FALL CONFERENCE PRESENTERS
Providing professional experiences, empathic perspectives, and new knowledge
Sondra Fraleigh
Eastwest Director, Professor of Dance Emeritus, Fulbright Scholar & RSMT
Keynote Address: "Geographies of Us and Place Dances"
Sondra Fraleigh is an international leader in dance, yoga, and healing arts. She Is a Registered Feldenkrais® teacher, and certifies Registered Somatic Movement Educators and Therapists through ISMETA, International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association. She has been a professor of dance and somatics for over forty years in the Department of Dance at the State University of New York at Brockport and is a valued mentor to dancers and somatic practitioners in the USA, Europe, Japan, Mexico and India.
For more than 40 years, Professor Sondra Fraleigh has been a leader in the study of movement and dance. She is a Fulbright Scholar and professor emeritus of the State University of New York, College at Brockport, where she chaired the Department of Dance. Her innovative choreography based in somatics and inspired by butoh has been seen on tour in America, Germany, the UK, India and Japan. She served as president of the Congress on Research in Dance (renamed, Dance Studies Association) and as a Faculty Exchange Scholar for the State University of New York. Her articles have been published in texts on dance and movement, philosophy, somatics, and cognitive psychology. Some of her articles are available for download below.
Eastwest Institute features Shin Somatics® - an approach to healing and personal transformation developed by Sondra Fraleigh through her teaching of dance and movement, integrative bodywork, philosophy, and meditation. Her work is informed by her certification in the Feldenkrais® Method and CranioSacral Therapy - as also her study of Myofascial Release, Effective Communication, Japanese Butoh, Yoga, and Zen meditation.
Breakout Sessions

Still I Rise
Ashley Boyack
In this presentation, we will explore the work of Maya Angelou to help us make sense of hard things. In her poem, Still I Rise, we will examine how to fall and recover, and find peace within our own story. We will work on how people around the world have fought injustice and how we can translate that into movement language.
Target Audience: This session and lesson are geared towards 3-6th grade



Embraced for Being: Examining Racism in Dance Education Through Somatic Movement and Appreciative Inquiry
Lehua Estrada, Eleine Rojas, and Natasha Washington
This session serves to provide a shared and voluntary vulnerable space for dance educators who identify as Black, Indigenous, Native Hawaiian, Latine, Asian/Asian American, Pacific Islander, mixed-race, person of color. We recognize that systemic structures in education and the dance world, administrative and professorial privilege, as well as a lack of representation in dance education lead to enduring hardships and discrimination for our multicultural professionals and students. Through movement, storytelling, somatic process, improvisation, and discussion we desire to share our experiences and positionality, coalesce our energies and envision solutions that can one day lead to equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging for our K-12, higher ed, and professional arena dance students. We strive to celebrate our journeys, and move toward personal and communal healing and pleasure.
Target Audience: Dance educators who identify as Black, Indigenous, Native Hawaiian, Latine, Asian/Asian American, Pacific Islander, mixed-race, person of color

The Interactive Dance of K-12
Rachel Marie Kimball
K-12 students deserve to have equal, quality access to dance curriculum as with other core subjects! Join this session to learn about ways to achieve stronger vertical alignment of dance education in your district, including advocacy strategies and how to connect elementary and secondary dance programs for greater success.
Target Audience: K-12

Let's Dance!
Ashley Mott
This session is a class for dance educators who just want to take class, who miss moving for themselves instead of teaching others, or who want some take-away ideas and combos they could use next week! This is a straightforward modern dance technique class that you can adapt or modify to meet your own needs.
Target Audience: Participants open and willing to try things and adapt to their own level of physicality (both in terms of taking care of their bodies and/or challenging themselves as they see fit).

Katsugen Undo
Dmitri Peskov
We lay supine on the floor. We hold on to each other’s ankles. We breathe. We switch. We sway together. The Spine. The Spinal cord. The non-analytical thinking. Letting go of our survival instincts. Tapping into what the ancients called the “original mind”. Then…we move together…without thinking…listening with empathy to each other…thus …katsugen undo…a dynamic Japanese practice intended to bring the body’s energies into a natural and healthy state of balance….( https://www.ecole-itsuo-tsuda.org/en/katsugen-undo/)
Target Audience: Anyone who is comfortable with human contact is encouraged to participate.

Exertion <—> Recuperation Through Aerial Dance
Elizabeth Stich
Aerial dance utilizes suspended objects to allow the dancer to access space in a new way. In this somatic-based class, we will use the aerial fabric knot as a supportive partner to explore the theme of exertion <—> recuperation. No upper body strength required—come as you are ready to sweat, laugh, stretch, spin, go upside down, and play!
Target Audience: All Dance Educators

Pivoting with a Purpose: As we approach a post-pandemic era, is our dance education as equitable, inclusive, and accessible as we’d like to believe?
Jennifer Weber
This interactive session will be a blend of discussion and activities that will allow us to work collaboratively to define inclusive dance pedagogy and brainstorm ways to put these ideas into practice. We will begin by exploring our dance identities and then work to identify areas of inclusion that may be missing in our dance pedagogy.
Target Audience: All Dance Educators