Dance

How do we Commit to Being our Best Selves?

Maggie Costigan/Talya Bartlett

5th grade, Pu’u Kukui Elementary School

Teaching Artist Maggie Costigan collaborated with Pu'u Kukui Elementary's 5th grade teacher Talya Barlett to design and implement a dance residency, utilizing Stephen Covey's "7 Habits", to help students identify their "BEST" self.

When I Commit, I am my Best Self

Maggie/Costigan/Eliza Yoshida

5th grade, Pu’u Kukui Elementary School

Integrating dance with Language Arts, Teaching Artist Maggie Costigan collaborated with Pu'u Kukui Elementary's Eliza Yoshida to design a 5th grade curriculum that encourages students to examine the choices and behaviors that lead them to becoming their best selves.

Surviving in the Sea

Mauli Ola Cook/Lei Wann

3rd Grade/Kawaikini Hawaiian Language Immersion Charter School

3rd grade teacher Lei Wann and Kauaʻi Teaching Artist in dance, Mauli Ola Cook, combined forces to help deepen studentsʻ understanding of the coral reef ecosystem that surrounds them on their island home of Kauaʻi. Direct instruction, amazing field trips, pictures, videos and gathering and preparing of seafood combined with in depth explorations of marine topics through creative dance all served to help create the next generation of stewards of our ocean resources.

Dance Making: Interpreting a Story through Movement

Miho Morinoue & Joanna Schiller

Grade 1 & 2 / Innovations Public Charter School

Classroom teacher Joanna Schiller and teaching artist Miho Morinoue collaborated on a dance integrated language arts experience where Joanna and Miho took turns guiding students to discover themselves through the elements of dance and to reinterpret the story of One by Kathryn Otoshi. Students explored words and feelings from the story and embodied them through movement exploration. Towards the end, students were divided into small groups to create the beginning, middle and end of the story using tableaux and pathways. Students shared their choreography and observed how words and stories can be interpreted in various ways providing a deeper understanding of the story.

Bridges: Bringing People Together

Mardi Swatek/Muriel Warne

2nd Grade, Pukalani Elementary School

Teaching Artist Mardi Swatek and 2nd grade teacher Muriel Warne collaborated to bring the world of technology and dance together. With her classroom we studied how three types of bridges are built, and compared and contrasted the the engineering to the choreographic process. Students worked in small groups to create dances that represented the three types of bridges, utilizing both movement and frozen shapes. This kinesthetic approach to learning deepened their knowledge of building bridges and stimulated a creative approach to solving problems.

Common Core in Motion

Vicky Robbins and Kathleen Booth

1st Grade, Connections Public Charter School

First grade teacher Kathleen Booth, along with Teaching Artist Vicky Robbins collaborated and co-taught their residency for first grade students integrating movement with Language Arts, Math and Science. They used their bodies to express nuances in word meanings, pushing and pulling with varying energies to move objects and creating and exploring geometric shapes with props. Core concepts were reinforced and deepened while working with a partner and group reflection.

History in Motion

Vicky Robbins and Kate Wines

5th Grade, Connections Public Charter School

Fifth grade teacher Kate Wines, along with Teaching Artist Vicky Robbins collaborated and co-taught their residency for fifth grade students integrating movement with Social Studies (History). Focusing on the early encounters between European discoverers and indigenous peoples, students utilized movement to explore conflict and discover empathy for people of the past. Through process and reflection, students took personal risks and made new discoveries about their connection to Social Studies/History.

Hawaiian History Explored through Story, Dance and Drama

Kanuikapono Hawaiian Focus Charter School, Anahola, Kauaʻi,

Grades K-5, 2014-15

Teaching artist Mauli Ola Cook was invited to design and teach a program the school called “Moʻolelo” (Story). As a faculty member of the ʻIke Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Studies) Department of the school Mauli was asked to focus her work in creative dance and drama on Queen Liliʻuokalani, her life and accomplishments, her family, and the many significant political events that occurred in Hawaiʻi during her lifetime. Students identified key words and concepts from the stories Mauli Ola told them. They expressed their understanding of history through improvisational movement and by collaborating to create tableau. They spoke and wrote about what their dances and tableau represented.

Enthusiasm Fuels Discover

Vicky Robbins/Kate Wines

6th grade Connections Public Charter School

Teacher Kate Wines and Teaching Artist Vicky Robbins, collaborated on a dance integrated science experience. Vicky facilitated the dance movement with Kate guiding students in integrating their experiential learning from the classroom. Our essential question: How is Energy Transforative?, was explored as students focused on the potential, kinetic and mechanical energies of wind and water. They demonstrated, through movement and group reflection, how energy transforms our world and our bodies.

Cycles Move Our World

Vicky Robbins/Kathleen Booth

1st grade Connections Public Charter School

Teacher Kathleen Booth and Teaching Artist Vicky Robbins, collaborated on a dance integrated science experience. Vicky facilitated the dance movement with Kathleen guiding students in integrating their experiential learning from the classroom. Our essential question: How do cycles affect the way we live?, was explored as students focused on their personal daily cycle and the moon and plant cycle. By comparing these cycles, students realized and demonstrated the connection between themselves and the natural world around them.

