance Education? facilitated by Chasta Hamilton Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Following up on a highly-engaging NDEO webinar and SIG conversations, we continue to consider the question: Are Dance Competitions Disrupting the Power and Progress of Dance Education? Divided into two, deep-dive segments, Part I will discuss The Facts and The Relation while Part II discusses The Action. Designed for anyone who believes in the power of dance education and transformative leadership, this collaborative environment will respectfully consider dance education's potential for positive, sustainable, and equitable impact as we cultivate the performers, and leaders, of tomorrow. You may attend both parts or either part. Part 1: 9:00 - 11:30 AM; Part 2: 12:30 - 3:00 PM. Chasta Hamilton Stage Door Dance Productions <p>Orphaned as a child, Chasta found comfort in the creativity, play, and catharsis of the performing arts. This led to a life as an arts entrepreneur where she believes that everyone has the power to reach their fullest potential and disrupt the status quo in an empowering and inspiring way.</p> <p>She is personally doing that through her entrepreneurial endeavors, writing and motivational speaking. This niche in change management has developed through a variety of personal and professional challenges that have forced her to find optimism in her quest for success, happiness, and impact.</p> <p>Chasta is the Founder/ CEO of Stage Door Dance Productions and Founder/ President of the non-profit Girls Geared For Greatness. She’s also a best-selling author (Trash The Trophies and Handle the Horrible) and speaker (TEDx: You Weren’t Built to Break). Chasta lives in Raleigh with her husband, John, their son, Bash, and their Scottish Terrier, Elvis.</p> <p>Orphaned as a child, Chasta found comfort in the creativity, play, and catharsis of the performing arts. This led to a life as an arts entrepreneur where she believes that everyone has the power to reach their fullest potential and disrupt the status quo in an empowering and inspiring way.</p> <p>She is personally doing that through her entrepreneurial endeavors, writing and motivational speaking. This niche in change management has developed through a variety of personal and professional challenges that have forced her to find optimism in her quest for success, happiness, and impact.</p> <p>Chasta is the Founder/ CEO of Stage Door Dance Productions and Founder/ President of the non-profit Girls Geared For Greatness. She’s also a best-selling author (Trash The Trophies and Handle the Horrible) and speaker (TEDx: You Weren’t Built to Break). Chasta lives in Raleigh with her husband, John, their son, Bash, and their Scottish Terrier, Elvis.</p>
12:30 pm - 3:00 pm
	#5: Moving through Parkinson’s with integrated teaching with Lisa Morgan, Andrew Knight, & Kyle Wilhelm Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Moving Through Parkinson's is a collaborative and integrative program bringing community members living with Parkinson’s together with faculty and students from Colorado State University’s Dance, Music Therapy, and Occupational Therapy programs. The synergy and cross pollination of science and creative practice supports wellness and reveals the value of experiential learning with multiple ages and intentions. The intensive will include an overview of the program, reviewing the dance/movement framework as well as fundamental music therapy theory and practice. We will explore HOW and WHY live music supports movement and empathetic understanding. Participants will explore how we can shift our expectations and roles, and enter into a shared learning process that is inclusive and responsive to who is in the room. These universal tools can transfer to classrooms and/or therapeutic settings. Lisa Morgan Colorado State University Andrew Knight Colorado State University Kyle Wilhelm Colorado State University
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
	#6: Equity Exploration with Cleo Parker Robinson, asst. by Shelby Jarosz Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Drawing on a 52 year history of artistic excellence, and recognizing that dance is a powerful tool to help focus students’ attention on complex issues of diversity, Cleo Parker Robinson and Cleo Parker Robinson Dancers will begin this exploration with performance of an excerpt from the Ensemble’s repertoire, focusing on issues of racial equity. Attendees will have an opportunity to dive into deep conversation and will investigate ways for teachers and students to address equity issues by establishing “safe space” and open dialogue. Movement elements will encourage attendees to explore their own acknowledgement of the need for continuous healing support of mind, body, and spirit – for themselves and for their students. Dialogue will encourage attendees to present open and honest questions and concerns in a respectful and receiving way. Intensive takes place offsite at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. Error! Line too long on line 43 Error encountered while processing your request. If you continue having difficulties, please contact us.
