Dance teachers in every setting have long used touch as a teaching method. It is employed for correction or support, to provide a goal, impart kinesthetic feedback, or other reasons. With disclosures of sexual misconduct at top artistic institutions, the rise of the #MeToo movement, startling statistics regarding young people who have experienced trauma, and ongoing concerns around coronavirus, we now have an excellent opportunity to address the pedagogy of touch. Different approaches, such as imagistic language, prop work, or other types of touch may provide for safer learning environments, empower students, and/or provide new depth to the creativity and teaching practices already employed. This course combines knowledge of best practices of physical contact in dance and theatre performance with Laban/Bartenieff Touch-for-Repatterning practices. It examines consent and power dynamics in the studio, creating an ethics of touch for movement classes, and low-touch/no-touch teaching options. Those enrolled in the course will be encouraged to strategically offer opportunities for students to practice consent and exercise agency when touch is employed. The course encourages personal reflection and choice-making for effective teaching. The material is applicable to dance teachers in any environment.

Book required: None

How do OPDI Online Courses for dance teachers work?

Our “online” courses are guided by a professor and include a co-hort of students (other dance teachers) with whom you will collaborate. They also include graded assignments, feedback, final grades, and Professional Development Credits (PDCs). Our OPDI online courses require on average between 6 to 8 hours of work each week, but it all depends on your learning style. It could be less or could be more. You can also register as an Audit student and do as much or as little work as you want and will not receive a grade.

We utilize the Sakai online learning platform to deliver the course materials and instruction. Our courses are asynchronous, so there are no required meeting dates or times but we do have a Course Start and Course End date; however, our courses offer at least 2 optional live Q&A-Feedback zoom sessions during the course to enhance opportunities for connection with other students and the professor. Every week of the course there are assignments that you will need to complete with due dates listed in the course outline / syllabus.

Assignments can be done at any time during the week prior to the due date and may include reading, watching videos, posting answers to prompts on a discussion board, writing an essay, reading and responding to other students' posts on the discussion board, taking a cell phone video of yourself completing a particular movement, taking a quiz, or completing a final project. The professor provides written feedback and grades and you get to connect with other students (who are actually dance teachers) via our discussion board and the optional live Q&A feedback sessions.