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OPDI-M2: Elements of Dance
July 07, 2025 - August 03, 2025
This course explores the language we use to describe movement, and dance in particular. Through movement and discussion we will examine how the body moves in space, in time, and with energy (dynamics). A working knowledge of this material allows us to identify and describe movement with specificity and clarity, which serves both teachers and students. Ultimately, the goal of movement is to communicate meaning. We will explore the tools with which the body communicates. We call these tools the elements of movement. Our bodies are the instruments of communication. We will examine what moves, where, how, and when it moves in space, and with certain qualities that enhance meaning.
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.
Agenda
Speakers
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Patricia Cohen
Patricia Cohen, MA, adjunct faculty in NYU/Steinhardt's dance education program, developed a jazz dance course centered in cultural context. Courses for NDEO's OPDI include Dance History: Global, Cultural and Historical Considerations, and mini courses. She presents regularly at NDEO, daCi, and internationally. Cohen contributed two chapters to Jazz Dance: A History of Roots and Branches, edited by Guarino and Oliver, in addition to a chapter in the recent Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century. She co-created NDEO’s 2016 and 2019 special topics Jazz Dance conferences, and contributed to and serves on the editorial board of NDEO’s DEiP journal. She served on the NDEO Board and received the 2011 NDEO Leadership Award.
<p><strong>Patricia Cohen</strong>, MA, RDE, a Master Registered Dance Educator, is on faculty of the Dance Education Program at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, where she is the Academic Adviser for the ABT/NYU Masters Degree program with a focus in ABT Ballet Pedagogy. She created the syllabus for, and teaches History, Culture & Pedagogy of Jazz Dance, a jazz dance course that is contextualized in history and culture. Arts Resources for Dance Education orients students to major artistic, research and education venues in New York City. In addition, she teaches a broad spectrum of undergraduate dance courses at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. Her Masters degree in Dance Education is from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she taught modern and jazz dance. Professor Cohen’s research on dance issues in the private sector and higher education has been published in the <em>Journal of Dance Education,</em> the peer review journal of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). She has presented workshops and papers at several NDEO conferences, at Dance and the Child International (daCi) conferences in The Hague and Taiwan, and at daCi USA gatherings.</p>
<p>A founding member of the National Dance Education Organization, Cohen has served as Director for Awards and Student Scholarship, and is currently NDEO’s Treasurer. She is also Immediate Past President of NYSDEA, the New York State affiliate of NDEO. She was the site coordinator for NDEO’s 2009 Annual Conference in New York City, and coordinates NYSDEA’s annual workshops, which are hosted by the NYU/Steinhardt dance education program. She is the 2011 recipient of the National Dance Education Organization’s prestigious Leadership Award.</p>
<p>Professor Cohen is active in several dance organizations, including UNITY Inc., an organization comprised of multi-sector member organizations, which provides a forum for open dialogue among dance educators and dance-related groups.</p>
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New York University/Steinhardt |
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