Guest Lectures for College Dance Education Programs

        Ellen is available to guest lecture in person locally in the Greater NY area or remotely. Her lectures focus on how dance can be the treatment of choice for children who learn differently, relating to movement through the eyes of a child with disabilities, and understanding how informed fun movement activities can be incorporated into lesson plans.
The interactive evidence-based lecture includes information about the Education of the Handicapped Act (1986), IDEA (1990), IEPs and understanding disabilities when working with children. The basic elements of movement – Space, Time and Energy – are explored to evaluate movement challenges through an informal assessment tool Ellen calls “The Movement Evaluation Continuum”. The MEC defines functional movement, underlying motor skills, neuromuscular factors, client factors and sensory processing. The interactive lecture includes 8 easy to learn dance activities that target a challenge and how to integrate the activity into a lesson plan. The lecture also includes a video of 18 children with autism and other neurological challenges in a movement class illustrating and illuminating key concepts. Additional informed, fun movement activities are presented targeting diminished sense of space, time and energy, body awareness, body image, self-esteem, spatial relation, spatial awareness, spatial orientation, postural alignment, right- left discrimination, timing, relatedness, social skills, locomotion, eye tracking, perception, inhibition, attention, motor skills, and motor planning.

The lecture/lab typically runs 2 hours and can be customized to meet the academic needs of your program. Please reach out to Ellen directly at [email protected] to discuss setting up a workshop for the Fall 2024/Winter 2025 academic year.