PNB now offers teacher workshops at your school. Workshops familiarize teachers with dance as an art form, as well as tools for using movement to support classroom learning. PNB teaching artists have a wide variety of experience in various fields, including literacy, early childhood development, infusing science and math, and choreography/composition. Custom and specialized sessions welcomed.  Minimum: 8 participants. Cost: $100.

For more information about this event and other Pacific Northwest Ballet Education Programs, please visit www.pnb.org/community.

Join Terry Goetz as she shares the origins and philosophy of the BrainDance. After Terry has taken you through the eight developmental movement patterns humans move through in the first year of life that wire the central nervous system, you will have a new appreciation and deeper understanding of how movement and the brain are linked. It is imperative that we provide healthy and fun movement experiences that help to counterbalance the increased time children are spending not moving as they sit in front of computer, TV, video, and cell phone screens. The BrainDance may be done in dance studios, classrooms, gyms, and homes. Moving through these fundamental patterns at any age may correct flaws in perceptual processing, enhance lifelong learning, and integrate body and mind for optimal brain function. Some benefits include improved alignment, connectivity, and expressivity; brain oxygenation for clarity and focus; reorganization of the neurological system; and development of core support. Participants will also learn variations and ways to to keep the BrainDance fresh, novel, and engaging for children in 1st grade through 6th grade. This workshop is appropriate for educators, dance teachers, teaching artists, OTs, PTs, and parents. The BrainDance is a profoundly flexible movement tool that is sequential and holistic. Don't miss this opportunity! 

Theresa Goetz is Director of Education and Outreach for the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington. Terry has been on the faculty of the Creative Dance Center since 2000 and began training intensively with Anne Green Gilbert in 1997. Terry has taught in preschools, elementary classrooms, and dance studios throughout the Seattle area since retiring from Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1995. Prior to performing with PNB, she was a member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater from 1986-1988. She presents to PEPS groups and Early Childhood specialists focusing on the importance of movement in the early years of life, and trains educators nationally and internationally in BrainDance and Brain-Compatible Dance Education. She serves on the dance team that is writing Grade Level Expectations for K-12 dance in Washington State public schools. Terry is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization and is the President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington.

For more infomration, or to register for this event, please visit www.creativedance.org/workshops/workshops.cfm.