SATURDAY MORNING WORKSHOPS 2:00 - 3:30 Pm

PRESENTED BY Rachel Luke

Children's Theatre using CRRP (culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy) High school students read or write children's stories that focus on cultural narratives and adapt these into performance pieces that are then shared with elementary school students. The high school students go through an interview process with elementary school students during the preparation process in addition to completing a  research paper on children's theatre and the value of culturally responsive and relevant approaches.

 You may be particularly intrigued in this workshop if your focus is: Secondary Drama

Rachel Luke has been teaching at Glenforest Secondary School in the Peel District School Board in Mississauga for 20 years. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts (Distinction) from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Education from York University and a Drama Specialist from OISE.

In and beyond the classroom she is committed to integrating anti-oppressive principles of universal design and culturally responsive approaches to improve student well-being and achievement.

In 2020 and 2021, Rachel received Canada’s highest honour for Teaching Excellence. She was the recipient of a Regional Certificate of Achievement from the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence in 2020 and in 2021 she was a recipient of the Prime Minister’s National Award for Teaching Excellence.

PRESENTED BY Candice Spykers (she/her)

The choreographic process explored in this workshop will question the role of the choreographer and illustrate a creative process/ dance pedagogy that is characterised by choice, dialogue, empowerment and ownership. Participants will be shown how movement maps and temporal scores can be used to disrupt set material, exploring more critically how failure to execute a task can be generative. In a larger scope this approach will highlight how conflict and tension is not an end, or something to be avoided, but rather a point of creation. 

Participants will be shown how temporal scores can be used with students both during the creative process and in performance as a way to foster more ‘liveness’ in the performance of set material and as a way to promote more critical engagement during a collaborative choreographic process. In a practical and embodied way this work will show how the choreographic variation that ensues from the use of temporal scores can be a means of fostering problem solving skills through movement and a starting point for discussing how dance can be more inclusive.

You may be particularly intrigued in this workshop if your focus is: Secondary Dance

Candice Spykers is a graduate of York University where she received a BFA in Dance and a BEd at the Intermediate/ Senior level. Candice also received specialized dance training on full scholarship at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City. She recently completed her MA in Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, England, during which she graduated with merit and was recognized as a Leverhulme Scholar. Candice has been a full time dance teacher at Rosedale Heights School of the Arts since 2006.

PRESENTED BY David Connolly

A hands-on, experiential INCLUSIVE Musical Theatre Workshop facilitated by the first and only amputee to have performed on Broadway. This workshop is designed to provide secondary educators with practical, dance and drama-based activities that can be used immediately, with attention paid to adaptations to remove physical and learning difference barriers. Improv games, devised movement exercises and scene work from age-appropriate Broadway shows will be used to share advice about how to create safe, imagination-driven spaces to build characters based on students’ lived experience, regardless of the period of the piece. Any text, from any era, is made better and clearer when thread through a contemporary, relevant, and very personal lens. The onus for change in radical inclusion, empowerment of the marginalized and new representation on stage and screen lies partly in the hands of the education system.

The Future of Tomorrow for theatre includes a radical shift in the paradigm of representation on stage and on screen. The cycle of ‘why would I train when I don’t see myself represented’ needs to be broken and one of most powerful forces for this change is education. Teachers should be empowered with knowledge and tools about how important their role is in creating opportunities for those who have not yet felt welcome in the culture of performing and technical arts education. Infinite Possibilities can be created by pro-actively soliciting the “other-ed” and cultivating a skill set necessary to support and keep them there when they bravely arrive. Let’s grow together.

You may be particularly intrigued in this workshop if your focus is: Secondary Drama 

David Connolly is a Director, Educator and Disability Inclusion Specialist who is deeply committed to changing the statistic of being the only amputee to have performed on Broadway. As the Associate Artistic Director of Drayton Entertainment, he has helmed over thirty productions including Kinky Boots, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mama Mia! and Newsies. For the screen, David is currently represented on CBC Kids by the 52-episode “Ukulele U.” As an Educator, David leads the Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy and has been an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the Musical Theatre Performance Programs at Sheridan College, Randolph College, Fanshawe College, St Lawrence College, VanderCook College and most recently, the Hopkins Centre for the Arts at Dartmouth College. He holds an Honours Bachelor Degree in Musical Theatre Performance from Sheridan College, is a recipient of The Ontario Premier's Award of Excellence and an Ambassador for both The War Amps’ Child Amputee Program (CHAMP) and The Shriner’s Hospitals for Children, Worldwide.

PRESENTED BY Ria Aikat (she/her) and Jennalee Desjardins  

Exploring forms and cultural contexts is a key strand of the Ontario arts curriculum. How can we ensure that the fear of doing it wrong is not preventing us from taking action?  How can teachers do this authentically without crossing into appropriation?  In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to experience Bhangra dance from an expert. Then will be led through the creative process using the elements of this Indian folk dance.   The workshop will conclude with tools that educators can use to structure the inclusion of cultural dance styles. Teachers will gain the confidence to set up reflections before and after a workshop with an expert, to avoid a tokenistic approach to cultural dances. 

You may be particularly intrigued in this workshop if your focus is: Beginning with the Basics

Ria Aikat is a passionate dancer and educator. With a Master of Teaching degree, Ria has dedicated her life to fusing teaching and dance. She has over 20 years of dance training in styles including Bollywood, Bharatanatyam, Bhangra, Hip Hop and House, and 10 years in arts education. Ria has taught thousands of students of all ages across the GTA and is known for her high energy and accessible teaching style. Most recently, Ria has returned to her alma mater as a lecturer of Drama and Dance at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).  

