Dance

Integrated Dance Collaboratory – Community Integrated Dance Education

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Dance for Parkinsons and Neuromuscular Conditions

DANCE, as a holistic experience, helps the body reconnect damaged nerve cells.
DANCE supports existing neural pathways and helps to create new, alternative neural pathways to replace those that have been lost.
DANCE increases body awareness using rhythmic counts and patterned steps. This new awareness supports greater movement function; safer encounters in your home, work, and recreational environments; and overall better brain health.

The setting is a large interior dance studio with a light brown shiny wooden floor. The photo’s foreground shows 2 older European American women sitting in profile, leaning forward in chairs, facing each other. They are mirroring each other’s movement with both their feet and their hands. Both women are wearing light summer clothes, including shorts and short-sleeve blouses in light colors. They are delighted at accomplishing their movement task and show their happiness in their brightly smiling facial expressions. In the blurry photo background are 3 other couples performing the same movement project of mirroring each other
The setting is a large interior dance studio with a light brown shiny wooden floor. In the photo’s foreground are 3 people sitting in chairs, in a row from left to right. All three people have linked their own hands together and are stretching their hands and arms straight to the left, across their torsos, causing each person’s upper body to twist slightly to the left of the photos. All three people are also stretching their torsos forward to extend their arm and hand stretches. All three individuals have planted their right foot on their floor in front of them to support their bodies’ tilt to the left and are also stretching their left foot to the back right space of the photo behind them to balance their bodies’ stretch. The first person on the left is an older woman with light short brown hair, wearing summery clothes, including green-checked shorts and a light white blouse with embroidered flowers. The second person from the left is her husband, with completely white hair, also wearing light-grey shorts and a short-sleeved light green shirt. The third person from the left is an African American woman with coffee-colored skin and greying hair in a bun at the back of her head, wearing dark blue shorts and a brightly-colored peacock blue T-shirt. The photo’s background depicts several collections of stored weights for weight training
The setting is a large dance studio. The photo shows two people sitting in chairs, facing one another. One Eruopean American woman, with light short brown hair, wearing a flowered blouse and green shorts, is seated facing to the back. A slim and tall European American man, with short balding greying hair, is seated facing front, wearing glasses and wearing a light blue polo shirt with a name tag titled “Dave” in capital letters, and wearing light tan shorts. Both individuals are mirorring each other’s upper body actions by slightly leaning to one side and stretching one arm and hand with relaxed fingers to that same side while the other arm and hand is gesturing lower and closer to their torsos. The man’s face has a faraway but concentrated look, because his challenging movement task is to copy his partner’s movement, while mirroring his partner’s opposite side, right to left
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Dance for Neurodivergent Populations

Supported in partnership with Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services (RCAAS)

Course Title: Dance & Movement for Autistic & Neurodivergent Adults
Listed under the Division of Continuing Studies
Mason Gross School of the Arts Community Dance

This dance class is designed to explore the concepts of space, time and rhythm, the body, and qualities of movement. This class will encourage a creative exploration of movement possibilities by working with various stimulating props to encourage participation and motivation when abstract ideas or too many verbal prompts are not engaging enough. The class will include learning steps that can be explored individually and together as a group. Dancing together as a group or in partners will be included in the class activities, but if the student prefers individual participation, the teacher will make that accessible. No dance training is required, and support guardians or teachers are allowed to participate with the student signed up for the course. If you wish to take this class online please email the instructor: ns1199@mgsa.rutgers.edu.

Fall Dance Sessions for Neurodivergent and Autistic Adults

This class is for adults 18 and older and will be done mostly in a chair and at a slower pace incorporating music and props to encourage adaptive movement participation that is taught at a slower pace.

Early Day Class
1 p.m.–1:45 p.m.

Session 1: 9/12–10/3 Register Here
Session 2: 10/17–11/7 Register Here
Session 3: 11/14–12/12* Register Here
*no class 11/28

 

This class is for adults 18 and older that teaches different dance styles and their history. The steps and choreography are designed for those who want to learn how to dance without experience.

Afternoon Class
2:15 p.m.–3 p.m.

Session 1: 9/12–10/3 Register Here
Session 2: 10/17–11/7 Register Here
Session 3: 11/14–12/12* Register Here
*no class 11/28

 

This class is for adults 18 and older that teaches different dance styles and their history. The steps and choreography are designed for those who want to learn how to dance without experience.

Night Class
6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

Session 1: 9/12–10/3 Register Here
Session 2: 10/17–11/7 Register Here
Session 3: 11/14–12/12* Register Here
*no class 11/28

 

The setting is a large dance studio, with curtains, white walls, and a light brown wooden dance floor. There are three people dancing. One person is a European American neurodivergent young woman wearing a multi-colored tunic, blue pants, and a yellow face-mask. She is skipping lightly in a circular pathway with 2 other dancers. The next dancer is the instructor, Natalie, a European American woman with long blonde hair, wearing a long grey shirt and black leggings, a pink face mask, and two different mismatched colorful socks. The third person dancing in the circle is a B.F.A. dance student volunteer. She is a young mixed-race African American woman with long hair in many braids, wearing a black face mask. Everyone is having fun dancing in a circle to music.”
The setting is a large dance studio, with curtains, white walls and a light brown wooden dance floor. There are four people dancing in the photos. One person dancing in the background is a European American neurodivergent young woman who is wearing a colorful tunic, blue pants and a yellow face-mask. She is dancing while playing with a colorful fuschia scarf prop in her right hand. The foreground of the photo includes six separate pieces of white paper with prompt printed on them face-up on the dance floor, including the words “Shapes,” “Speed,” “Balance” and 3 other words that are hard to read. These prompts are helping the dancers develop their own creative ideas about dancing. The next person in the photo is dancing in the middle-ground of the photo. She is an African-American young woman who is a B.F.A. dance student volunteer, wearing black top and sweatpants. She has long hair in many braids and appears to be dancing very slowly in response to a creative dance prompt. The third person dancing in the foreground is another neurodivergent young woman. She is a tall and slim European American young woman with long brown hair, wearing glasses, a long-sleeved light grey top and camouflage pants. She is looking down at one of the print prompts on the floor in front of her to decide how to move creatively next. The fourth dancer is Natalie, the dance class instructor, who is facing to the back of the room. She is a European American woman wearing a grey top and black leggings with 2 different colored socks
The setting is a large dance studio, with curtains, white walls and a light brown wooden dance floor. All four people in the dance class are standing in a small circle, facing each other. This circle is showing the end of the dance class when the instructor instructs the dancers in the class to form a community through the movements of their bodies. Everyone is holding both of their arms extended at shoulder height with their hands facing, but not quite touching the hands of the person next to them
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