On Tuesdays we dance in and through Support, including the simple and powerful counterbalance. Photo by Alison Waldman.

By Ashley Thorndike-Youssef, PhD

Think SUMMER!

Seven years ago, I decided I wanted to make a contribution to dance summer study and I thought to myself:

1. What’s the point of summer study?
2. What do dancers need?
3. What can I offer dancers that’s different from all the other amazing, life-changing programs out there?

Here’s what I came up with.

1. Dancers can use summer to make deep connections with peers and artists and get a taste of the “real world.”
2. Dancers need to be able to teach movement in any context.
3. I can offer a psycho-educational model for dance pedagogy. In other words, a framework to articulate and facilitate the physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects of learning in the dance studio.

After eleven successful programs, we launch our twelfth and thirteenth programs this summer in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC. That’s right, we are teenagers now.

Here’s what I see that we do.

• Reframe what it means to be a dancer: After Now Next Dance, you’ll have a broader, clearer understanding of the many ways that dance can guide, or fit into your life post-graduation.
• Network: Dancers who have been through our program stay in our network and are able to connect with our community of artists across the country.
• Inspire: We all forget that dance is simply amazing. Or as we put it at NND, #completelyinspired. At NND the focus is both receiving and giving (the now and the next). If you are burned out, or afraid, or single focused — come join us and remember the simple magic, power, and bravery of running across a room.

At our programs college dancers (or recent grads) spend their mornings in company-style classes with professional dance artists and their afternoons team teaching and mentoring youth using our innovative leadership-based curriculum. Lunches are spent in mentoring sessions with the artists, discussing topics surrounding how to make a life in and through dance — after college.

This summer we are featuring Annie Kloppenberg & Company from Boston at our Baltimore site and Dante Brown | Warehouse Dance at our DC site. Both programs will be intense and invigorating.

Join us! Our priority application deadline is approaching – April 15. Apply. Spread the word. Reach out. Join us.

www.nownextdance.org/college-dancers 

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Related posts:

Leadership in Dance 2016: Ashley Thorndike-Youssef

Blog Series: Career Counseling for College Students

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