DaCi's Intergenerational Gathering
CREATING LANDSCAPES
Taking Shape!

August 12-15, 2008
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah

daCi USA’s Third Intergenerational Gathering will soon be upon us. Plans are moving ahead for what should be an outstanding event. We are all looking forward to visiting the beautiful Brigham Young University campus in Provo, Utah, August 12-15, 2008.

A highlight of this year’s gathering will be the daily intergenerational class. Conference participants will be randomly assigned to multi-age groupings and will stay with that group each day for both morning and afternoon classes. This intergenerational group will be the one that develops a piece to share at the final banquet. Thus, instead of occasional intergenerational mixing, which was somewhat random at the first two gatherings, this year’s event will be intentional in creating the multi-age interaction. As Chair, I am looking forward to participating in such a grouping.

These intergenerational groupings, or core classes as we call them, will be taught by paired teaching teams featuring outstanding dance educators from around the USA. daCi USA board members Anne Gilbert, Judith Nelson, Chris Roberts, and Marilyn Berrett have been working diligently behind the scenes to assemble teaching teams and will also be part of some of those teams. Others who have agreed to lead the core groups are Kathie and Pat Debenham, Kathleen Kingsley, Randy Barron, Mary Lynn Babcock, Chara Huckins, Jacque Bell, and Amy Markgraf.

After the morning intergenerational classes, conference attendees will be able to take part in technique classes. These will be organized by age groups. Some of our outstanding technique teachers will include Joni Wilson, Mary Ann Lee, Kathleen Sheffield, daCi Chair-elect Joy Friedlander, Jacque Bell, Abby Fiat, and the renowned Shirley Ririe.

Each day will also include world dance classes. Tentative plans call for classes in Native American dance, as well as Polynesian, Hispanic, and Celtic. As in past gatherings, we expect to see some of the world dance movements incorporated into the final “informances.”

At the end of each day’s dancing, participants will have an “options” sessions. These will include arts and craft, swimming, outdoor adventures, etc. During one of these option sessions, there will be a special demonstration/class about boys’ involvement in creative dance. This will be presented by Becky Ellis, who has worked with boys’ classes for many years at BYU.

No daCi conference would be complete without presentations by some of the dance groups attending the gathering. These performances will take place on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

The conference will open with a barbecue on the first night, followed by traditional American square dancing and some reading of cowboy poetry. The final evening, in addition to the sharing of work developed during the week, will feature a banquet and Native American dancing.

All in all, this Third Gathering is shaping up to be an outstanding event, filled with lots of dancing and, hopefully, all the learning, sharing, engagement, and enjoyment that comes from daCi’s child friendly philosophies and objectives!
 

(October 2007)
Utah’s First Ever
“dance and the Child international – Day of Dance!”
South Jordan, Utah

At the innovative Daybreak Elementary and Community Center in South Jordan, Utah, we will “Remember the Old and Create the New” with world class dance presenters and teachers from throughout our state. It is a wonderful opportunity to have a lot of fun while learning more about daCi International, daCi USA, and daCi Utah.

Click here for more event information!
 

(Summer 2006)
Colouring Senses, Moving, Creating, Observing
Three Dimensions of the Dancing Child
daCi's 10th international conference

Colouring Senses will be a place where children and adults, experts and non-experts, artists and scientists, movers and observers, teachers, parents, policy makers and politics from all over the world meet, utilize their senses, explore, express, perceive and exchange information and, hopefully, will find more new ways of colouring the world of the child through dance.

Where: The Hague, Netherlands
When: July 2nd - July 8th, 2006
Information: www.daci2006.nl

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(Summer 2005)
Out of Many - We are One
daCi USA's 2nd Intergenerational Gathering
In collaboration with Temple University Department of Dance

Focused on children's voices and ideas, this Gathering brought communities together to collaborate and celebrate a meeting of hearts and minds. Through dance we find our connectedness while discovering our diversity.

The United States Chapter of dance and the Child international (daCi) in collaboration with Temple University Department of Dance hosted its second Intergenerational Gathering at Temple University, June 23-27, 2005.   The gathering titled, "Out of Many, We are ONE," which is the translation of the phrase on all US coins, "E Pluribus Unum" featured daily classes for youth ages 8-18, who were divided into elementary, middle, and high school groups.   For the adults there were special sessions and/or they chose to observe the children.   A faculty of over 25 experienced dance educators from across the USA taught based upon the theme of oneself and others.  

•  Day 1 explored the question: Who am I?  

•  Day 2 explored: Who are We?  

•  The final day focused on Who Will We Become?  

Cultural dance forms, dance making and sharing were infused into each day's dance process.   The evenings were spent with student performances, workshops and dancing all together.

View the conference schedule !

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(Summer 2001)
Connecting, Collaborating, Creating:
Best Practices in Dance Education!
daCi USA's 1st Intergenerational Gathering

Attending the gathering were over one hundred participants from all over the United States, and some from Canada, ranging in age from six to ninety something. Creative dance and dance making workshops were offered for age similar groupings ranging from elementary to adult.  

Instructors were:
Elementary School Class: Sam Baumgarten, Joni Urry Wilson
Middle School Class: Pat Debenham, Mary Ann Lee
High School Class: Margot Faught, Roy Fialkow
Adult Class: Anne Green Gilbert, Dionne Kamara

All of the creative dance and dance making classes focused on using the basic elements of dance to explore the general conference theme of Connecting, Collaborating, Creating.   The dance making sessions were facilitated differently within each group but were all student driven and process based as the "product" took shape.   Adult participants were invited to either be part of the adult dance making class or to float in and out of the other classes to observe or experience the process of the other groups.

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To promote dance for children and best practices in the teaching of dance to children across the United States, dance and the Child International USA encourages members to conduct a regional or statewide one day daCi USA day of teaching and professional development.

Click here to see how your organization can host a daCi Day of Dance!

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While traveling with children may seem daunting, the benefits of travel to a daCi event are myriad.

• Children have an important role in the proceedings. They learn new things from exciting, expert teachers.
  
• Cultural dance forms, new techniques, and creative process sessions make for engaging learning experiences.
  
• Children meet many other children who dance seriously, which can be an eye opener, and enhance their effort and commitment to your program.
  
• Attending a conference builds bonds of friendship. And in these days of Internet connectivity, these friendships are much more a part of children's lives than they were of ours.

An excerpt from the article "Take my Kids Where" by Jeanne Traxler (2004)