Jennalee Desjardins is a professional dancer, instructor and choreographer with a diverse background of dance training including 15 years studying Hip Hop and W*acking. She has spent over ten years teaching in underserved communities in Ottawa and the GTA for companies such as Culture Shock Canada and VIBE Arts. She is currently a part-time faculty member at Seneca College and a long-standing Hip Hop instructor at City Dance Corps. In 2020, she was voted #1 dance instructor by Toronto Star’s Readers’ Choice Awards.  

PRESENTED BY Dinos Aristidou (he/him)

The ‘Hear us out’ technique is an approach to verbatim theatre that I've developed over a number of years through projects working with a range of different people and different communities. Some of these projects include work with young people who are registered blind or partially sighted, LGBTQI+ elders, women who have adult children in prison, 60 young people around the world wanting to share their pandemic experiences . This method, inspired by headphone theatre, determines not only how material is performed but also how stories are collected, how the material is used and how stories are put together into a piece of theatre so that they are in dialogue with one another. We do not use an interview technique as we believe this interrupts the story telling so we work with those telling their stories in advance preparing them to share their experiences uninterrupted. The approaches and activities that we use specifically with young participants help them to develop empathy with people whose stories lie outside of their own everyday experience. It also provides them with the tools to make sense of their own stories, shape them and have the confidence to share them. The Hear US Out technique encourages deep listening and connection between diverse people, celebrating both our differences and our common humanity.  It's a powerful and  transformative learning experience for storytellers, story gatherers and story performers. It engages young performers and theatre makers with questions of responsible theatre making, authenticity and ethics regarding theatre making, truth and other people’s stories. The workshop focuses primarily on story gathering, different forms of listening and how we respond to and perform other people’s real life stories.

You may be particularly intrigued in this workshop if your focus is: Secondary Drama 

Dinos Aristidou is the newly appointed (Feb 2022) Executive Director of the International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA). He specialises in working with educators, communities and young people internationally. He is the project lead of an Erasmus+ research project into theatre as inclusive practice, working with four partner organisations and young people who have experienced exclusion. 

As Creative Learning Director for UCAN Productions (2015-2022), working with blind and partially sighted performers, he developed the verbatim piece ‘Good Company’ with performers and theatre makers with disabilities.  This was based on stories of disability hate crimes that had never been reported.

From 2018- 2021, Dinos was artistic director of ‘Hear Us Out’ a digital verbatim production and series of events working with older people and the collected stories of older LGBTQ+ people. He was also artistic director of the global digital verbatim production, ‘Memoir of an extraordinary year’ and ‘2020 Vision’ working with 60 young people around the world performing each other’s stories of their experience of 2020.

PRESENTED BY Meghan Park, Miggy Esteban and  Ayesatta King 

Join us for a document show and share of the new CODE resource Recognize, Reflect, Refocus: Addressing Anti-Black Racism in the Drama/Dance Classroom. In this session, members of the Equity committee will discuss the evolution of this document, elaborate on the intentions behind it, and dive into its content. Participants will be asked to engage in some thinking around how the ideas in Recognize, Reflect, Refocus might play out in their own practice and pedagogy, and share thoughts on next steps.

This is a cross panel workshop for all areas.

PRESENTED BY Janice Pomer (she/her)    

We live in a world filled with movement; the planet spins, the earth quakes, volcanoes erupt, water erodes, recedes and evaporates, seedlings scatter, settle and grow. We are part of this ever-changing world; even when we are at rest our minds and bodies are in motion.   The movement explorations featured in this workshop are inspired by micro and macrocosmic movement patterns in Nature. The exercises can be used to create dynamic choreography, while at the same time help students harness energies within themselves.    

Participants will learn how collaborative dance exploration and creation stimulates student learning; focuses their minds, activates their bodies, heightens their observation skills, and contributes to a safe and inclusive classroom where individual experiences, diverse learning styles and perspectives are appreciated and valued.     

A simple template for exploring movement patterns in Nature provides opportunities for students to share what they know, have experienced and/or imagine through words and dance. Students’ relationship with Nature and the environment deepens, scientific knowledge and personal observations and imaginings intersect. Movement patterns are explored collectively, choreographic possibilities are shared and dances are created collaboratively; in large or small groups, depending on age, ability, and teacher/student inclinations.     

All of the exercises are appropriate for the classroom and outdoor learning and will be of benefit to novice and experienced elementary teachers.    

You may be particularly intrigued in this workshop if your focus is: Elementary Drama and Dance 

Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Janice Pomer has been teaching, performing and creating in the fields of dance, music and physical theatre since 1976, providing dance experiences for learners of all ages and abilities in urban, rural, northern and First Nation communities.  Janice’s unique pedagogy emphasizes how dance is a multidirectional process that engages the physical, intellectual, creative, emotional and intuitive aspects of the mover. 

Janice writes and designs dance and movement-based study guides and resources for boards of education, dance companies, festivals, museums and academic journals.   

Her books and pedagogy on movement education have been hailed as ‘inspirational, dynamic, essential and holistic’. Her third book, Elementary Dance Education: Nature-Themed Movement and Collaborative Learning, will be released by Human Kinetics USA in the fall of 2022.