Part of the artistic process is to understand the rules under which mediums express themselves and learning how to work within them so as to materialize your imagination through them. The canvas informs the creative act. This may be painful for a person who values creative freedom. Our creativity is not in conflict with boundaries but must work with them. To break free of the limits of any medium, we must first embrace them. McManus, Erwin Raphael. The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art
1.Audience
The audience I would love to address are the parents of children with special needs.My practice includes Autistic students, Down’s syndrome children and children of trauma; those who are either homeless, in foster care, or are in homes with parents who have addictions or mental illnesses.My hope is to talk about the transformative power of the arts with parents who are scared, frustrated or ill.Even though I may not have empirical data to emphasize how my work effects students, I have anecdotal evidence that serves to illustrate the power of dance in education.
2. Form
In my talk, I will use a personal narrative that is interspersed with facts from my program, using the students in front of me to explore the data of the work. My video will employ a straight storytelling form, using both captions and videos to capture the concepts of my talk. I am not certain what method I will be using to film, but I am investigating different apps that might be easy to upload and my work, without compromising my basic beliefs. I have a three camera set up in my classroom, which might be the way I film myself. I will need to edit the speaking portion, with the slides that illustrate the various points in my talk.
3. Content
The main arc or message is to convey how work in the dance classroom has informed my classroom practice approach. Students need to explore and develop both social and emotional learning will be part of the work that we undertake make the classroom curriculum to be more effective and less fractured in the ways that I work with my students. I will use my own personal experience to show the arts “saved” me. Personal narrative is something I know how to use effectively and with emotion, but not in a maudlin way, much like Ann Cuddy. I have a great desire to use this talk as my “elevator speech, which is what is used to convey message and meaning to the larger community.
4. Function
My talk will show the discoveries made and connections that have occurred between my understanding of social emotional learning, and how work in dance requires students must be invested in each other in order to take chances in the dance class. Talking about how dance keeps us connected as a community but needs students to focus on the needs of the group, in order to make effective choices in the moment. I want parents to know that dance is more than a pretty picture; dance allows people to connect, problem solves, collaborate and express feeling. In my work in the classroom I am in the moment. The learning that occurs after the classes I teach is where hope the talk takes me. The talk will address the multiple entrance points that a video of this nature gives us (me). When I talk about my work in the arts, I always play the role of an advocate for saving students and connecting parents to the world that surrounds them.