A sharing from Eugenia Lanaux, co-founder of Creative Outlet Dance Center in Fairhope, Alabama.
As a dance teacher and studio owner in Fairhope, Alabama, I often took my staff and a few students to the Alabama Dance Festival. I think it was in the mid-eighties when I took a movement workshop with Mary Foshee and Sylvia Sycamore Toffel [staff members of The Dance Foundation at the time] during one of the professional development opportunities. I felt immediately connected with them as their philosophy of dance training was exactly the same as mine, quite different from traditional studios. I studied interdisciplinary arts for children with an emphasis in dance in college and graduated with this degree. When we started ‘contact improvisation’, they spoke my language! We explored Space, Time, and Force with creative movement, and my confidence in my teaching curriculum was reinforced. I immediately purchased the Dance To Grow syllabus and the musical cassette tapes and used them throughout my 40 years of teaching. As an added bonus, I was able to procure funds to bring Mary and Sycamore to the Fairhope Public Schools with their ‘Math in Motion’ performance.
When my granddaughter, Danner, started taking classes at the Dance Foundation when she was three years old, I was over the moon to observe her in class, learning the principles of dance in the perfect age-appropriate way that I knew and loved. She is 10 years old now, and I look forward to seeing her dance and grow with the Dance Foundation. My daughter, Mary Katzman, is a board member, and I love that they are both a part of this incredible pillar of Arts in Education, that inspired me so many years ago.
#DanceFoundation50
Photo of Math in Motion, including Mary Foshee (top right) and Sycamore Toffel (bottom left).