3:15 pm - 6:15 pm
	#7: Dancing Around Race–Deeper Dive into Racial Equity with Gerald Casel Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Using tools from Dancing Around Race, Gerald Casel builds on last year's NDEO workshop that reflects his research on race and racism in dance. Through conversations and movement provocations, participants will explore their relationships to power, social position, and how they exist within systems of dance education, performance, and production. Casel writes, "With a group of BIPOC dance artists, I examine what is missing in the research/practice/literature when it comes to operationalizing racial equity. These lacunae form unique methodological tools that transform the lenses through which we explore the social constructions of race." Learning alongside dance communities/ecologies permeates this iterative and ongoing practice, with each gathering expanding what we know, what we don't know, and how to collectively envision how we will get there with collective care. Gerald Casel Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University <p>Gerald Casel (he/they/siya) is artistic director of GERALDCASELDANCE. Their choreographic work complicates and provokes questions surrounding colonialism, collective cultural amnesia, whiteness and privilege, and the tensions between the invisible/perceived/obvious structures of power. The company has been presented at Bates Dance Festival, La MaMa, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, CounterPulse, ODC Theater, Asia Pacific Dance Festival, and at festivals in South Korea, Taiwan, the U.K., and France. Casel is Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A graduate of The Juilliard School, with an MFA from UW Milwaukee, they received a Bessie award for sustained achievement. Casel is the founder of Dancing Around Race, a community-engaged participatory process that interrogates racial inequities in dance. www.geraldcasel.com</p> <p>Gerald Casel (he/they/siya) is artistic director of GERALDCASELDANCE. Their choreographic work complicates and provokes questions surrounding colonialism, collective cultural amnesia, whiteness and privilege, and the tensions between the invisible/perceived/obvious structures of power. The company has been presented at Bates Dance Festival, La MaMa, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, CounterPulse, ODC Theater, Asia Pacific Dance Festival, and at festivals in South Korea, Taiwan, the U.K., and France. Casel is Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A graduate of The Juilliard School, with an MFA from UW Milwaukee, they received a Bessie award for sustained achievement. Casel is the founder of Dancing Around Race, a community-engaged participatory process that interrogates racial inequities in dance. www.geraldcasel.com</p>
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
	#8: The Life and Legacy of Daniel Lewis Sold Out! 0 Slots Left This presentation will explore the development of Lewis’ approach to dance education and choreography. His career as an educator, dancer, and administrator begins with teaching at a local dance studio in Brooklyn at age 12. From 1968-1987, he taught at The Juilliard School in New York, and then became the founding Dean of Dance at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, a high school and college dance program, for 23 years. This talk will include video and stories of performing, teaching, choreographing, and staging the works of master choreographers Doris Humphrey, Anna Sokolow, José Limón, and his own work. Each of these aspects of dance embodies a unique approach to teaching technique and repertory. Lewis will be sharing 67 years of teaching and performing, what it has taught him, and what it contributed to the development of dance.
Social Event
Friday - September 29
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
	Grand Opening (9/29) - Chicken Entree Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Please note that this meal is NOT included with One-day Sat 9/30 and Sun 10/1 registrations. Location: TBD
	Grand Opening (9/29) - Vegan Entree Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Please note that this meal is NOT included with One-day Sat 9/30 and Sat 10/1 registrations. Location: TBD
	Grand Opening (9/29) - Vegan & Gluten Free Entree Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Please select this option if you need a Vegan and Gluten Free Entree. Please note that this meal is NOT included with One-day Sat 9/30 and Sun 10/1 registrations. Location: TBD
	Grand Opening (9/29) - Not Attending Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Please select this option if you will not be attending the Grand Opening Dinner or if you are Registered for a One-Day Conference on 9/30 or 10/1. Location: TBD
	Grand Opening Add On Guest - Chicken Sold Out! 0 Slots Left Please note that this meal is NOT included with One-day Sat 9/30 and Sun 10/1 registrations.	$100.00

Speakers

Name	Organization	Speaking At
Allegra Romita <p><strong>Allegra Romita</strong> (MA, CMA, EdM, RYT) is co-creator of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action® and co-author of <em>Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers</em> and <em>Functional Awareness and Yoga: an Anatomical Guide to the Body in Reflective Practice</em>. Allegra serves as the Program Administrator and Faculty for NYU Steinhardt Dance Education program. Since 2011, Allegra has been performing regionally and nationally with Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and is the Artistic Visioning Partner with the collective. Allegra graduated from the University of Michigan with honors with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Movement Science. She received her MA in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt and EdM in Motor Learning & Control from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her passion for somatic investigation led her to certification (CMA) in Laban Movement Analysis through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. Allegra teaches at Brooklyn Yoga Project and Heatwise Yoga in Brooklyn, NY, and co-teaches in the teacher training programs at both studios. </p>	New York University	#3: Types of Stretch and When to Use Them with Allegra Romita & Nancy Romita
