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ASL/CC
Dark Room Ballet: Simonson Jazz 11:45 AM to 12:45 PM EST Dark Room Ballet: Valentina Bertani
Break for Lunch!
Lightning Talks! 2:30 to 3:15 PM EST
2:30 to 2:40 PM: Intentional Slow Creation / Heather Banet
2:30 to 2:40 PM: Abilities Dance in the Community / Ellice Patterson
2:40 to 2:50 PM: Dance & Chronic Illness / Hailey Samarel
2:50 to 3:00 PM: Honoring the Minds and Bodies of Our Elders / Shannon Ward
3:00 to 3:15 PM: Grace period / open Q&A discussion
Confident Teachers Create Inclusive Spaces 3:30 to 4:00 PM EST Alexandra Phillips
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From Access to Agency: Rethinking Dance Pathways 4:00 to 4:30 PM EST David Blake
Vortex 3:30 to 4:30 PM EST Christopher "Unpezverde" Nunez
9:30 am - 10:15 am
Teaching Through Human-Centered Language w/ Alexandra Bellar
This interactive, movement-based webinar invites dance educators to examine how the language we use to describe movement shapes who feels included, capable, and seen in our classes. Rather than teaching toward fixed outcomes or idealized destinations, the session centers task-based approaches grounded in Bartenieff Fundamentals, emphasizing action, attempt, and underlying principles.
Through guided movement exploration, participants will experience how shifting from outcome-driven language (“what it should look like”) to task-based inquiry (“what is being attempted”) allows a wider range of bodies, abilities, and experiences to participate meaningfully. By prioritizing action over aspiration, educators can move away from utopian or idealized standards and toward more human-centered, autonomous, and subjective measures of success.
The session offers practical ways to reframe verbal cues, prompts, and assignments so that movement becomes a site of inquiry rather than achievement. This approach supports inclusive pedagogy, honors individual choice, and helps teachers meet students where they are—without lowering rigor or specificity.
Ballet Without Barriers: Designing Access w/ Todd Rhoades
This session explores Ballet Without Barriers, Ballet Des Moines’ company-wide accessibility initiative, as a practical and adaptable model for integrating dance and disability into educational settings, community programs, and professional organizations. Participants will examine accessibility as an artistic and pedagogical practice rather than an accommodation. The initiative includes an Accessibility Committee; audio and written descriptions of choreography and music; sensory-inclusive performances; touch-and-feel tours; adaptive virtual and in-person movement classes; and podcasts reaching homebound and geographically distant audiences. Through guided examples of audio description, listening-based and optional seated movement prompts, and facilitated discussion, participants will gain concrete tools, shared language, and implementation strategies applicable to their own programs, fostering equity, creativity, and belonging across diverse dance environments.
10:30 am - 11:15 am
A Sensory Approach to Dance Education w/ Sandi Stratton-Gonzalez
All humans engage with the senses. Understanding sensory needs and experiences is key to designing inclusive dance activities and dance spaces. Researchers estimate that 5-15 percent of humans are extremely reactive to the senses, and that this rate is considerably higher, 50 percent or more, in people with disabilities. In this interactive workshop we will explore our own and others sensory needs. Sensory characteristics will be described, and for each of the eight senses we will explore the needs of those who are Sensory Seeking, Sensory Avoidant and Minimally Responsive to sensory stimulation.
Guided by the social model of disability, we will explore the design of welcoming spaces for students that respect their sensory needs, honoring and accepting our students for who they are. For example, if a student in your classroom is averse to touch, you might choose mirroring as partnering activity rather than hand holding or other forms of contact. For students who seek vestibular input, vigorous jumping and turning combinations can be created and wobble cushions provided. Sensory characteristics and sensory strategies will be explored for each of the eight senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory, vestibular, proprioceptive and interoceptive.
The workshop includes a PowerPoint presentation, a narrate, kinesthetic exploration of the senses and small group conversations. Digital resources will be provided.
Dancing While the World Burns w/ Danica Anderson
This session introduces the Kolo circle—a trauma-informed, embodied oral memory practice—as a disability-inclusive pedagogy that integrates social engagement found in circles, dance, song, storytelling, and community ritual. Drawing from work with refugee women, survivors of gender-based violence, and immigrant communities impacted by ICE, the session explores how movement circles address invisible disability, social isolation, and care fatigue. Together, we reimagine dance as a site of advocacy, not aesthetics. Participants will experience adaptable practices for virtual and in-person settings, supporting lifelong disability access, especially for those marked by trauma, poverty, caregiving, and exile. The Kolo framework invites us to dance in witness, in solidarity, and in circular re-connection.
Designing Inclusion at the Point of Creation w/ Brian Golden
This hybrid lecture and movement session explores how inclusion can be designed at the point of creation rather than added later as accommodation. Drawing on my work as a disabled and neurodivergent choreographer and educator, the session explores how a single idea can be accessed through multiple learning approaches, utilizing translation as a creative tool.