How Does Change Affect Us?

Maggie Costigan/Jaydon Isobe

4th grade Pomaika'i Elementary

Forth grade teacher Jaydon Isobe

and teaching artist Maggie Costigan

collaborated on a dance integrated

study of the Earth's fast and slow

processes of change. Working

independently and in groups,

students used a variety of dance

strategies to explore Earth structure,

plate tectonics, land formation and

erosion. Connections between science and culture were examined as 4th graders interpreted art depicting Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, and made inferences that informed their movement. Student choreography and reflections demonstrated their understanding of the Earth's changing process and the inevitability of change, to which we must adapt.

Coral Matters

Maggie Costigan/

Courtney Flower

3rd grade

Pomaika'i Elementary

Third grade teacher

Courtney Flower and

teaching artist Maggie

Costigan collaborated on

a dance integrated

exploration of coral

reefs. Using observation

and discussion as discovery tools, students applied the Elements of Dance to explore the relationship and interdependence between coral, underwater sea life and human beings. This kinesthetic process allowed students to empathize with both fish and humans, as they developed a deeper understanding of the importance of coral in our world.

Liquids, Solids, and Gas, Oh My

Mardi Swatek/Melekai Jenson

1st grade

Teacher Melekai Jenson and Teaching Artist Mardi Swatek collaborated on a science and dance residency using B.E.S.T (body, energy, space, and time) to explore the states of matter. In the dance studio students experimented moving through space, making shapes, and working with partners to investigate the different qualities of, and transitions between, these scientific concepts. In the classroom students watched videos, did experiments, and created diagrams to support that work. In their journals and with each other they reflected on how dance helped them understand the 3 states of matter. They were excited to share their new found knowledge with everyone and connect these abstract ideas to the world around them.

Wind Power

Mardi Swatek/Lisa Fanning

5th grade

Teacher Lisa Fanning and Teaching Artist Mardi Swatek used their knowledge and collaborative skills to facillitate this powerful residency. Students studied wind and its relationship to the generation of electricity. With this understanding they worked in groups to develop and choreograph dances that demonstrated this relationship. The class finished the project by performing their dances for the school community sharing their understanding of wind power and their choreographic skills.

Freedom Lost

Mauli Ola Cook/Judy Waite

5th grade

This video highlights a collaborative residency in dance and social studies. Topics in social studies included Native American history and slavery in the early colonial period in America. This video was created primarily to show the school community the value and interest of this work. Teaching Artist Mauli Ola Cook will also present this narrative as an example of her work in websites, public presentations and arts education conferences.

Machines that Move

Vicky Robbins/Shanna Arthur

3rd grade

Students learned the importance of diversity and tolerance through Dr.Seuss' The Sneetches. They simulated a diverse community by creating machines that had many different moving parts working together.

Force in Motion

Mauli Ola Cook/Judy Waite

6th grade

This diginar documents the students’ progress in learning how to express their scientific understanding through the choreographic skills they developed over 10 sessions of study.

Dancing the Coral Reef

Mauli Ola Cook/Kathryn Smith

Kanuikapono 5th grade

Students learn more about the ocean that surrounds them and to be able to express their understandings through creative dance. This digital narrative captures the students’ excellent work both in science and in creative dance.

Social Studies and Dance

Mardi Swatek/Brynne Carey and Ahlayne Labuanan

Pomaika'i teachers Brynne Carey and Ahlayne Labuanan collaborated with teaching artist Mardi Swatek to explore the connections between social studies and dance. Using fiction and non fiction text from the curriculum and the elements of dance, students created choreography that expressed the underlining deeper meanings of the text and helped them make connections in their personal relationships and the world around them.

Building Community Through Dance

Maggie Costigan/Gina Rausch/Jaydon Isobe

Dance integration enables students to deepen their understanding of curriculum content through kinesthetic learning, and in this creative process self-expression and self-awareness are nurtured. These collaborative residencies were designed to build community in the classroom at the beginning of the school year. Classroom teachers Jaydon Isobe, Gina Rausch and I developed a series of dance and reflective writing activities to encourage self-exploration, build trust and cultivate empathy. Through these residencies students celebrated their individuality while discovering that their abilities can contribute toward a larger good. These dance based curricula addressed language arts and social studies standards/benchmarks.

Plants and Animals

Mardi Swatek/Hazel Aningat,

Kindergarten Class at Pomaika'i School

Students explore the shapes and movements of plants and animals. Using the elements of dance, students hatch, sprout, crawl, creep, climb, twist, tangle and much more as they collect data, classify, and discover why plants and animals are different and the same!

Nature Cycles

Mardi Swatek/Melekai Jenson

first graders at Pomaika'i School

The cycles of nature and creative dance are a perfect fit as the collaborative team guided their students through dance improvisation and in small groups

to make thier own dances. Through revision and reflection

students make strong connections and deepen

their understanding to the science concepts.