Professional Development Workshops & Conversation Series on the Creative Aspects of Teaching Dance
ABOUT
New Works began the Share Dance Program in 2014, employing dance artists to offer workshops to underserved youth, children, and families across Metro Vancouver. Over the years the program has grown and expanded in response to the community and the needs of our teachers. In 2022-23, Share Dance takes the next leap to offer Share Dance: In Practice, a new professional development series for dance teachers.
Share Dance: In Practice is a space for continued education, peer to peer exchange and knowledge sharing for dance teachers. The dance classroom can become an isolating space where teachers are often lesson planning, teaching, and problem solving with very little feedback. Envisioned as a monthly gathering, this 8 month series brings teachers together to question, investigate, and expand their own teaching practices through the lens of diversity, inclusion and trauma-informed learning. While each workshop, panel discussions, or community conversation may shift in format to best support the chosen topics, each will be led by a selection of experts and artists from across the dance community and beyond.
Share Dance: In Practice 2022-23 will be led and curated by artists + teachers Carolina Bergonzoni, Marco Esccer, and Lisa Mariko Gelley. New Works is thrilled to work with Carolina, Marco, and Lisa over the coming season as this program grows and takes shape.
Share Dance: In Practice – Spring 2023
Conversations
The Spring series fosters broader conversations around teaching as creative practice. How does teaching inform your choreographic or creative practice and vice versa? Join evolving conversations by sharing the language, energy, and physicality of your teaching practice. This series is envisioned as a space to hold our collective questions, build a community of colleagues, and activate the conversations that will carry us forward from here.
This is an invitation to dive into big questions, and ground ourselves in our actions of teaching and sharing dance. Dates, topics, gathering format, and sign up to be announced in November 2022.
This series will be co-led by In Practice Facilitators Lisa Mariko Gelley and Carolina Bergonzoni.
Who are these workshops for?
The Spring series of conversations is a space for dancing humans to gather around topics of teaching, leadership, and facilitation.
Each workshop will be lead by different artists/professionals in their fields, who will guide the conversations and questions. Conversations will compliment each other, but are completely different. We welcome you to join us for the full series of four conversations or a selection.
How much does each conversation cost to attend?
All conversation attendance is free or by donation. We can also offer a childcare subsidy to parents who wish to attend but would not otherwise be able to do so without childcare. Please reach out to Charlotte Newman to inquire about accessing the subsidy.
How is the space accessible?
Conversations will be held online and in-person at Q7 Studios, 77 East 7th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 1M4.
Online: Conversations will be hosted online with the support of Otter.ai which provides speech to text transcription. We can also organize ASL Interpretation upon request. Please reach out to Charlotte no later than 2 weeks before the event date to request interpretation.
In Person: The workshop will be hosted in the large studio space at Q7 Studios. Entrance to the space is from street level on 7th avenue, with an indoor ramp leading from the entryway down to the studio space. Q7 Studios have gender neutral, multi-stall washrooms with two accessible stalls. Washrooms can be quickly accessed by a few stairs from the studio space, or by traveling back up the ramp and down the hall from the studio. A quiet room, which is completely separate from the main studio, has been organized for participants to use at anytime throughout the workshop as well. We will arrange for projected transcription of the conversation via Otter.ai to be present in the space, and will provide ASL interpretation upon request. Please reach out to Charlotte no later than 2 weeks before the event date to request interpretation.
In addition, we are in the processing of assembling a visual story resource for the space. This content will be shared directly with all participants.
Share Dance: In Practice – Fall 2022
Integrative Professional Development
The fall/winter series presents four workshops plus access to extended resources that will broaden your dance teaching horizons through the lens of mental health, art therapy, trauma-informed practices and diversity tools, theatre, business, neuroscience, and more! You will have the opportunity to learn practical and useful skills that you’ll be excited to implement right away in your dance spaces.
Join this professional development series to update your dance toolbox and develop new and better practices in the classroom. This series will be led by In Practice Facilitator Marco Esccer.
Who are these workshops for?
The Fall/Winter series of workshops has been envisioned as a space for dance teachers to gather and learn together. The work we’re diving into is applicable across so many fields of teaching and facilitation – not just dance – and many participants have joined in who don’t identify as dance teachers. Reach out to facilitator Marco Esccer with your questions if you’re still feeling unsure.
Each workshop will be lead by different artists/professionals in their fields, who will share their experience, best practices, and insight. Workshops will compliment each other, but are completely different. We welcome you to join us for the full series of four workshops or a selection.
How much does each workshop cost to attend?
Each 3 hour workshop costs $36 to attend.