Andrew Knight	Colorado State University	#5: Moving through Parkinson’s with integrated teaching with Lisa Morgan, Andrew Knight, & Kyle Wilhelm
Chasta Hamilton <p>Orphaned as a child, Chasta found comfort in the creativity, play, and catharsis of the performing arts. This led to a life as an arts entrepreneur where she believes that everyone has the power to reach their fullest potential and disrupt the status quo in an empowering and inspiring way.</p> <p>She is personally doing that through her entrepreneurial endeavors, writing and motivational speaking. This niche in change management has developed through a variety of personal and professional challenges that have forced her to find optimism in her quest for success, happiness, and impact.</p> <p>Chasta is the Founder/ CEO of Stage Door Dance Productions and Founder/ President of the non-profit Girls Geared For Greatness. She’s also a best-selling author (Trash The Trophies and Handle the Horrible) and speaker (TEDx: You Weren’t Built to Break). Chasta lives in Raleigh with her husband, John, their son, Bash, and their Scottish Terrier, Elvis.</p>	Stage Door Dance Productions	#4: Are Dance Competitions Disrupting the Power and Progress of Dance Education? facilitated by Chasta Hamilton
Cleo Parker Robinson <p>CLEO PARKER ROBINSON</p><p>Founder / Artistic Director / Choreographer / Producer</p><p>CLEO PARKER ROBINSON is founder and artistic director of the 51-year-old Denver-based artistic institution, CLEO PARKER ROBINSON DANCE (CPRD), leading a professional Ensemble (CPRDE), Cleo II (her 2nd company), a Youth Ensemble, an Academy of Dance, an International Summer Dance Institute, a 240-seat theatre, and numerous community outreach programs nationally and internationally. She has received honors and awards from corporate, civic, community, and artistic entities world-wide, bringing CPRDE to myriad organizations and venues for performances, teaching residencies and community engagement programming. A master teacher/choreographer and cultural ambassador, she and CPRDE have performed nationwide and throughout Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, and the African continent, with their most recent international tours taking them to Bogota, Colombia in Spring of 2019 and Mexico in Fall 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Ms. Parker Robinson’s awards and honors include the Colorado Governor’s Award for Excellence (1974), Denver Mayor’s Award (1979), induction into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame (1989) and the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame (1994). Recognized in Who’s Who in America Colleges and Universities she holds an Honorary Doctorates from Denver University (1991), an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Colorado College (2003), an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Regis University in Denver (2008), an Alumni Award from University of Denver (2021), the 2020 Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, Honous Causa from CU Boulder, and was named an Honorary Member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (2021).</p><p>In 1991, Ms. Parker served on the task force creating a permanent location for the Denver School of the Arts (DSA), Denver’s first performing arts magnet school, and was subsequently honored In September 2017 at their 7th Annual Fall Gala, in recognition of her long-term commitment to excellence in arts education. She is also co-founder of the National Bahamian Dance Company, based in Nassau. In 2011, Ms. Parker Robinson was voted an Honorary Lifetime Trustee of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, in recognition of her longtime commitment and lasting impact on the Center. In June 2017, she received the highly prestigious DanceUSA Honor Award and in September 2017, the Randy Weeks Arts Leadership Award from the Denver School of the Arts.</p><p>Ms. Robinson has served on NEA panels on Dance, Expansion Arts, Arts America, and Inter-Arts panels for the USIS, and for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts as well as other national task forces, boards, and committees on the arts. In April 1999, she was appointed by then-President William Jefferson Clinton, with Senate confirmation, to serve for four years on the National Council on the Arts, a 14-member panel advising the Chairman of the NEA on agency policy and programs, reviewing and making recommendations on grant applications.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2011, Ms. Parker Robinson has significantly returned to her greatest passion as a choreographer, creating and presenting Dreamcatchers: The Untold Stories of the Americas and the world premiere of her Romeo and Juliet, in collaboration with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Her work On the Edge… Reaching to Higher Ground premiered in October of 2014 in answer to resurging racial and human rights infractions world-wide. In Spring 2017, she re-staged two works, melding classical and jazz composition with the power, passion and beauty of modern dance – Romeo and Juliet and Porgy and Bess. Fall 2017 saw the premiere of Copacetic: A Tribute to Jonathon “JP” Parker, honoring her late father. In Spring of 2018, she premiered Lark Ascending in collaboration with the Boulder Philharmonic. Her Rhapsody in Black, created in collaboration with CPRD Associate Artistic Director, Winifred R. Harris, premiered at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, University