People Dancing

SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE:

David Leventhal joining the Summer Intensive!

We are absolutely delighted to announce that David Leventhal, the inspirational Program Director and Founding Teacher of Dance for PD®, will be joining us live from New York for an engaging Q&A session on day two of the Advancing Your Practice in Dancing with Parkinson’s workshop.

This two-day workshop is for teaching artists with a keen interest in deepening their practice across and within the field of dancing with Parkinson’s.

Presented in association with Dance Base, it offers a unique opportunity to further develop your creative practice in the studio by using improvisation, co-creation, and participant-led approaches, and explore, structure and develop dance material based on core building blocks.

The workshop will support you to expand your knowledge by connecting with a wide community of experienced dance teaching artists, where through conversation and exchange, you will discuss, share and enhance best practices in dancing with Parkinson’s.

By attending this workshop you will gain new skills and knowledge to:

• Increase complexity in creating and co-creating dance material across varying themes for adaptation and inclusion in a dancing with Parkinson’s class
• Adapt a range of resources, movement vocabularies, styles and approaches to continue to promote inclusive pedagogies in your teaching across dancing with Parkinson’s classes
• Evaluate and develop your own teaching practice by enhancing your observational and reflective skills, through practice and discussion
• Deepen your practice, through ongoing opportunities for self/peer reflection aimed to explore, develop and enrich your teaching skills and approaches in the field.

This workshop is linked with the online course - Introduction to Dance for People with Parkinson's – from People Dancing and Dance for PD®/Mark Morris Dance Group. This online course offers core foundational knowledge about the safe, effective and creative delivery of dance sessions specifically for people living with Parkinson's and will support your learning at the in-person workshop. To gain the most from the workshop, you need to have either completed or started the online course. Successful completion of an assessment related to this online course will enable you to gain a Level 4 Qualification Approaches to Dance for People with Parkinson’s. This can be purchased as a ‘bundle’ ticket on the booking page.

This workshop will greatly benefit dancers, teaching artists and community practitioners who have experience of assisting or teaching a dance for/with Parkinson’s class for at least six-months.

About Julie Symmonds

Julie trained as a ballet and tap dance teacher with a degree in Dance ( B Mus Hons University of Cape Town) specialising in Parkinson’s. Julie trained in New York under David Leventhal (Dance for PD®) in 2015, making her the first South African to complete the training.

In 2017, Julie returned to New York and completed the Advanced training and subsequently completed the rigorous Certification programme. With this qualification, Julie was able to train teachers, thus enabling the spread of the programme across South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In 2019 Julie and her family emigrated to Scotland. Julie delivers daily Dance for Parkinson’s classes at Scottish Ballet, as well as in a freelance capacity.

Image credit: Julie Symmonds. Photo: Simply-Pause.

About Jen Cunningham

Jen is a dance artist, maker and teacher with a background in contemporary dance (BA Hons Scottish School of Contemporary Dance), performance art, and has been delivering Dance for Parkinson’s classes since 2012.

Jen took up the role of Dance Artist at Dance Base (Scotland’s National Centre for Dance) in 2018 to deliver Dance for Parkinson’s classes. Jen also provides mentoring and support to dance artists and musicians across the Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland Network.

Jen is a key member of Dance Base’s Health, Wellbeing and Engagement team, specialising in neurological health and community-based dance practice and is passionate about inspiring others to dance and creating safe and supportive spaces for that to happen.

Image credit: Jen Cunningham, Dance Base, Scotland. Photo: Stuart Armitt.