Centered on the shared concept of expansion and deflation, participants engage with the same material through varied entry points.The session begins with observing a balloon expand and deflate, followed by a brief movement exploration that invites participants to embody expansion and deflation in different parts of the body. Participants will then write a short poem inspired by these sensations, translate the poem into movement, and finally free sketch based on what the movement evokes in the body.
By translating across observation, movement, writing, and drawing, the session demonstrates that there are multiple, equally valid ways to engage with one idea. The workshop frames access as collaboration, showing how designing inclusion early deepens creativity, connection, and artistic rigor across dance education and performance contexts.
Disability-Led Approaches to Choreography w/ Kathryn Gayner and Jerron Herman
This movement-based, experiential workshop explores disability as a generative force in dance-making rather than a limitation to be accommodated. Drawing from their long-standing collaboration with the NDI DREAM Project, Kay Gayner and Jerron Herman share inclusive choreography strategies developed with dancers with and without disabilities. Participants will engage in embodied movement experiences, video examples, and guided discussion that demonstrate how choreographic structures can support access, differentiation, and artistic rigor simultaneously. Centering partnership, agency, and high expectations, the session offers practical tools for creating inclusive dance spaces that prioritize artistry, equity, and joy across educational, community, and professional contexts.
11:45 am - 12:15 pm
Regulation Is Access: Inclusive Dance Pedagogy w/ Mallory Quinn
Access in dance education is often framed as accommodation after difficulty arises. This session reframes access as a prerequisite for learning, rooted in nervous system regulation rather than compliance-based discipline.
Drawing from applied behavior analysis, Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), and somatic regulation, this presentation explores how inclusive pedagogy can support neurodivergent and disabled dancers without lowering artistic standards. Participants will examine how sensory load, emotional regulation, and instructional design impact learning, retention, and participation in real-world dance spaces.
Through practical examples from studio-based dance education outside of clinical settings, this session offers concrete strategies for reducing harm, increasing access, and designing learning environments where a wider range of bodies and nervous systems can thrive. The goal is not to “fix” dancers, but to redesign systems so more dancers can meaningfully engage in dance training.
Dark Room Ballet: Simonson Jazz w/ Valentina Bertani
Simonson dance class is designed to offer an active experience of body movement through an organic and conscious approach.
During this lesson, you will be able to understand how our body can perform movement in the most anatomically correct way by following brief but very clear instructions, so as to become familiar with the sensations to be felt in order to perform the technical gesture in the best way for your body.
The strength of this technique is that by experimenting with the body's internal origin of movement, the study experience becomes more conscious and the body memorizes each exercise faster and more effectively.
I think it is very important to focus on the bodily experience that is experienced during a class of this technique, because the sensations on the body and in the thoughts become so positive and all encompassing that it is also reflected in everyday life.
1:00 - 1:30 pm
Committee Welcome and Community Gathering
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Lunch Break
2:30 pm - 3:15 pm
Lightning Talks - 4 mini sessions in 1
Hear from: Heather Banet, Ellice Patterson, Hailey Samarel, and Shannon Ward on the following topics
Intentional Slow Creation w/ Heather Banet
Intentional slow creation practice allows for integrating rest, basic breathwork, and mindfulness practices into the creative process. How do we intentionally slow down to touch base with our individual and community needs? Intentional slow creation in the dance realm may involve visualizing, writing, or basic art-making practice as a precursor to movement as a way to slow down the bodymind. Slowing down ultimately allows us to merge mental, physical, and emotional creativity, while we all find an individual pace of creation that works the best for us.
Abilities Dance in the Community w/ Ellice Patterson
Listen to this lightning round talk of the importance of why Abilities Dance being in the community (as opposed to one stationary site) creates movement that is truly adaptive to the students and the environment they are in. This movement utilizes adaptive balletic themes that are fluid to the cultures, age ranges, and more that our students and teachers thrive in.
Dance & Chronic Illness w/ Hailey Samarel
My lightning talk session will incorporate information and tools on how dance educators can be more inclusive to their chronically ill students. My session will inform individuals of their potential duties including setting up meetings with these students, still having expectations of them, still offering opportunities to them, still giving them artistic expression, still providing accommodating assignments, still checking in with them just as much as the other students, etc. Not only will I bring up why educators should be doing these things, but also how they should be going about them. I will elaborate on where to start this process and how it should be executed with the care it deserves. There is so much effort, time, and dedication that educators need to give to these students who are struggling with their health. This is especially true in a world where these students are dancers and are constantly utilizing their physical body as well as taxing their mental and emotional health because of that. I would love to help ease that process and give out ideas on how to do this so that those students do not feel left out. In a time when chronic illness is on the rise, I feel that it is so important that these topics are brought up. Times are changing and as educators we need to not only understand that but also be accommodating to that. It is challenging to talk about this topic as it is very sensitive to many people which is why I would also like to acknowledge in the session that educators have chronic illnesses too, because young students are not the only ones who struggle with that. Nevertheless, simply talking about this more will help these students tremendously, which in return will also help our amazing educators.