of Denver. In January 2019, in collaboration with the Denver Brass, she choreographed an innovative interpretation of Bernstein’s On the Town and</p><p>Spring 2019 saw a collaboration with the Colorado Ballet entitled The MOVE/ment as part of the Tour de Force series at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Center for the Performing Arts. In 2019, she traveled to UMKC, Kansas City, to set a work on the students of CPRDE alum Gary Abbot, entitled Check Cashing Day in tribute to the jazz genius of Bobby Watson and Milt Abel. In August 2021, she premiered Standing On the Shoulders, a work commissioned by the Vail Dance Festival. September 2021 saw the debut of her work Freedom Dance, created in collaboration with jazz icon Dianne Reeves and CPRD co-founder and poet, Schyleen Qualls and in October 2021, she premiered R.I.Power, an original work commissioned by the Colorado College Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs.</p><p> </p><p>Cleo Parker Robinson continues to be dedicated to celebrating the human experience and potential through the Arts and Education. Her life-long vision of “One Spirit, Many Voices” remains strong and steadfast, expanding to welcome, embrace, and sustain all people.</p>	Cleo Parker Robinson Dance	#6: Equity Exploration with Cleo Parker Robinson, asst. by Shelby Jarosz
Crystal U. Davis <p><strong>Crystal U. Davis, MFA, CLMA </strong>is a dancer, educator, movement analyst, and critical race theorist with twelve years of experience teaching in P-12 education and seven years supervising dance educators. Her work has been published in the  <em>Journal of Dance Education</em>, <em>Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education</em>, and in her book, <em>Dance and Belonging: Implicit Bias and Inclusion in Dance Education</em>. As an artist, her performances span from Rajasthani folk dance to postmodern choreography examining incongruities between what we say, what we believe, and what we do. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance Performance and Scholarship at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches anti-racist pedagogy for dance and theater, modern technique, somatics, and movement analysis.</p>	University of Mayland - College Park	#2: Creativity & Culture: Implicit Bias & Dance-Making with Crystal Davis
Gerald Casel <p>Gerald Casel (he/they/siya) is artistic director of GERALDCASELDANCE. Their choreographic work complicates and provokes questions surrounding colonialism, collective cultural amnesia, whiteness and privilege, and the tensions between the invisible/perceived/obvious structures of power. The company has been presented at Bates Dance Festival, La MaMa, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, CounterPulse, ODC Theater, Asia Pacific Dance Festival, and at festivals in South Korea, Taiwan, the U.K., and France. Casel is Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A graduate of The Juilliard School, with an MFA from UW Milwaukee, they received a Bessie award for sustained achievement. Casel is the founder of Dancing Around Race, a community-engaged participatory process that interrogates racial inequities in dance. www.geraldcasel.com</p>	Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University	#7: Dancing Around Race–Deeper Dive into Racial Equity with Gerald Casel
Kyle Wilhelm	Colorado State University	#5: Moving through Parkinson’s with integrated teaching with Lisa Morgan, Andrew Knight, & Kyle Wilhelm
Lisa Morgan	Colorado State University	#5: Moving through Parkinson’s with integrated teaching with Lisa Morgan, Andrew Knight, & Kyle Wilhelm
Nancy Wanich Romita <p>Nancy Romita (MFA, RSME, M.AmSAT RYT) is Senior Lecturer at Towson University (<a href="http://www.towson.edu/dance/fac-wanich-romita.asp">http://www.towson.edu/dance/fac-wanich-romita.asp</a>), co-founder of Functional Awareness® (<a href="http://www.functionalawareness.org">www.functionalawareness.org</a>) is certified in dance rehabilitation training (WDPT/NYC) & current director of the Alexander Technique MidAtlantic Teacher Training Course. Romita is former Artistic Director of NanDance NYC (1981-1985) & The Moving Company 1993-2003), choreographed over 50 works at such venues as DTW/New York Live Arts, the 92ndStY, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Kennedy Center,  Her research has been presented at IADMS, NDEO, CORPS de Ballet International, Alexander Technique International Congress. She is co-author of several books published by Oxford University Press. The second edition of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers recently released June 2023.<strong> </strong></p>	Towson University	#3: Types of Stretch and When to Use Them with Allegra Romita & Nancy Romita
Shelby Jarosz <p>Shelby Jarosz is the Senior Director of Programs and Education at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. She received her Master's of Education in Dance from Temple University and taught at an Arts integrated charter school in Wilmington, Delaware before moving to Colorado. During her tenure at Kuumba Academy, she worked as a Kindergarten teacher and the Arts Integration Specialist, pioneering an integrated Arts curriculum to enhance student learning and motivate student attendance in this inner-city community. In 2007, she received the Partnership of the Year award for her work with the Delaware Art Museum. Currently at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, she is overseeing all Arts in Education programming, including their camps, Academy, community outreach and school programs. In all aspects of her professional life, she continues to implement her passion for using the Arts to teach and motivate students and teachers to learn in new and exciting ways. </p>	Cleo Parker Robinson Dance	#6: Equity Exploration with Cleo Parker Robinson, asst. by Shelby Jarosz