Dance Unscripted

Ep 8: Empowering Educators Though Movement with Lydia Hance & Ashley Horn

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In this episode of Dance Unscripted, host Amy Elizabeth engages with Lydia Hance and Ashley Horn from Frame Dance to explore the innovative Kinetic Classrooms initiative. The conversation delves into the evolution of Frame Dance, the integration of movement into educational settings, and the importance of empowering educators to enhance student engagement and resilience. The discussion highlights the research behind Kinetic Classrooms, the connection between physical and mental development, and the role of joy in learning. Ultimately, the episode emphasizes the transformative potential of dance education in fostering emotional regulation and social skills among young learners.


Season One of Dance Unscripted is brought to you by a grant from the Lamar University Center for Resiliency.

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@framedance

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facebook.com/framedanceproductions

Website-

https://www.framedance.org/

LinkedIn- 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-hance/

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Amy Elizabeth:

Welcome to Dance Unscripted. I am your host, Amy Elizabeth. Today's episode, we are joined by Lydia Hance and Ashley Horn of Frame Dance, a hub for innovation in dance education. Lydia is a choreographer, curator, filmmaker, educator, and dance writer. She holds degrees in dance performance and English literature from Southern Methodist University, is the founder and artistic director of Frame Dance, and the chief curator of Frame by Frame Film Festival. Ashley is the Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy at Frame Dance. She has been teaching dance with a focus on early childhood, neural development, and pedagogy for over 20 years in public schools, studios, and community centers, among many additional educational roles. We're going to take a deeper look into the future of education with Lydia and Ashley as they introduce Kinetic Classrooms, where movement is central to the learning experience empowering children to reach their full potential academically, socially, and emotionally. Lydia, Ashley, thank you so much for joining us today on Dance Unscripted.

Lydia Hance:

Thanks for having us.

Amy Elizabeth:

Yes. This is... When I was looking over the material, I had this moment where I thought, yes, and duh. Because I feel like as dancers, we understand, as dancers and dance educators, we understand the power of movement in every aspect of our lives. And I feel like this is really such... a practical, concrete way of finding its way back into the education system, if you will. So let's get started today. Lydia, can we begin with you and maybe a little history behind Frame Dance, how the organization grew from inception to this new initiative?

Lydia Hance:

Sure. So in 2010, which seems so long ago now, I founded Frame Dance as a professional dance company. We made site-specific work. We did a lot of audience engagement and screen dance. And so I was thinking about accessibility in terms of audience and trying to connect essentially audiences to modern dance and ways to break that down, ways to make that exciting. And Frame Dance has really developed over time to include a lot more. So in about 2014, I started the Multi-Gen Ensemble, which was a performing group that worked separately from the professional dancers and included people of all ages and backgrounds. There were a lot of families who participated together, and I just I just fell in love with that process of looking at dance making from another angle and helping other people see themselves as dancers. You know, all the while, I think, like a lot of dancers and choreographers, we teach. And so kind of all along in the background, I had this– I had a teaching practice. And I really– it just kind of– it kind of plugged along. But like the– like the– the dance making, I was also interested in where dance education could happen in different places. And so that just naturally opened up a lot of opportunities to teach in different places, community centers, public school, libraries, and one of the community partners that we still work with today, which is the Houston Area Women's Center. We work with the children in the shelter who are survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. And so we've looked at dance in just a lot of different contexts. And then, you know, I kind of had this moment where, and through the pandemic, we danced outside. And along the way, I sort of started to connect the professional dancers and the multi-generational dancers, and then also start early childhood dance program. And so we opened up our own brick and mortar studio during the pandemic, which was very exciting, but the right time for us. Absolutely. We kind of took that And then the program has just really developed from there. And as the program grew, I had people start to ask me about sort of my vision for the education program. And, you know, one question I always talk about, which was always like the strangest thing to me was like, do you have a Sugarland frame dance? No, like I would never, ever consider this a type of like, in my mind, never consider it like a chain. Right. You know what I mean? You know, people ask questions and it really, it's great. great when people ask questions that i've never heard before because you know we stay in our own kind of lane but um it got me thinking like where is where is the impact going to be you know i had that sort of like approach you know at my age you know like what is my legacy what what's happening what's the impact and and at that time we were also teaching in a variety of schools around town sending teachers out into schools and i thought that just doesn't feel that's great and wonderful and meaningful to be taking our teachers and sending them out to places, but it just didn't seem right. So with Ashley, who has been with Frame Dance all along the way, a founding member in the professional company and has just been my collaborator from literally the beginning in art making and in education. The first step really was we want to train. We believe that the way that we're teaching children, the way that we're teaching adults, but the way that we're teaching children is innovative. It is based in research and a lot of experience in a variety of situations. I think the way that we're going to make the most impact is by taking our pedagogy and perhaps our curriculum and teaching teachers to then go teach. It was a Big, big project developing teacher trainings and taking our studio curriculum and putting it to paper. But even there, and it was a lot of work, right? We have, you know, the family curriculum, the primary curriculum, the kinder curriculum. It's a lot of pages. It's a lot of information, a lot of work. And Ashley was very patient with me and Carolina, who has helped doing the design of it all. And it took until like that was finished. And we went into like a visioning session and a woman, Marianne Stone, came and she asked us this question and she said, what is the future of education? And... we wrote like all these really it's you know really negative things we had a very bleak idea of what the future of education was for children and she said but what if you can change that and at that point we were like oh my goodness you know what if all of this information what if all of these social emotional all the social emotional learning and outcome what if all of what if all of this material were converted to a classroom and the teachers were teaching to teach movement are our dance teachers, but the teachers we're teaching to teach movement are classroom teachers. And so that began Kinetic Classrooms.

