me arts ed

Extending the Dance Map: A Northern New England Rural Dance Project

Extending the Dance Map has been providing professional development for dancers interested in working in rural schools. And to develop a network for communication and information-sharing that links dancers, resources and opportunities throughout our region.

Extending the Dance Map is a program of the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire, presented in partnership with the New England Consortium of Artist-Educator Professionals, the Vermont Arts Council, the New Hampshire State Council on teh Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, and in cooperation with the Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont Departments of Education. The project is funded by the Dana Foundation’s Arts Education Rural Initiative and by the state arts councils.

The program started with training sessions to prepare dancers to teach dance in K-12 schools. At the conclusion of the initial training dancers were placed with schools for short residencies.

This past week I had the opportunity to visit Ella Burr School in Lincoln, ME to observe the “program in action”. Dancer Helena Melone worked with teachers at the school as part of a 5-day residency. On the last day four classes of 4th graders staged their performances. I was very impressed with what Helena had accomplished with the students in a short time. They have retained their positions, moves and the story line and were eager to practice over and over. Helena connected the dance with their Maine studies unit on the ocean, forest, fresh water and bog. All of the students were engaged and offered suggestions on changes to bring their dance to a different level. I could see the transformation including improvement and pride right before my eyes.

In Maine additional partners were the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, Dance Education in Maine Schools, Husson College and Dance Resources, LLC.

Nancy Salmon has done an excellent job facilitating the program in Maine. Her years of experience as a dance educator were immeasurable in the success of the Extending the Dance Map program. Congratulations to all who have contributed to the success!

You can view more pictures of the dance residency at Ella Burr School by clicking here.

Thank you to Nancy Salmon for the information for this post.