Dynamic X-Change Teaching Artist Lydia Hance

CORE Collaborator Lydia Hance is a dancer, a choreographer, and a teaching artist. As part of CORE's Dynamic X-Change, she works with students at the Monarch School.

"My time at the Monarch School as a DX teacher is some of the most rewarding and fruitful time I've spent as a teacher, and that's because it was truly an exchange.  It was an exchange of joy, of risk, and of celebration.  Before I came to the DX program, I was mostly teaching technique to dancers.  While this is so important to our craft and our art, teaching in the DX was fulfilling in another way.  In a way that allows teachers to walk into the room and know they don't have to have all the answers,  in a way that allows for discovery and sharing in the classroom.  The students see that their teachers are still students.  And that is the most valuable of lessons."

 

 

Thoughts on Fieldwork from Houston Fieldwork Facilitator Neil Ellis Orts

Thoughts on Fieldwork from Houston Fieldwork Facilitator Neil Ellis Orts

True confession: I did not like Fieldwork at first. I won't tell the story here, but suffice to say, it was not my cuppa. Or so I thought.

But that experience was in another city. When I moved to Houston in 2003, I needed to meet people, artist people. I knew there was a Fieldwork session here, so I looked it up, gritted my teeth, and signed on. Then, Fieldwork became the foundation for my Houston artist community. By participating in Fieldwork, I found not only artists I admired, I found collaborators. Never mind the affordable cost for the weeks of feedback and a showcase at the end. It's the best deal in town.

And my original dislike? Here's the thing: the feedback format is difficult. It takes some work just learning how to give feedback. But giving feedback in this particular way also tuned my ear to how to receive feedback, as well. Giving myself over to the process, I hope, has made me a better colleague as well as a better artist.

Best way to get a bigger picture? Join us next session.

Breath & Bone/Orts Performance, Until Spring, at Box 13 Artspace, Lone Star Explosion 2014. Performers: Joanna Bowen Bridget Lois Jensen, and Neil Ellis Orts. Photo by Alex Barber

CORE's Leslie Scates named one of HOUSTON PRESS 100 Creatives

All photos by Catalina Molnari,
courtesy of HOUSTON PRESS

Choreographer, dance educator, and CORE collaborator Leslie Scates was recently named one of the Houston's 100 Creatives by Houston Press.

Leslie has created numerous commissions for CORE, including last season's herd, and recently became a Dynamic X-change teacher, working with students at The Monarch School.

"I feel honored to work with the company... No other company works quite the way CORE does. So fertile and humane. Across disciplines. Across borders."

Leslie's work at The Monarch School teaching movement classes began this past spring:

 

I said yes to the opportunity to work with a population on the autistic spectrum because I have a deep interest in therapeutic movement and also a keen interest in brains that think and operate differently than my own.  I love the work and the students are delightful and challenging. Some of the needs that I feel the movement classes meet for these movers are:

Stress reduction

• Somatic awareness 

• Kinesthetic awareness 

• Sensory integration 

• Collaborative skill acquisition 

• Social skill acquisition 

• Range of motion increases 

• Motor skill refinement; gross and fine 

 

I am looking forward to continuing my work with the Monarch school students. It is a laboratory for me as an educator and dancer to listen very closely to the emergent needs of a class of individuals, and to provide a conduit for creative expression, social interaction, collaboration and movement pathways.  These students are filled with language that inspires me to keep setting and reaching personal goals. And we have fun and sometimes we have intense moments. This is all valuable to me. I am glad to be a part of the students' weekly movement program at Monarch. I am also deeply grateful and my artistic process has been enhanced and shaped by being a part of CORE performance company.

 

Read Leslie's 100 Creatives interview here,