Amy Elizabeth:

Yeah, so you're talking about already being in the school systems and sending your teachers. So you've trained these teachers in your curriculum and you send them into the schools. Is this, they're in the actual day-to-day or is this an afterschool program or a special session that they go to outside of the classroom?

Lydia Hance:

So we are actually preparing first pilot of, so the first pilot in the fall. So the idea is that kinetic classrooms is not an add-on, but it is movement that flows with different components that we can certainly go into throughout the school day, that it is movement that is used to move, to start the day that is the backbone of circle time. It is movement that helps with classroom skills. It is movement that helps children transition from room to room or from activity to activity. It is movement that we turn to with children when they are being introduced to language and literature.

Amy Elizabeth:

But up to this point, what frame dance was offering in the classroom was not that inclusive. It was more of like a session outside of academia that happens throughout the day. Yeah. So trying to frame this for the listeners of the transition between what was to the possibilities of what could be. Ashley, as the director of curriculum and pedagogy, I've What point did the focus shift from a dance learning environment to the academic classroom? I mean, Lydia kind of talked on that. If you can talk about how this idea transpires as being in the process of creating that curriculum.

Ashley Horn:

Sure. Well, we wrote our studio curriculum and then we had a few years where we could go into charter schools and public schools and do teacher trainings where we would talk about early childhood brain development and how it related to movement. And we would show them different ways to incorporate dance into their classroom. And when we get to the end of the session every time, the things that the teachers wanted to talk about were classroom management skills because I had touched on them earlier. And I found that we have answers for all of these classroom management issues that they have through movement because we have tested them in the studio, but because we know children are built to move and movement has such a profound impact on their developing nervous system. that we really thought like, how can we with this kind of like treasure chest of activities that we have built to help students be regulated and have all of these classroom skills, how can we give these to the teachers? And so we spent some time developing that, but then we also recognized that there was this kind of roadblock that we'd come up to where teachers would say, I'm not a dancer. And that statement is, it's so hard to overcome because as adults, as a profession that is dominated by women. We are so critical of our body and what it does. And when we start asking people to dance and move, this kind of introspection, this kind of self-criticism starts. And so how can we help classroom teachers who may not have had an extensive dance education, how can we help them feel comfortable and successful with a dance element in their classroom? So we developed kinetic classrooms, which is not something that they have to kind of search around and develop their own curriculum. It is a day by day schedule of movement activities that build upon each other so that they can learn classroom skills and concepts that support their academic pursuits like math and reading that help develop their social emotional skills that develop them physically, whether it's like their eye coordination, their gross motor movement, their fine motor movement, all of these things in a like a super easy day one you do this. Day two, you do this so that there is like no confusion, no extra work. We really stepped away from ourselves as like dance educators and dancers. And we were like, how can we write this for people who are not people who have been in a studio, who have talked about dance a lot? How can we just write this in a way that is like accessible language to everybody? And that is where I think this is going to find success because we have made it just The easiest thing that we recognize brings harmony and joy and like a classroom experience that is enjoyable and efficient for everybody. This

