The Dance Educators’ Seminar is designed for experienced and emerging dance instructors with the goal of enhancing and refreshing teaching techniques. The curriculum focuses on highly kinetic and beautifully thought out materials and methods that may be brought immediately into vivid action with one’s own students. 

Our 2020 Dance Educators Seminar provides two rich steams of activity devised expressly for teachers. Mornings are devoted to personal physical practice guided by Christine Wright and Peggy Baker. Afternoons are led by Michelle Silagy, a specialist in teaching inclusive dance to both adults and children. Her Movement Exploration Inclusive Class will bring participants in the Dance Educators Seminar into the studio alongside intellectually diverse adult community members. This hour-long class, preceded by a daily introduction and followed by a daily debriefing, provides a unique opportunity to gain first hand experience in inclusive dance training under the guidance of a master teacher.

This seminar will take place in the heart of downtown Toronto at Canada’s National Ballet School. Full registration for all four days is required. The classes offered from 11am - 12:30pm may be selected on a day by day basis

FACULTY

Click on photos for faculty biographies.

SCHEDULE

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS

Fundamentals | Christine Wright | 9:30 - 10:45am
Christine has developed a wide range of extremely refined exercises to address issues of articulation, strength and integration. These exercises are geared toward anatomical goals on a very specific level, a level too detailed to attend to in the complex setting of a regular dance class.

Ballet | Christine Wright | 11:00 - 12:30pm
Based on sound principles of anatomy, the focus of this class is movement, flow, and musicality. Ms. Wright's emphasis is on teaching dancers skills that enable them to bring out their own innate abilities, resulting in freedom of movement built on a firm foundation.

Contemporary Technique | Peggy Baker | 11:00 - 12:30pm (August 4 & 5)
Peggy brings the richness, depth, and immediacy of her physical practice into play in a class driven by dynamism and musicality, and focused on an exploration of the expressive and kinetic potential of our bodies. Beginning with the fall and catch of human gait and proceeding through fundamental actions on and off axis, this session will explore on a set of etudes employing the dancer’s rapport with gravity and momentum as a primary entry point for physical practice.

Flux | Peggy Baker | 11:00 - 12:30pm (August 6)
Peggy will share the 5 simple guidelines for her inclusive improvisational dance game Flux, in which participants create an ever-evolving, constantly recalibrating, gloriously eventful spontaneous group choreography. Flux is a highly flexible, generative system that can be adapted for use with a wide range of cohorts, including, for example: youth in schools, recreational dancers, students in dance conservatories, professional dancers, actors, and cross generational and/or inclusive community groups.

FluxDelux | Peggy Baker | 11:00 - 12:30pm (August 7)
Using our custom iPhone app, an android download from our webpage, or (without a device) employing the set of instructions you will have learned for Flux the day prior, we will all join in the creation and performance of a series of instant, inclusive, group choreographies.

Inclusive Dance Training Masterclass | Michelle Silagy | 1:30 - 5:00pm
Daily Themes:
Tuesday:
Movement Inclusion Models based on Call & Response: Discovering movement potential/every body can do every movement. 
Wednesday:
Ensemble Mapping based on Follow & Lead: Interpreting movement on our own and within a group. 
Thursday:
Relationship Activation based on sensing each other and the space we share: Exploring focused proximity among partners
Friday:
Movement Class Design: Varying Themes for Being Together within learning environments.

FEES

Early bird $350 - by June 15
$50 deposit (non-refundable)
$300 balance due by July 25
Submit registration form by 11:59pm June 15th to be eligible for early bird pricing; an email will follow within several business days to confirm your spot.

Regular $395 - after June 15
$50 deposit (non-refundable)
$345 balance due by July 25

All prices include HST.

REGISTRATION

In order to register, click the button below and fill out the form! Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. All registration forms will be assessed and responded to via email. Completion of the form does not guarantee a spot. We will reply within 4-5 business days to confirm your application, and you can make your deposit payment at that time (payment options: e-transfer, cheque, cash). 

Book before June 15 for early bird pricing!

Images from 2017 Dance Educators' Seminar. Photography by Jeremy Mimnagh

For questions or more information, contact Steven Smits at steven@peggybakerdance.com

Dance Educators’ Seminar
August 4 - 7, 2020
Canada’s National Ballet School
400 Jarvis Street, Toronto