I believe that every child has a right to dance. I want to open the opportunity for students from all backgrounds to experience a new language of connecting and expressing--that language being movement. My vision for my classroom is a safe haven where students can attend to their emotions through physical practice. I have seen and embodied how powerful and emotional dance can be for the soul, so I am passionate about encouraging students to bring experiences from outside of the classroom and explore them openly and vulnerably. This is with hopes of cultivating an activist personality for students to be willing to create change in their community and in society while simultaneously creating a communal bond embracing differences among them.

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Teaching dance has texture and substance. In addition to the physical practice of dance that leads to performance, I will instill in my students an appreciation for the learning processes involved in dance.  My vision for my classroom is to follow the midway model blending the performance aspect of dance with creative processes through a student-centered learning environment of working independently and collaboratively.

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Through the constructivist lens, I will guide my students towards becoming active learners, artistically and technically. I aim to use these approaches to teach my students how to problem solve and openly communicate with each other--skills that are needed to succeed in the 21st century. Dance has movement fundamentals but the creation of units and lessons will focus on current/historical events based on students’ personal/community/and cultural assets. Furthermore, these units and lessons will be intuitively created by listening and gearing their learning towards the needs of my students in the class. Each unit will be effectively differentiated to adapt to the learning needs of each student. Through the four cornerstones of creating, performing, responding, and connecting based on the National Core Arts Standards (NCAS)/New Jersey Standards, my primary goal is to create relevance for my students so they understand how they can make an impact in their world through dance.

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Arts integration is essential in public schools and ultimately I hope that my cross-curricular units such as choreographing solos to poetry, drawing visual-spatial patterns to improvise movement, and/or a social justice movement for dance performance will challenge my students in ways that foster unimaginable growth as dancers and as people. Whether their goal is to continue to dance professionally or to take a different career path, my goal as their dance educator is to instill an acquisition of skills that makes learning more accessible through movement. Dance has the power to change lives, and that is what I love most about teaching.