Amy Elizabeth:

is exciting. I'm getting excited hearing about it. But there is something that you had mentioned earlier, this idea of the teacher themselves. I'm not a dancer. Part of my mission with this podcast and what I do here in Southeast Texas is helping our teachers general community understand that if you are a moving, breathing being, you are a dancer and that you understand what movement is. And you may not feel empowered yet because you don't have the language yet. And I feel like that's what you're doing for them is creating this language for them so that they feel comfortable with something that they don't know they already know or that they already have the baseline. And I think, yes, that is really important. And it goes beyond just the children's education, which is, yes, we're focused on, on the child's education, but the educator is the one who is propelling that forward. And they set the tone for the, for the class, for the project, for the culture of that environment. And so empowering them, that's the part that really stood out to me is yes, just most great. Yes, yes, yes. But yes, for those who can't see who are just listening, she was talking about, you know, most people don't identify as dancers. I'm shaking my head back here. No, no, no, no. Um, And we've actually come up with a term thus far. I've come up with a term for it for non-identifying dancers. You don't identify as a dancer. And part of that identity is that it's not something that you're consciously aware of every day. And it's how we define movement. It's how we define dance. And I feel this has the opportunity to help kind of break outside that box and kind of push that forward a little bit. a little bit that. We're all moving, breathing beings, and we can all benefit from this movement. And I'm interested to see the teacher's response to how they feel about themselves engaging in this movement and also in the spontaneity and the creativity of the projects. That is, oh, that's so exciting. So we stated that the goal of kinetic classroom is to help the students feel more focused, emotionally grounded and engaged while supporting the teachers, easing their stress and preventing their burnout. But I'd like to focus first on the student's ability to focus and remain engaged. So can we give an example or an illustration of how kinetic classroom would enhance the student's experience specifically through focus and remaining engaged?

Ashley Horn:

Sure. We know that students, especially very young students, are asked now to sit still for longer and longer periods of time. And that does just not agree with the way their brain works. And it has negative or Yeah, absolutely. need to, you know, have these like tactile experiences where they're getting feedback from all their nerve endings. They need all of these things for their brain to be awake, for their brain to be engaged, for their brain to be risk-taking. And we know that these things can help provide that for them.

Amy Elizabeth:

Here's the word risk taking. Absolutely.

Ashley Horn:

Risk play is a vital part of childhood education, and it's something that we, you know, I understand wanting to mitigate risk in a child's life. I'm a mom, Lydia's mom, and I never want my kids to experience hurt or failure, but children learning about risk through their own experiences is so, so important for them understanding their life as an adult, arriving with all of this And so what we have done is we've built this structure. that are associated with memory. And you hold on to things when those little parts of your brain where you take risks are activated. I could talk about this for a long time, but taking risks as a child, it develops a much more resilient, creative adult.

Amy Elizabeth:

All right. You've used our keyword twice already, and I'm very excited about that. Talk to me more about this idea of they're becoming more resilient. So how does this show up in the young people that you're working with when you say that's resiliency? How do you see it? How do you identify it?

Lydia Hance:

I think it's just the abundance of opportunities for multiple answers and multiple ways of interpreting what we're asking them to while still really being able to also be following the directions. And I think that something that we talk about is mental friction and just how easy it is to get information, how children are expected to do something correct or right, or whether it's a standardized test, just everything is very, very binary and the pressure to get something right or not to provide their own idea or option or or creative problem solving is, you know, being taken away. This idea of allowing children to struggle through an idea is just, it's really important, you know, just in order to build their, their muscles and their strength in order to persevere, to reach the place that they're getting to. They're just, you know, they're growing up, they're growing up in an iPad world and everything is very, very quick and very gratifying and very quickly. And, and so, I think that that is just a value that we have and something that we believe that arts education integrated into a school day brings.

Amy Elizabeth:

That's fantastic. So Kinetic Classrooms is rooted, you say, in the latest research on brain development and child psychology. So can we talk more about the research behind this program? And I know like you just said mental friction. I'm not sure that all of our listeners know exactly what mental friction is or how you're identifying it in this way. But what is some of these research topics that are really being focused on in kinetic classrooms?

Ashley Horn:

Well, we're really looking at a child's brain where it is exactly when they're three, exactly where it is when they're four, exactly where it is when they're five, because they're not just adult brains shrunk down. They're like a completely different working system that it's a child's brain's goal and job and life is to grow. And so we are learning about all the different ways that they're growing and we are building movement activities that directly support the growth of the child at that age.

