HHS Host Professional Development for National Dance Organization Members

Harrison High School was honored to host this year’s professional development workshop for the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) on October 15th. As one of the only schools with a designated dance studio (The Blackbox Theater), students and teachers from a mixture of public, private, and charter schools spent the day collaborating in ninety minute workshops in the genres of Hip-Hop and African Dance.

The African Dance workshop was facilitated by Vado Diomande of the Kotchegna Dance Company of New York City, who taught a workshop for over eighty Harrison High School students two years ago. The Hip-Hop workshop was led by Dina Giordano of City Center Dance in White Plains, who among other things is the choreographer of the Westchester Knicks Dancers. The focus was to provide teachers with ways to break down steps in both genres, learn modifications for varied abilities, prevent injuries, and master choreography segments to teach in class.

The workshops were wonderful examples of curriculum supplements as many of the Harrison High School IB Dance students had the opportunity to use the workshops for their IB assessments.

“Originally the workshop was only open to teachers, but we decided to open the day up to junior and senior students based on a recommendation from the teachers themselves,” said Deborah Toteda, HHS dance teacher and host of the event. “Eliana Litos, one of our senior dancers, is also a student choreographer for the HHS Dance Ensemble. She found the Hip-Hop workshop to be particularly helpful as she designs choreography together with me for the upcoming winter concert.”

NDEO provides professional development, networking forums, honor societies, journals, research and advocacy tools for teachers, administrators and students in the field of dance arts education. Members teach multiple dance genres in a variety of environments including, but not limited to, K-12 schools, dance studios, colleges and community centers.

“It was so inspiring to not only dance with other teachers in the area, but to brainstorm and share ideas about what works in their dance programs,” said Toteda. “One of my biggest takeaways from the day was discovering how limited dance teachers are in other districts as many middle and high school dance courses are taught in a classroom, gym, or cafeteria. We are so fortunate to have this beautiful space and I’d personally like to see more dance teachers connect here at HHS!”