Residency Work

Hartford University School for Urban Exploration, year long residency for K3 to 4^th grade.
DanceCircus artist-educators provide a warm-up for strength building, flexibility, coordination of body parts, endurance training and safety (injury prevention). Within the discipline of each dance form (African, Ballet, Capoiera, Choreography, Creative Movement-Environment, Creative Movement-Storytelling and Hip-Hop), elements of time, spatial awareness, body actions, efforts/energy control are core concepts underlying patterns of music/rhythms, movement sequencing and relationships. (October-May)

Woodlands Elementary School Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s A.C.E. Program with 6th graders
Artistic Director Betty Salamun annually works with Woodlands middle school students in eco-arts residencies. Retiring science teacher Carol Double suggested a dance linking the school’s Adopt-A-Beach program and illustrating the beauty of Lake Michigan. 15 boys and girls learned a section of Betty’s dance “What I know about Lake Michigan” (from Wade in the Water: The 70% Solution concert) about the origins of Lake Michigan (glaciers) and how the currents in the Lake keep a drop of water in the Lake for about 99 years. “What I know about Lake Michigan” was performed at the last all school assembly on May 21, and dedicated to Carol Double. (April-May, 2012)

Kosciuszko Montessori School Arts @ Large residency with K-3 to 5th grades
All students explore the 7 Basic Movements (jump, turn, fall, roll, balance, travel, gesture): upper primary students worked with haiku poetry; lower primary used weather systems to create dances; K-3 to K-5 learn the differences between frog jumps (big push with the legs, then land and balance) and rabbit jumps (reach hands out, jump feet in) as well as how plants grow, seeds fall, snow melts in story dances; and, a special needs class explores the world around us. Two performances will showcase student dancers. (April-May, 2012)

Contact us for more information about Artist Working in Education (AWE) or Arts @ Large and for information on underwriting DanceCircus integrated Arts-Curriculum educational programs in your school or inspiring, energizing workshops in your community agency or center.

In a dance residency, students learn to connect motions and emotions, words and actions to create dances of beauty and power. Residency concepts blend curriculum with DanceCircus performance concepts such as ecology and environment (science and geography), original stories and adapted folktales (literature and history), and using story circle to create life stories (social studies). Basic movements – jump, turn, travel, fall, roll, stop/balance and gesture – combined with paired efforts — fast/slow, powerful/delicate, free/rigid and focused/wandering – help students develop self-control and establish safe boundaries for the group.

In School Residency Programs students create dances and performance events as they explore the environment (how animals, birds and sea creatures move including life cycles, habitats, the food chain, pollution, etc.) and dance literacy (moving haiku poems, spelling lists, subject/content, etc) developing thier own expressive style.

Assessment and Teacher In-Service training. For schools, school districts, artists, teachers, parents, administrators, in practical ways to implement multiple intelligences.

An ARTIST-EDUCATOR, Betty Salamun brings 38 years of innovative outreach programs, nationally recognized community workshops and cross-curricular school residency programs to her work with students, people in the community and artists on stage. Betty received the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education’s “Non-Formal Educator of the Year” award and the Wisconsin Dance Councils Outstanding Achievement award.