RECOMMENDATION ZONE

Read, watch, or experience something inspiring?

Send your favorites to newsletter@daciusa.org

This is a short trailer about Air Play, a wonderful show by Acrobuffos, a very talented pair of physical theater artists/clowns. They use all kinds of “air sculptures” to beautiful and funny and emotional effect. Catch them if they land near you!

From Anna Mansbridge, Seattle

I am reading a fascinating new book called May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future by Chris Martin. He is a published poet who has been working with autistic youth for many years. The book combines cuttingedge neuroscience with beautiful poetry written by his students. Whether you are a poet or teacher or both, you will find this book educational and inspiring.

From Judith Nelson, Rhinebeck, NY

Here is a wonderful solo performance by the young tap dance great, Michelle Dorrance, performing with the fabulous Jon Batiste and Stay Human, seen on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Three minutes of pure joy!

In my mind daCi is a powerful tool to bring people together through dance, a powerful tool for peace and under-standing. This article features dance at the core of a community of color, a community that recently suffered a grievous attack. Dance is central to bringing them back together and, bit by bit, healing them.

From Carol Day, Park City UT

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Unspoken: A Funeral through Dance" is a seven-minute documentary on the creation of a solo by Paul Lightfoot, former artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theatre. He made the solo for his father who died in isolation during the pandemic. The doc includes Paul Lightfoot speaking about the work, rehearsal footage, and then a performance of the solo by a beautiful dancer, Sebastian Haynes. It is a moving portrait of grief and loss and hope.”

Susan Leigh Foster, prominent dance scholar at UCLA, gave a lecture and performance titled “What Dancing Does, ” available on YouTube. There are intros by other speakers at the start but you can jump over them to 6:20 where Foster begins and explains (and moves!) the many ways that dance functions – physiologically, psychologically, socially, aesthetically, and politically. It is dense but becomes more accessible with a repeat viewing.

Check out the baseball scene in Damn Yankees, choreographed by Bob Fosse. He shows you can make dance out of anything!

From Heather Francis, Salt Lake City, Utah

Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence by Thalma Lobel has been a fun read for me amid what feels like a very heady literature review on embodied learning in adult education that I’m completing for a master's degree in Instructional Psychology.

Each chapter focuses on a different physical sense and how it impacts our perception and daily life. For example, it describes studies that show how holding a warm cup of coffee or touching a soft object made participants view other things or others as more endearing or warmhearted. That’s a simplistic summary; the real details are in the book and are very accessible.

From Deborah Lipa-Ciotta, Buffalo, NY

Teacher‘s Guide to Resiliency through the Arts is a book by daCi member Cally Flox with coauthors Melissa Sadin and Nathan Levy.

I read this book and then gave it to my school’s administration. Great tool for advocating for my program!

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