Events - Event View

with Patricia Cohen, Lindsay Guarino, Brandi Coleman, Joanne Baker, Kimberly Cooper

Jazz dance has assumed many conflicting identities that obscure its roots and core essence in Black American people and culture. Just as Whiteness has shaped all of America’s institutions, it has also shaped ideologies and practices involving jazz. For this reason, conversations about jazz inevitably lead to discourse on race and racism. As White jazz artists and educators, we recognize that decolonizing jazz is a journey that involves an anti-racist lens, and that certain interactions put our Black colleagues in challenging or toxic situations. Building off the July 2020 Call to Action, we offer this session for White-identifying educators to unpack implicit biases and have an honest conversation about the responsibility inherent in being a White educator in a Black American dance form. Through movement, discussion and video viewing we will explore the relationship between Whiteness and jazz dance in: technique, style/aesthetics, pedagogy, codification/colonization, relationship to music. We will share individual successes and challenges and invite participants to do the same in hopes of establishing accountability and to move forward as better allies.

We propose this session in response to the dialogue within the jazz community. Conversations regarding race, and specifically the impacts of Whiteness on jazz dance, were tense at the 2019 Jazz conference. Our Black colleagues confided in us, sharing their frustrations with the general lack of racial and cultural awareness within the community. We have dedicated our careers to rooted and culturally responsible jazz practices, and we recognize that authentic community across races cannot take place until White jazz artists and educators are fully aware of the obligation inherent to being a cultural bearer outside of one’s own culture. Our Call to Action established goals for moving forward, but these are conversat

with Kathryn Austin, Tori Rogoski, Cory-Jeanne Murakami Houck-Cox, Julie Pentz, Jesse Katen

How many of us have rewritten our story during the events of the COVID-19 response in 2020 and 2021? How have the character profiles changed and how are the roles different for each of us? How has the story unfolded and what vocabulary have we added?

Thirty percent of NDEO members work in the private sector. Across this broadly defined sector, dance educators navigate many different and varied environments with a range of needs and characteristics. This Special Interest Group strategic planning session, the 3rd in a series, welcomes members who work in the private sector to explore how the private sector exists and what is needed for it to thrive within NDEO. The following questions will be considered:

•What are the stories that resonate in the post-COVID reality of studio ownership and teaching?
•How have the storylines changed as a result of COVID restrictions and restructured business models?
•Who are the main characters in the NEW story of private-sector dance education?

Dance and dancers are resilient, yes, but this does not discount the remarkable struggles of the private sector to hold themselves and others together as we navigated a global pandemic. Let’s revisit that story!

with Karen Schupp, Kori Wakamatsu, Matthew Henley

The dance education community needs your stories about social activism. We want to hear your stories, to read them, and share them through publishing.

This session is for dance educators who are social justice warriors in the classroom, on the stage, and in the street who want to tell their stories. In this session, JODE Editorial Board members will discuss various processes of crafting dance and social justice narratives for print. Attendees will also workshop writing segments of their stories. Participants will walk away with ideas and strategies for sharing their stories through publications. All are welcome to join this session to discuss current issues, workshop written storytelling, and advance the field. Whether you are a novice or veteran, please join us.

Hosted by Stephen Tracey-Ursprung and Donna Davenport with moderators from the Dance 2050 Think Tank.

With the goal of building community, this year’s gathering will focus on the essential question: How are we all related and connected to each other across dance sectors, cultural identities, and areas of expertise?

Participants will continue throughout the year to foster connections across sectors within small groups. We will collaborate, mentor, and support each other as we identify the ways in which we see the dance field growing and evolving.

We want to acknowledge collective efforts to shape our future; to bring many more people in dance education to the table; to recognize the talent, vitality, and leadership in Dance! This session is open to both new and veteran Dance 2050 participants. Join us!

The CEU certificate is based on how many full hours of conference you attended and will reflect the following -- CEUs: 10 - 14 hours equals 1 CEU, 15-19 hours equals 1.5 CEUs, and 20+ hours equals 2 CEUs. The COA certificate will reflect the number of hours you participated in sessions. Make sure you keep track of the number of session hours you attend during conference as you will need to submit this information after the event. The certificates will be emailed to you in a PDF format about 2 weeks after conference.