By: Rebecca McGregor - LI Dance Teacher, VT State Dance Festival Coordinator, Mentorship Committee Member NDEO

“It was clear when the pandemic really took hold in our country last spring that I needed to embed new pedagogical approaches in movement and non-movement learning tasks in my dance curriculum,” explains Rebecca McGregor, Lyndon Institute’s dance teacher of 18 years.  “Never in my personal or professional life did I expect to raise a family or teach dance during a pandemic.  This experience has brought on many challenges, but also many wonderful opportunities.  Professionally, I saw this as a way to grow my students’ appreciation for the art of dance and truly develop themselves as movers by recognizing themselves as young adults, as learners, and as community members.”

The dancers at Lyndon Institute have spent the year moving safely with many precautions, outdoors in good weather and indoors with social distancing and masks. They have spent more time reflecting on their personal strengths and how to improve within their specialties, developing technical and anatomical skills-based movements to meet their physical and cognitive needs, and creating choreography that focuses on production elements beyond just the physicalities of moving and performing. Students have also embarked on a journey of dance evolution in various styles and genres which will be featured in the spring recital video.

On May 14th, McGregor will release the spring choreographies students in the LI Dance Program created and performed this semester.  The dances will be housed on the dance pages for Lyndon Institute:

www.lyndoninstitute.org/arts/dance/2020-2021-dance-videos

For young dancers in the community, Lyndon Institute provides a Summer Dance Intensive the last week of July.  Students in 10th, 11th and 12th grade who are current LI students can also receive credit for participating in the Summer Dance Intensive.  Registration is open and the forms and brochure can be found at:

www.lyndoninstitute.org/arts/dance/kick-it-summer-dance-camp

For more information about dance at Lyndon Institute, please contact: [email protected].