Amy Elizabeth:

Sorry, it froze and I got scared for a second, but that's okay. Okay, so one thing that that you just said is that the child's brain is not the adult brain. And I think that that's kind of the misperception misconception here is I don't know exactly where a three year old's brain is supposed to be, or four or five or six, but it is very much that the development stages up until the fully developed brain, which I believe they say something around in our 20s is when we can actually start to make some really solid decisions. And so I guess I'm curious as Yeah, absolutely. focused on how the brain and what the brain needs. So can we dive a little bit into that on what are some of the differences? Like I said, a three-year-old versus an eight-year-old.

Ashley Horn:

Sure. From birth to five is the fastest physical growth of a brain. And so a three-year-old is physically putting the building blocks of their brain together. They're laying the roads, they're building the buildings. And so we're giving them kind of sensory information that helps them build the roadmap that they're going to use for their entire life. Whereas an eight-year-old, they're still doing that, but it has really slowed down. And now they're really refining. They're really learning more. They're making everything stronger that is already there. I mean, and it's, you know, there's bleed over. A three-year-old is refining. An eight-year-old is still building. But as far as like the main goal, younger is building, older is refining. I

Amy Elizabeth:

guess I'm curious because I said like when I was teaching preschool, I was mainly focused on the physical development And knowing my right foot from my left foot. that connection between the physical and the mental psychological?

Ashley Horn:

for a whole life. And so this physical, it's not, it's, you know, it's so important. And I get really like passionate about it because it's so important for children to move around for their future success. And do you think,

Amy Elizabeth:

oh, sorry, go ahead. Sorry.

Lydia Hance:

That's an element that I think is special about this is because we are working in early childhood. It is also where they are going through very, they're going from a, they're taking a big, they're going a big distance and in terms of their understanding of relationship to each other and their ability to interact in a classroom, where to have boundaries, how to stand up for yourself, where to be collaborative. What does play look like when you're two versus when you're six? And so, you know, a lot of what we're doing in the curriculum is helping really build, I keep saying classroom citizenship. I don't know. I feel like it sounds like such like a dramatic term, but just really. Who they are, you know, in a classroom full of other little children and little minds who are developing at such a rapid rate and how are we supporting their relationship to one another in the classroom? And so you'll see activities in the curriculum where we're asking them to work together or we're asking them to work in opposition or we're asking them to work as a team, as a unit, how their ways that they're sharing space or sharing levels or following a formation and a line that kind of sit to support the class as it already is, but they're doing it from really a creative movement, mindful.

Amy Elizabeth:

Yes. I was just thinking that this took me, you know, I teach in higher education. I do not teach young people on a regular basis anymore. And now I'm having this conversation. I have a We talk a lot in my classroom about understanding the role as a part of the whole and identifying the self and then who the self is in this space and then what the contribution is, what collaboration is. And I guess I'm highlighting my ignorance now that as I didn't think about that being so important as a young person, as a, I'm not thinking of a child asking the question, who am I? And that is something that I've grappled with for the majority of my adult life. And I've taken it on almost as a question of curiosity to keep myself in forward motion. Who am I? Who am I now? Who do I want to be now in this space, in this time? What is my contribution? What is my impact? But I mean, yeah, my eyes are large right now because my mind is blown at this idea that we're kind of asking ourselves these questions. in a time where we're not consciously asking these questions, but that transactional from a three-year-old to a young adult who's asking these questions and trying to teach that there. It's a little shifting is what it's doing. I mean, to quote the young people, mind blown.

Lydia Hance:

Wow. Wow.

Amy Elizabeth:

Yeah. It's incredible information that I don't think is relevantly accessible. Yeah. But that also could just be from my lack of training and my lack of experience in the classroom.

Lydia Hance:

And, and, and, and making the, making the roadways for things like cutting your, you know, using scissors or you're holding a pencil or whatever that it, you know, all those, there's also all those ways of establishing relationship with others. It's also really formative early on. And you'll see, you know, in the Texas state education standards for early childhood that, you know, the, like the, who am I of it, you know, the social, emotional, or even It kind of makes sense. Do you remember bringing boards of pictures of your family in and talking about your family in the classroom? Just this idea of like, who am I? Where do I come from? When I leave my family, who am I in relationship to these other people? And just really supporting a sense of confidence and celebration for each child's unique contribution to a classroom.

