Mission
To bring creativity, equity and community to every child’s life through the art of dance. Luna uses active inquiry to deepen the learning experience of children and adults to improve teach practice and to build high quality arts programs. As we bring dance to all children, we develop future choreographers, leaders, and visionaries.
Philosophy
Luna’s unique approach to teaching dance is informed by a deep understanding of the creative process, sound principles of child development, and knowledge of how children construct their own definitions of self, others and the world. Learning dance at Luna extends beyond motor development, allowing children to make connections between language, cognition, expression, culture and power. When children find the precarious balance between self-control and risk-taking, they discover their potential for creative expression. Our curriculum provides children with the structure and freedom in which to explore the basic elements of dance: the body moving in space through time with force/energy. Children create and compose dances through active participation, guided discovery and critical reflection. We develop future dance makers, so that multiple choreographic voices can be seen and heard.
Classes
Classes at Luna are sequenced in a progression that allows for dance challenges that are appropriate to students’ developmental level and dance experience. Every class is structured around composition-making. Dancers do this by exploring and improvising with the elements of dance. Building performance and audience skills are a part of every class. Learning dance at Luna gives each child and youth a complete dance education. All of our studio classes are designed to be repeated for three to six sessions.
Creative Dance Improvisation (4-7 year olds)
Children up to age 7 expand range of motion, articulation, and locomotion as children learn how to put movements together, solve simple movement problems, and come to understand dance making can be about the expressions of feelings or ideas. They increase their knowledge of spatial concepts (line, path, level, and focus) and explore energy concepts.
Modern Dance Improvisation (8-11 year olds)
Dancers explore elements of energy, space and time as they learn to express their ideas in movement. They learn body mechanics, gain strength and flexibility, and increase range of motion and coordination: they develop dance skills in the context of serving expressive ideas. These classes follow the same structure with an exploration and improvisation but include basic composition assignments that allow dancers to refine and form their ideas into dances.
Modern Dance Composition 1,2,3 (8-11 year olds)
Dancers explore choreography more deeply. They learn to consciously manipulate the elements of dance for their compositions, particularly using weight, line, balance and energy actions. Dance technique is learned to provide the skills necessary to execute their dance creations. Students learn to describe and relate their dance experiences to the world using expanded dance vocabulary and terminology. MD Composition 1 requires at least 3 sessions of MD Improvisation and MD Composition 2/3 require MD Composition 1/2 and permission of the instructor.
Teen Modern Dance and Composition (11-17 year olds)
Teens express their ideas in movement using the dance elements space, time, and force/energy. Dancers gain strength, flexibility, and technical skills while using improvisation to make their own dances. The choreographic process is further explored in the context of modern dance history and contemporary trends. Dancers develop both choreographic and leadership skills while learning about the larger context of contemporary dance.
Teen Production (11-17 year olds) Coming Spring 2009!!
Teens who have taken Improvisation and Composition all year will have the opportunity to develop their dances for the stage. Dancers will develop performance skills and choreographers will learn to use production elements to enhance the artistry of their compositions. Prerequisite: Teen Modern Dance and Composition
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