We are no longer accepting applications for the pilot year of The DEL Institute. If you would like to join a waitlist for 2023, please email Ann Biddle. Email
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Across the career continuum: for everyone who teaches dance, from public school dance educators and college dance professors, to professional dancers and choreographers with an interest in community engagement, and dance studio teachers
From top experts in the field: with years of experience teaching and facilitating professional development courses using the DEL model
With extensive programming: offering a comprehensive approach to dance education with an emphasis on culturally-responsive pedagogy
In a customized pathway: where participants design a DEL teacher certificate program that meets their professional and personal needs
DEL reaffirmed my beliefs and supported my framework of learning and teaching. Working with adults helped me to place my structures in a new situation and watch how my peers successfully adopted and adapted the structures to develop their own learning. Watching them in process allowed me to develop flexibility in my planning. I was able to successfully incorporate the class outline provided by DEL into my framework and to work within the DEL structure.
– Carole Saunders, Dance Educator, Hong Kong
DEL’s new year-long hybrid program is 200 course hours, and participants can earn up to 32 SUNY Empire State College credits. You do not need to live in NYC to participate.
As a DEL Institute Teacher Certificate Participant, you will:
All DEL Teacher Certificate participants are required to complete DEL Foundations of Dance Education, an asynchronous course.
Participants must complete 12 hours in each Core Content Area:
DEL Teacher Certificate participants will engage in six 2-hour cohort seminars, including Orientation & Graduation. DEL Faculty visit the cohort seminar to share expertise in specialized topics related to dance and dance education.
DEL Teacher Certificate participants will all enjoy six 45-minute coaching sessions with master dance educator and DEL Institute Director, Ann Biddle. Cohort seminar and coaching sessions alternate months.
The DEL Teacher Certificate program will culminate in a customized teaching practicum and final project designed to enhance one’s professional portfolio in the field of dance education. The DEL Practicum and Final Project experience will be scheduled during the Fall of 2022 and will apply the DEL model to innovative instructional, choreographic or curricular design in the dance classroom. Each student will design their final project and then implement it in the classroom with students. Documentation, gathering and assessment of student work, and self-reflection on the success of the final project will be required. Some possible Final Projects which have curricular focus might include:
Educators will have options to create a schedule that works best for their professional and personal commitments.
DEL Teacher Certificate students will work closely with the Institute Director to design their hybrid learning course schedule to meet their personal and professional. In many cases, students will have the option of taking required courses synchronously (zoom or in person) or asynchronously.
The culmination of the DEL Teacher Certificate program is a professional portfolio project which combines a supervised teaching practicum with a curriculum writing project. Bi-monthly cohort seminars and individual coaching sessions are scheduled throughout the year, to provide ongoing support and specialized content.
This course has been instrumental in giving me more tools to better understand and use LMA. In fact, with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down our ability to gather physically together in spaces, the education that I have received throughout this course has directly impacted the way I’ve been able to translate the work that we do in the classroom into an e-learning platform.
DEL has challenged, encouraged and inspired me to invest in myself, while also providing me with applicable lesson ideas and structures to enhance the work I currently do.
– Michelle Modrzejewski
**Payment plans available. For additional financial assistance, please contact Erin Lally at [email protected].
To engage with DEL on a course-by-course basis for one year could cost upwards of $3,400 in individual workshop fees. By enrolling in The DEL Institute, you are committing to 12 months of DEL programming with additional 1:1 coaching, cohort support, and guided practical application in the classroom.
Many school administrators maintain a professional development budget for educators in their district.
Seeking support from your School Administration?
Copy our letter-writing template to request financial assistance from your Professional Learning budget!
Director of The DEL Institute
Ann Biddle M.A., has been a dance educator, staff developer, curriculum consultant, writer, and choreographer for the past 30 years. She is currently the Director of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) Institute for Professional Learning and Advancement and the Director of DEL at Jacob’s Pillow. As the Founding Faculty of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd St Y with Jody Arnhold (1994 to present) Ms. Biddle has designed and taught multiple courses for DEL including Foundations in Dance Education, DEL Essentials, Planet Dance-Multicultural Dance Education, Dancing in Early Childhood, Dance and Nature, Teaching from Transformation to Inspiration (Tina Curran), Dance and Literacy (Barbara Bashaw), Teaching Dance Technique, DEL: The Next Generation, the DEL Facilitators Training Program, Dance for Social Change, Hip Hop to the Top (Shakia Barron & Eli Kababa), Tracing Footsteps, and the DEL Essentials OPDI course for NDEO. Ms. Biddle has been a Dance Lecturer at UMASS/Amherst Dance Department, Mount Holyoke College, and Skidmore College. Read Ann’s full biography.