DEL Facilitators Share Fall Updates!
We asked our DEL Facilitators to share any updates, and we are so proud to celebrate their inspiring achievements and ongoing endeavors!
Diane Duggan
This is Diane’s 30th consecutive year teaching in the NYU Dance Education MA program. She’s also choreographing a new piece for the 2023 Distinguished Faculty Concert on November 17th and 18th called Parkour Quotidien. It’s inspired by the athleticism of ordinary New Yorkers as they make their daily commute.
Catherine Gallant
LAST LEAF DANCE
At the end of December, Catherine will finally leave P.S. 89, her home away from home for the last 26 years. She is not even close to being “retired,” however, since she will continue to learn and share knowledge as part of the DEL Faculty and Hunter College Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program, as well as work with her groups Catherine Gallant/DANCE and Dances by Isadora.
“I have been very, very fortunate to be a part of a school community that prioritizes the educational process as a continuum of growth and engagement through an inclusive love of learning. We have created a lot of dance magic here.”
Ayaka Kamei
Ayaka Kamei choreographed a contemporary ballet piece in Japan last summer, set to be premiered in her hometown, Ehime, in December.
In September, she performed in the world premiere of Doppelgänger at Park Avenue Armory. Additionally, she will make her New York City Center debut with SUGAR HILL: The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker in November.
Hetty King
This summer, Hetty had fun traveling, presenting, and participating.
In July, she presented on the life and work of Nancy Topf at the Somatic Dance Conference at Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, New York. She also presented on her doctoral research, The Possibilities of Somatic Pedagogy for Early Childhood Dance Education, at Bill Evans Somatic Dance Conference in Port Townsend, WA.
In August, Hetty participated in daCi: Anchored in Hope: Expanding Horizons at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. She got to meet and work with Ann Green Gilbert!
Hetty also successfully proposed her doctoral research proposal at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Please check out her website, hettyking.com, for a new section called Events where you can follow where she’s been and where she’s going next!
Also, Hetty invites you to check out thinkingbody.org. She is now included as a third-generation participant in the legacy of Mabel Todd.
Hetty with her performance group at daCi
Hetty presenting at Bill Evans Somatic Dance Conference
Carina Rubaja
Carina Rubaja just finished writing the 3rd to 8th grade Teachers’ Resource Guide for Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company‘s performance this winter at NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center). She is currently writing the K-2 DEL Literacy Curriculum. She is giving Hispanic heritage workshops for early childhood students that connect stories with dance in NYC public schools. This fall, she will lead a professional development session about MLL learners and dance in the East Orange school district and at the New Jersey Education Association convention. As a member of the Arts Integration Initiative at NJPAC, she will plan, give and participate in arts workshops for classroom teachers in their first and second year of the program. She is getting ready to begin the MLL pilot extension coaching residency, and the 3K and Pre-K Create coaching residencies, which are both DEL projects.
Felice Santorelli
Felice Santorelli is in her 9th year at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School, a DEL Lab School in western Massachusetts. In addition to teaching dance to students in grades 7-12, she is the Artistic Director of the school’s contemporary student choreography group, Catalyst Dance Company, which is celebrating its 26th Anniversary this spring. This summer and fall, Felice enjoyed facilitating multiple courses for DEL at Jacob’s Pillow for the DELving into Embodied Dance History series, including a day in the famous Jacob’s Pillow Archives with Archivist Norton Owen. In October, DEL at Jacob’s Pillow hosted a Movement Sentence Choir at UMass Amherst and Felice joined Ann Biddle as a co-facilitator. In late September, Felice attended the NDEO Annual Conference in Denver where she felt invigorated by the work of leaders in the dance education field. She presented in a session about the DEL FIT program and a session on the work of Blondell Cummings from the DELving into Embodied Dance History model. In November, Felice will be teaching the asynchronous DEL Foundations course for the DEL Institute and will act as a mentor for DEL Institute participants.
Mary Seidman
Mary Seidman spent the summer—and will continue this fall—teaching both adult and children’s classes at the Mark Morris Dance Center. She taught for six weeks in the summer camp, composing dances based on Mark Morris’ work The Look of Love. She continues to write reviews for Eye On The Arts (PBS), and will teach for DEL’S Pre-K Create program, modeling and facilitating exemplary early childhood dance for Pre-K teachers. As a board member of the American Dance Guild since 2012, she will co-produce its annual Dance Festival in 2024, held at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, February 22-25, 2024.
Susan Thomasson
Susan Thomasson was a guest in Lima, Peru teaching master classes in dance composition. Interest in the classes is developing into a budding Peruvian dance community. She also presented arts and aesthetics seminars as part of a music festival hosted by the University of Piura, attracting a wide-ranging audience, including education, arts, and business students and leaders.
Susan also continued a performance project funded by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for its Creative Aging Initiative. Lost Stories, a dance-theater work performed by senior dancers and actors, is based on real and imagined tales of losing, finding and getting lost. As part of the grant, Susan and frequent collaborator Claire Porter have toured Lost Stories to theaters and non-traditional spaces in New Jersey.