Honoring the Minds and Bodies of Our Elders w/ Shannon Ward
As our population ages, more people are living with and acquiring disabilities. Neurocognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias affect movement, cognition, and daily functioning, often leading to physical and cognitive disabilities. Older adults, particularly those with dementia, are also at higher risk of social isolation and falls, which limit wellbeing and increase risk for adverse health outcomes. Dance uniquely integrates movement and social connection, and supports balance, mobility, cognition, and quality of life. This talk explores how dance educators can create inclusive and accessible spaces that empower older adults, particularly those with disabilities, to keep moving, connecting, and exploring their creativity.
Other Sessions
Rethinking "Good Dance": Ableist Aesthetics w/ Valkyrie Yao and Shixuan Zhang
What counts as “good dance” is not neutral. This hybrid virtual workshop introduces ableist aesthetics and explores how inherited standards of beauty, quality, and virtuosity can privilege certain bodies while marginalizing others. Through guided discussion, we will map how norms such as control, symmetry, endurance, speed, and technical mastery shape pedagogy, assessment, and creative decision-making. Participants will reflect on their own experiences of injury, changing capacity, or teaching, and translate insights into a practical toolkit centered on five core practices: choice-based participation, consent-based pacing, attention redirection, reframing capacity as variable rather than fixed, and flexible assessment language. Options for seated participation, camera on/off, self-paced timing, and choice-based engagement are built in.
Supports for Dancers with Significant Disabilities w/ Brittany Helwig
Many dance programs unintentionally exclude individuals with significant disabilities by requiring a minimum level of independence or skill. This session focuses on the power and responsibility of open eligibility criteria, where participation is based not on independence, but on safety and available supports.
Participants will learn how to design inclusive dance classes that prioritize belonging, friendship, and joy over technical skill development—recognizing that for some dancers, this may be the only organized activity they ever experience. Drawing from real-world practice, this workshop shares concrete strategies for staffing, volunteer roles, class structure, choreography, safety considerations, family collaboration, and adaptive movement.
This session invites educators to reimagine access, celebrate every dancer, and build environments where people with significant disabilities are not just included—but valued and celebrated.
Dance and (Neuro)-Diversity: Cultivating Community w/ Amber Hongsermeier
In this session, we will explore neurodiversity through the framework of somatic movement philosophy, incorporating elements of lecture, discussion, and movement. This approach is valuable for understanding the differences in neurocognitive functioning between neurotypical and neurodivergent dancers. The primary distinctions between these groups are reflected in their communication styles, social interactions, and sensory processing abilities. Many neurodivergent students face challenges with proprioception (the awareness of body position) and interoception (the awareness of internal bodily states). We will examine and practice somatic approaches to dance education, including breathwork, meditation, and body scanning. These techniques can help address the sensory challenges that many neurodivergent dancers experience, both internally and externally. The ultimate goal of this session is to enhance each dancer's sense of belonging, both within their own bodies and within the dance community.
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Confident teachers create inclusive spaces w/ Alexandra Phillips
Creating safe, inclusive, and accessible dance spaces for people with disabilities is less about managing diagnoses and more about feeling confident. When you feel confident, you naturally feel inclusive. Inclusion is not a checklist; it’s a feeling, an embodiment, a practice, and a commitment.
In this session, you will:
Whether you have taught dancers with disabilities before or are just beginning, this session will help you build confidence, embrace inclusion as a natural part of your teaching, and create classes where all dancers can thrive.
From Access to Agency: Rethinking Dance Pathways w/ David Blake
This session explores how the dance field can honor established pathways while actively moving toward greater justice and agency for artists within today’s policy and institutional environments across educational and professional contexts. Drawing on decades of professional performance experience, mentorship within major productions, and insight in arts administration and cultural policy, the session bridges practice with reflective leadership. Participants will consider how policies and inclusion frameworks often succeed in intention but fall short in daily rehearsal rooms, classrooms, and professional spaces. Through storytelling and guided dialogue, attendees will be invited to shift from access alone toward supporting artists’ lives on and beyond the stage, helping all artists thrive.
Vortex w/ Christopher Unpezverde Núñez
Vortex” prioritizes an internal sensory experience, moving beyond conventional visual aesthetics in dance by focusing on the gentle awakening of the body, through integrated proprioceptive breathing and stimulation via bioelectrical impulses.
Proprioceptive breathing develops core strength, stability, alignment, coordination, and an awareness of body orientation.
Bioelectricity is the natural electric current that powers essential bodily functions. In the context of the “Vortex” practice, dancers visualize their bodies as an intricate electrical system. This internal network generates the signals that regulate thought, heart rate, and muscle contractions, allowing the dancers to consciously refine the velocity, force, and amplitude of their movements.
Vortex creates dynamic, experiential movement through an internal, bodily frame of reference
4:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Virtual Summit 2026 Film Fest: Filmmakers' Panel
D&D Committee with film presenters Marisa Hamamoto, Shannon Mockli, Petra Kuppers, Nicole Heikkila-Popkin and Celia Weiss Bambara