You're invited! Luna's Space Exploration

Renovations are about to begin on Luna's new Berkeley studios! Come join Co-Executive Director Nancy Ng on a final virtual tour of the space before we break ground. With guest artists dancing through the building, Nancy will take you on a whimsical imagining of what Luna’s new building will hold and foster. There will be an opportunity for a virtual Q&A with Nancy about our new home at the end. Happening May 8, 5-5:30pm on Facebook Live. Discover more here.

Practitioner Exchange

Re-starting & Re-imagining 2.0

We started the year with this topic, and return to it as we close out to reflect and assess and connect with fellow dance educators. Some questions to play with: As you teach, how are you continuously restarting, how are you reimagining your curriculum, your classroom, your practice? How are you holding space for yourself and your students as artists, as co-learners, as community members? Hosted by teaching artists Genoa Sperske and Maura Whelehan.

Thursday, May 11

4:30-6pm Pacific via Zoom

$15-40, or $28 for unlimited Exchanges for 12 months

free for PL Users - RSVP to jperena@lunadanceinstitute.org

Details here

Coming up: Practitioner Exchange

Dance & Language Learning

As a kinesthetic, non-verbal language, dance can offer another way for humans to communicate, express themselves, and connect with others, and a medium through which to learn a new verbal language. What have you observed about language learning and communication in your dance teaching and in your students? How do you support emerging multilingual children in the dance classroom - in school, studio and community contexts? What structural challenges have you faced in supporting students classified as English Learners, and how have you overcome them? Join bilingual dance educators Kitty Conlon Macías and Andreína Maldonado as they dig into these questions and more. Bring your questions too!

Thursday, June 1

4:30-6pm Pacific via Zoom

$15-40, or $28 for unlimited Exchanges for 12 months

free for PL Users - RSVP to jperena@lunadanceinstitute.org

Details here

Dance educators, Practitioner Exchanges are a place for you! We hold these collaborative community roundtables each month around different inquiry topics. Bring your questions, your reflections, your experience to these conversations. All welcome.

Read about the impact of Practitioner Exchanges in Director of Programs Jochelle Pereña's research article, Through the Lens of Improvisation: Dance Educators Find Voice and Agency through Transformative Conversations.

Save the date: Radical Research panel

deepening + disrupting dance practices

We're thrilled to announce a new panel focusing on dance research. Luna invests in dance research as a way to advance our field. We also investigate what dance research can be, who shares it, who has access to it, and how it can be presented. Our Radical Research panel seeks to amplify the reflective rigor and depth of discourse of BIPOC dance researchers, whose perspectives are often overlooked. Come hear how three dance artist scholars are actively shaping the field of research. Featuring Crystal U. Davis, John-Mario Arcilla Sevilla, and Pei-Ling Kao. Free via Zoom on June 24. Discover more here.

Planning your PD for the next year

The Luna team has been dreaming up new workshops, and bringing back some classics for our 2023-24 year. Below is a sneak peek of these Zoom offerings, details and registration to come soon. Click on the links to read how we've talked about these workshops in the past.

In-person events, including a Summer Institute alumni reunion, are still in the works for when we open our new home next year. We can't wait to dance with you!

Fall 2023

Teacher as Practitioner-Scholar - using research course

Research can help advance our field - how do we use what's been written to support and expand our own inquiry? new!



Spring 2024

Love, Move, Play™ Dance in Early Childhood course

Throughout the year

Series of Dance & Preschool Learning Foundations workshops - Dance & Science, Dance & Math, Dance & SEL, Dance & Literacy, and more!

Monthly Practitioner Exchanges and free consults

As you're considering your PD plans, take a peek at Luna's list of grants to help fund your learning.

Luna is hiring!

Early childhood dance teaching artists

Consider joining the Luna team! We seek to hire two experienced Dance Teaching Artists to teach in our early childhood programs. In-person teaching will take place in Oakland and Berkeley early learning centers. Two positions are offered: a 50% teaching position, and a 75% position that is right for a dance artist who is interested in working closely in collaboration with classroom teachers and instructional aides in a coaching capacity. Full job posting in both English and Spanish here.

Advocacy spotlight:

Prop 28 Mini Conference

Join our friends with Arts Education Alliance of the Bay Area at the Oakland Museum of California May 11 for a FREE region-wide, day-long convening focused on the newly-approved Proposition 28 and its impact on the community arts education ecosystem. Connect and converse with peers about advocacy strategies, and hear from arts leaders. Danielle Bunch from Create CA and Letty Kraus, Director of the CCSESA Statewide Arts Initiative. Details & registration here.

Opportunities in the community

Many of our colleagues in public education are seeking teaching artists for the 2023-24 school year. Check out postings from:

San Francisco Unified School District

Berkeley Unified School District

Oakland Unified School District

Lafayette School District

De Anza High School in Richmond, CA

What's moving us:

Unpacking Trauma-Informed Teaching

"Effective, trauma-informed education is a full ecosystem, not a list of strategies. While it is tempting to just look for the most effective strategies ... strategies without adequate trust-building and context can easily fail."

Jennifer Gonzalez

Trauma-informed teaching has become a hot topic these days. Cult of Pedagogy's recent podcast digs into it via an equity lens in its latest podcast. No surprise, connecting with students is a big part of it. Listen here and consider how these practices can exist in the dance classroom.