Education Projects

Students meet Joan Myers Brown, founder and Director of Philadanco

PDP Dance Artists Residency

Since 2003, PDP has placed an ongoing educational project in a high school in Philadelphia providing students the opportunity to study contemporary dance techniques with some of Philadelphia’s best professional dancers and choreographers and to take field trips to see dance performances. For many young people this has been their first foray into dance, both through interaction with creative artists as well as attending a performance in a professional theater. Schools who have participated include Olney High School West, the Promise Academy at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School, and the Philadelphia High School for Girls. Dance Artists have included Lela Aisha Jones, Melanie Cotton, Clyde Evans, Jr. Alie Vidich and Phildanco’s dancers Karen Pendergrass, Tracy Vogt and LaMar Baylor, among others. PDP’s Dance Artists Residency in the School Project has been made possible with support from The Lincoln Financial Foundation and Henrietta Tower Wurts Memorial.

DanceTAG (Teaching Artists Group)

Since 2009, in tandem with our school residency, PDP convenes a DanceTAG (Teaching Artists Group). DanceTAG is a collegial gathering of teaching artists for movement ideas, information, discussion, and networking. We invite artists at all stages of their teaching- rookies, veterans, people currently working or those looking for work, and especially artists in schools and community situations who consider teaching to be an integral part of their artistic work. Mady Cantor, Dance Faculty at Bryn Mawr College is the PDP DanceTAG Director.

All DanceTAG sessions are FREE!
RSVP: infophiladanceprojects [dot] org or 215-546-2552 

DanceTAG Spring 2017

Calendar Archive

CREATIVE MOVEMENT STORIES FOR YOUNG DANCERS

April 2, 2017 - 1:00pm

Mady Cantor will share field-tested movement stories which incorporate skill-building, creative work, humor, and fun. Come explore the physical, cognitive and playful possibilities of storytelling through movement. The written stories and music will be provided. Learn them on Sunday, use them on Monday.

RESILIENCY THROUGH DANCE

March 19, 2017 - 1:00pm

Join TAG for a workshop drawn from an arts-based research project and multi-disciplinary performance Same Story, Different Countries. SSDC was a two-year project exploring the socio-political phenomena of racism in the US and South Africa which recently culminated in performances and workshops in Johannesburg and Cape Town, led by Dr. Lynette Young Overby and A.T. Moffett. This workshop was part of that project and Dance TAG is glad to be able to share it with Philadelphia-area dance teaching artists.

MIXING IT UP: MAKING MEANINGFUL PERFORMANCE PIECES WITH STUDENTS FROM A WIDE RANGE OF SKILL LEVELS

March 12, 2017 - 1:00pm

Dance teaching in community and school settings often means that we work with groups of students with widely different skill levels and learning needs, and we have to create performance pieces that include all of them.

Resource/Idea Exchange led by Mady Cantor

December 4, 2016 - 1:00pm

DanceTAG participants swap their tips. Come prepared to show and share best practices….

Mady Cantor is the Director of Dance TAG, as well as Associate Director of Dance at Bryn Mawr College where she teaches technique, composition, repertory, and directs the Dance Outreach Project. She has taught for many years in schools and community programs with a special interest in facilitating meaningful and joyful dance experiences for young people.

Rhythm and Movement Play for Dancers with Melissa Chisena and Jon Cannon

November 13, 2016 - 12:00pm

Join Dance TAG for a workshop about inspiring dancers with rhythm play and phrase building activities. Co-taught by Philadelphia-based dancer Melissa Chisena and multi-disciplinary musician Jonathan Cannon, the session will focus on finding rhythm, pulse, tempo, syncopation and polyrhythms in movement.