OPDI-M27: Functional Awareness: Mindfulness Practices in Embodied Anatomy for the Dance Educator (June 10 to July 21, 2024)

Professors: Nancy and Allegra Romita; Member Tuition $310; Non-Member Tuition $385; 1.5 NDEO-Endorsed PDCs; 6 weeks; Functional Awareness® (FA) is a practical approach to dance pedagogy using anatomical imagery and reflective practices to enhance movement potential, facilitate ease in action, and improve dynamic alignment. This 6-week course curriculum is an opportunity to reinvigorate your teaching practices and renew personal movement practices for self-care. This course will utilize engaging lectures, readings, and active movement explorations that present current research on motor learning skills for core strength, improving standing leg balance, and other dance skills.

Course learning outcomes include:

• Utilizing Functional Awareness® (FA) verbal, tactile, & visual cues to enhance efficacy in action
• Employing FA rubrics to assess student learning
• Acquiring a language for providing feedback to students that encourage student agency.

This mini-course will be conducted in weekly sessions. The sessions include asynchronous webinars and optional opportunities to meet synchronously with the instructors and your cohort to share insights and questions. Each week, you will learn strategies to improve movement skills while employing tools for dancer wellness and injury prevention. The course content is appropriate for all movement populations and is applicable to all dance styles. The modules integrate practical applications in functional anatomy and somatic mindfulness practices to support inclusive learning and diverse perspectives in dance.

Book Required: 2nd edition of the Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers. Order it here.

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.