Sign up for two and save $10 per workshop, sign up for three and save $13 per workshop, or sign up for all four and save $16 per workshop.
Would you like to attend but find this cost prohibitive? New Works offers free attendance to up to 5 participants who self-identify as economically disadvantaged. Please reach out to Charlotte Newman to request the discount code.
Would you like to attend but need to arrange childcare to be able to do so? New Works offers a $30 discount code to parents to support childcare costs while they are participating in the workshop. We recognize this is a small gesture as $30 will likely not cover 3 hours of childcare. We hope to be able to offer more robust support to parents in future. Please reach out to Charlotte Newman to request the discount code.
How is the space accessible?
All workshops will be held in-person at Q7 Studios, 77 East 7th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 1M4.
The workshop will be hosted in the large studio space at Q7 Studios. Entrance to the space is from street level 7th avenue, with an indoor ramp leading from the entryway down to the studio space. Q7 Studios have gender neutral washrooms with two accessible stalls. Washrooms can be quickly accessed by a few stairs from the studio space, or by traveling back up the ramp and down the hall from the studio.
ASL interpretation will be provided upon request. Please reach out Charlotte Newman no later than two weeks before the start of a workshop so we can arrange appropriate interpretation to support your attendance.
Are you interested in attending the workshop series, but feel your access needs may not be met? We’re always learning, and our goal is to make this series as accessible and welcoming to the most folks possible. Please reach out to Charlotte and we’ll work together to see how we can make a version of the workshop accessible to you.
Meet the Facilitators
Carolina Bergonzoni
Carolina Bergonzoni is a dance artist, scholar, and educator. Originally from Italy, she moved to Vancouver, on unceded Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories, in 2014. Her practices span between dancing, writing, and teaching from the body. She is the Artistic Associate of All Bodies Dance Project.
She holds a BA and MA in Philosophy, an MA in Comparative Media Arts, and a Ph.D. in Education from Simon Fraser University where her research focused on inclusive dance pedagogies. In 2011, she graduated as Dance Educator and Community Engagement Facilitator and, since then, she has been working on building communities of movers and thinkers with people from 0 to 99+ years old. Her choreographic work has been presented at festivals in Canada and Europe, including Vancouver Fringe Festival, Dance in Vancouver, Dancing on The Edge, BC Buds, Vines Arts Festival, and The Dance Centre.
She is passionate about the impact of teaching from the body, and cannot wait to see more educators and movers learn about their body and from their bodies! // Photo by Luciana Freire D’Anunciação
Marco Esccer
Marco Esccer is a Mexican queer artist, performer, creator and educator, and has a diverse background from the technical to the therapeutic aspect of dance. He received his Bachelor in Ballet by the National Ballet and Contemporary School of Mexico City (2011-2016), followed by certifications Dance Movement Therapy, Yoga, and Progessive Ballet Technique, among others. Marco’s recent work has been performed with the support of Co.Erasga, 12 Minutes Maxat The Dance Centre, and Coastal City Ballet’s Incubator and Emerge programs. He is currently working on a choreography about migration as a guest choreographer with Coastal City Ballet. He has also worked with New Works as a Share Dance Instructors since March 2021, and is excited to deepen this relationship and support connections between New Works and the wider dance community. // Photo by David Flores Rubio
Lisa Mariko Gelley
Lisa Mariko Gelley is an artist and mother, living and working on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She received her training in classical, contemporary, and urban dance forms in Canada and Europe. Lisa is Artistic Co-Director of Company 605, a contemporary dance company in so-called Vancouver, creating original works for stage and film through collaborative processes with artists in dance and many other disciplines. Lisa has worked and collaborated with artists including Justine A. Chambers, Cindy Mochizuki, Amber Funk Barton, Miwa Matreyek, Maiko Yamamoto, Ziyian Kwan, Vanessa Goodman, Jeanette Kotowich, Onibana Taiko, Dana Gingras, Martha Carter, Karen Jamieson, and was a member of Aeriosa (Julia Taffe) for six years, broadening her practice to include vertical contemporary dance in rock climbing systems on urban building walls and mountains. In addition to her work as a performer/choreographer, Lisa values opportunities to connect with young dancers and emerging professionals through contemporary dance education. Lisa is the recipient of the 2015 Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award. www.company605.ca // Photo by David Cooper
Share Dance: In Practice is generously supported by public funders and individual donations. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Metro Vancouver’s Regional Cultural Project Grants program, the City of Vancouver and the Province of BC, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada and the National Arts Centre who has supported the Spring Conversation Series. Without them this program would not be possible!