“Dance is a language beyond words, expressing that for which we have no words.” – Jennifer De Leon

This past December, MSU T&D faculty member Azaria Hogans provided a wonderful opportunity to her dance pedagogy class. Students participated in workshops with Infinity Academy, a private school in Ozark, Missouri for middle and high school-aged students in need of alternatives to traditional schooling. This experience allowed pedagogy students to get hands-on experience teaching a younger demographic, as well as making connections with students, and facing creative problem solving in real life scenarios. To learn more about the experience students had during their workshops at Infinity Academy, I interviewed two of Azaria’s pedagogy students, Brooke Williamson and Courtney Adamson.

To give me a brief understanding of how the process worked, dance pedagogy student, Brooke Williamson, offered, “Our dance pedagogy class split up into two groups. Group 1 would teach a dance class while group 2 would participate and assist the Infinity Academy students, then the next week we would switch. The group that I was part of had a class focused on learning how to control your body and regulate your nervous system by expressing themselves through dance.” Dance as a physical medium is important in expressing the body’s needs and emotions, which is a helpful and important lesson to all kinds of students as they grow and learn more about themselves. Brooke had a great time with Infinity Academy, which she expressed by saying,

“It was truly rewarding for us learning how to teach students of all differing abilities, and I believe it was a wonderful, fun time for those students as well. Over the course of the classes, we could really see some of the shyer students open up and feel much more confident with moving and using dance as a way to express their emotions!”

MSU students participating in this opportunity also learned how to make lesson plans, which they later implemented during class time at the school. Previously mentioned dance pedagogy student, Courtney Adamson, experienced this transition from planning to the classroom, and was responsible for teaching students during one of the workshops. She relayed, “I was responsible for leading the dance combo at the end of class. We used metaphors to help the students better understand the steps being taught. For example, one of the steps I taught was a scoop clap with a jump. I used the phrase “scoop the salsa and scoop the cheese dip” to help students have a visual to associate with the step.”

It looks like these lessons were greatly beneficial to the students of Infinity Academy as well as the students here at MSU. Infinity Academy students were able to learn how to express themselves through dance, while MSU students were provided with real life experience working with students of a wide range of ages and abilities. Courtney also enjoyed the experience very much, as she finished by saying, “Aside from teaching, I enjoyed talking with students while walking to and from the classroom about their hobbies, pets, and other interests. I’m glad I had the opportunity to learn and grow with the students of Infinity Academy!”