RESUME 

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EDUCATION

 

O’Shea Irish Dance from 2010- 2016

Competitive Irish dancing solo and in teams from the local level to the national and Worlds levels. Technique classes up to 3 times a week as well as performances monthly and especially in March. Irish dance was my entry into dance, the necessary learning about muscles and full body support while learning a highly technical and controlled dance form. Through this experience I was able to not only fall in love with dance but also rhythm in movement.

 

Mbalax African Dance in Senegal Fall 2016

Through weekly dance classes in the Where There Be Dragons Gap Year program in Senegal. While mostly informal these classes allowed me to try on different movement vocabulary and technique outside of Irish Dance and with different cultural significance, building my versatility in experience in different dance forms.

 

Modern Dance Technique at Dickinson College – Fall 2017 to present

While exploring yet another modality of movement I was able to explore new movements and techniques, combinations and uses of physicality. Through technique classes and moving up from Modern I to Modern III, I have been able to build strength and confidence with modern, post-modern and contemporary movement but also to create it, and use my own agency within my movement choice making through improvisation and short choreographic tasks. Technique classes meet for at least 3 hours a week and include dance and non-dance majors. Taking these courses is what initially inspired me to become a dance major.

 

Dance Theatre Group at Dickinson College- fall 2019 to present

Through participation in the student dance company at Dickinson College I have gained more experience in contemporary technique, the rehearsal process leading into performance and group work. This has happened through participating in master classes, improv and contact improvisation work as well as puppetry and bi-weekly company classes designed to increase strength and technique as well as artistry. As a part of the company my technique has improved and my confidence as well as improvisational skills have also improved.

 

DEL – Dance for Social Change @ Jacobs Pillow- Jan 2020

Through attending this course I was able to dive into dance education techniques and specifically how dance education can assist in creating environments where students can learn about histories of oppression but then also use their bodies to better communicate resistance and build momentum in social movements for justice in addition to personal empowerment. Because of this course I have a broadened perspective on the use of dance education for social justice and how to better integrate a positive mind body connection with movement for the liberation of movers on different scales.

 

ACDA 2020

In presenting a 7 minute unfinished improvisation piece titled “How Do You See Me” with 3 other co-creators and participating in classes ranging from Umfundalai to House and Alexander Technique, I was able to expand in a preliminary way the different forms of dance I have experience with and skills to apply to new settings and movement modalities. This opportunity also helped me realize in a more clear way the skills I do have, and the skills I want to cultivate and improve at within the dance, choreography and improvisational space.

 

PROJECTS/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

 

River Semester Independent Study

During my semester away from campus on the Augsburg University River Semester I was able to integrate site-specific work with dance history as well as choreographic exploration. The River Semester is an outdoor semester where students spend 100 days paddling down the Mississippi River learning about its history, scientific significance, government policy and conservation through a full college course load. Within this course load I self-designed an Independent Study with Erin Crawley-Woods (Assistant Professor of Dance at Dickinson College). The goal was to use dance and site specific choreography to document the journey as well as the different ecological and social communities that depend on the river to survive. I created 2-3 minute weekly site specific works based on the section of river we had travelled that week and culminated in a 6 minute choreography that I performed at our closing celebration. This project allowed me to dive into site specific choreography but was also instrumental in helping me fuse my passions of environment and movement together. The final video can be found here.

 

Letort Stream Studies Lesson Plans

Inspired by my River Semester Independent Study I set out to create lesson plans to bring the connection of ecological environment to physical and inner environment, that could be used in a local watershed education project in Carlisle, PA for 2nd graders. The lesson plans are now part of the curriculum and involve students using their bodies to mimic the movements of water as well as using their bodies to understand the similarities between the landscapes of our local environment and what exists inside us as humans.

 

Rwanda Research + Workshop

In the summer of 2019 I was awarded a Sirf/Durden Research Grant to continue my stay in Kigali, Rwanda after a Mini-Mosaic program there that lasted two weeks. I worked with a local theatre and dance company to understand how dancers felt in their bodies in relation to healing and art-making as well as how development and economic autonomy has centered on the arts and what economies help the arts thrive in Kigali. Through this research I was able to work with dancers and choreographers in Rwanda and begin to understand that while movement might be cathartic in some moments my expectation and assumption of finding a clear connection between art and healing reflects my own privilege and perception of art in this context.

 

DCCC Kindergarten Teaching and Curriculum Development

Over the fall semester of 2019 I spent time each week going into the kindergarten classroom at the Dickinson College Children’s Center as an intercultural education intern. My aim with this project was to uncover the intersections of physical movement and dance with teaching peace, anti-racism and environmental/sustainability literacy through the lens of cultures in the US. Based off of Andrea Olsen’s philosophy of the body as our first environment I taught weekly classes that incorporated physical movement, with ecological and social history as well as making the connections between body and place. I firmly believe that children’s’ relationship to place affects how they treat each other, and the environment in which they live. Dissecting this relationship, through the internship covered and interconnected topics in environmental education, antiracism education and dance education. This was an incredible opportunity for me to learn the importance of teaching histories of resistance along with histories of oppression and was an excellent opportunity for me to dive into early childhood dance education.