Alabama Dance Council Professional Development

Ann Biddle with workshop participants

Exploring Poetry and Dance with Alabama Educators

On September 15th, I had the joy of facilitating a full-day workshop with K–12 Alabama Dance Educators in Birmingham, sponsored by the Alabama Dance Council. In our session, we explored the powerful intersections between poetry and dance through the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) pedagogy model.

Together, we examined the evocative language and rhythms in the poetry of Maya Angelou and Amanda Gorman, uncovering the embodied movement vocabularies woven into their words. Using the DEL Dance Framework as our guide, participants collaboratively crafted original movement phrases and group dances, discovering how creative movement can serve as an accessible and inclusive entry point for student expression.

We also reflected on how these ideas might translate into diverse classroom contexts and engaged in lesson planning aligned with the new Alabama Dance Standards, centering poetry as a catalyst for meaningful, culturally responsive dance-making.

DETAILS
When — September 15th, 2025
Where — Alabama Dance Council
Service — Facilitation