Susan Griss will collaborate with teachers to create a residency using dance and creative movement to explore and expand an area of the curriculum for K through sixth grade. The following are examples of successful residencies and workshops:

POETRY IN MOTION (For grades K - 6)

Children have the opportunity to explore meaning, mood and metaphor in poetry through the medium of creative movement. Older students can also work together in groups to choreograph short dance pieces reflecting their interpretation of a poem. Props such as fabrics, elastic and percussion instruments will be incorporated into the choreography. Native American, African-American and Bosnian poems will be included. Children will also learn to recite a poem in sign language.

STORIES THAT MOVE US: CREATIVE MOVEMENT AND MULTI-CULTURAL TALES (For grades K-3)

Children journey through contemporary and folk stories using creative movement combined with authentic dance steps to make literature, history and imaginations come alive. Chosen from among the following, the stories reflect diverse cultures: Follow the Drinking Gourd and the Underground Railroad; Arrow to the Sun, a Pueblo Indian tale; Abiyoyo and the South African Boot Dance; a 1000 year old Chinese folk tale and the Chinese Ribbon Dance; The Great Blueness by Arnold Lobel, a story about feelings, colors, and diversity; Swimmy by Leo Lionni, a fish tale proclaiming strength in unity.

WATER, AIR, FIRE, EARTH: An Exploration through Creative Movement (For grades 1 and 2)

This four-part workshop series uses creative movement as a physical language to explore the physical elements: water, air, fire and earth. Classes use improvisation, visualization, discussion, percussion, evocative props and ritual to learn specific attributes of these four elements.

MAPPING (For grade 4)

Students are given the experience of physically creating a variety of maps: mapping a journey on the Underground Railroad or the Oregon Trail; depicting a geographic map of a region or country; traveling through the map of the circulatory or other body system; creating and coding movement maps from a two-dimensional plane to a three-dimensional space.

TRANSFORMATIONS/CHOREOGRAPHY (For grades 5 and 6)

Using dance formats of journeys, tableaux and group formations, students will create group choreography on a variety of themes. Topics will be chosen from the Underground Railroad, Ancient Egypt, The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh, the civil rights story of Claudette Colvin, poetry, symmetry and asymmetry.

RESIDENCY AT SKIDMORE COLLEGE

This residency worked with Skidmore Education majors and the entire fifth grade of a nearby elementary school to show how the arts can be incorporated into many areas of a curriculum. For more, see this Skidmore College web page.

See Skidmore College's page.