Amy Elizabeth:

So you've reported in your information with So we know that the studies in the arts is, you know, in this case, dance makes space for self expression. And so I'm curious to understand. what the potential is on emotional regulation that then develops into classroom management.

Ashley Horn:

Yeah. Will you ask

Amy Elizabeth:

that question one more time? regulation is going to enhance that classroom management that we're talking about. So if you can take me down, what is the potential of emotional regulation that leads into classroom management?

Ashley Horn:

I think movement is inherently regulating. And we have built these exercises to explore different concepts, but also have an energy arc that brings you back to regulation at the end. And so just on a physical aspect where are helping regulate a child's nervous system, which is still developing, which is still kind of working out some kinks. But in another sense, in another layered way, we're asking them to notice themselves in a neutral way, which is children, it is hard for them to notice themselves. And it is hard for them, especially now, to be neutral about themselves. So we're asking them questions. about noticing themselves, noticing their body, noticing how it's moving, noticing their feelings, noticing their emotions. And so the first step in regulating your emotions is knowing what your emotions are. You can't address something if you don't know what it is. So we're asking kids to really think about what's happening inside of their mind right then, inside of their body right then. And then what can we do to change that? We give them the tools to, well, what does it feel like when you do this? What does it feel like When we take this next step, when we take a breath, what does it feel like when we move really big? What does it feel like when we move really small? What does it feel like when we move alone versus together? We're just asking all these questions about how they are feeling in the moment and the more information that they can learn about themselves and the more information that they can learn about the fact that they are in control of themselves, the more that they can then help regulate their emotions.

Lydia Hance:

Yeah. And I think also in a, you know, alongside this, you know, part of the curriculum is kind of re-looking at how we're asking teachers to ask for students' attention. And, you know, I think there's a lot of eyes on me or bubble in the mouth or listen up or turn on your listening ears. And, you know, these things obviously have been going on for a very long amount of time. But when we start asking teachers and giving teachers options to teach children to listen with their whole bodies, it changes the game a little bit. It's not just a disconnected eyes on something while their body is moving somewhere else. We're asking them to the children to focus with their whole body. Being ready to do something, being ready to listen is a full body experience.

Amy Elizabeth:

Yes. I mean, movement is a whole body experience. I just had this conversation at some point this week about how important it is for us to come as a whole person into each and everything that we do But there is a vulnerability that comes to that, that comes with that, and the feedback that we're going to get and how we receive feedback and the practice of this from such a young age. It almost makes me wish that I would have had that same practice at a young age because we know that practice makes progress. And the more that you're able to experience something, the more that it can become, for lack of better words, ingrained or embedded in your person. And then it's not, now I'm being vulnerable. It's like, now I'm stepping up and I'm showing up as my whole person and that's okay. And I feel safe in this moment. And I believe that I believe it was Ashley who mentioned that idea of being able to do this in a safe way, being able to do it in art. I believe the word was neutral. And so often, especially in the dance world right now, this word of safety is really prevalent and coming up and creating a safe environment for the students. And I know it's not directly connected with kinetic classroom, but can we speak to that just a little bit on educators of all ages and maybe how we create a neutral environment, no matter the age of our students.

Ashley Horn:

Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And praising the effort,

Lydia Hance:

not the outcome. Not that that's a bad thing, but like the bulk of the positive affirmation being in the work or in the work. essentially is and not tying praise to an outcome. Yes.

Amy Elizabeth:

So my next question kind of is in line with that idea of how can our listeners, whether they be young parents or educators of any age, really incorporate these ideas into their routines and their activities?

Lydia Hance:

So the pilot will be, the first round of the pilot will be this fall. And then after that, we are opening, we will probably accept another, a larger cohort of I mean, it could be homeschool, but other schools or teachers or if a parent is hearing this and is like, this needs to be in my child's classroom, we're going to, yes, we're absolutely going to have that possibility. So at this point, it's really just reaching out to us to get in touch with teachers and schools and advocacy on the part of the parent for the children in the classroom or even for the benefit of the teacher to the administration is really, really important. So yeah, we are just going to keep rolling and keep growing the number of schools who can use this. Yeah. Until it's all over. We think it should be in every

Amy Elizabeth:

classroom. It should be in every classroom. I mean, I'm sitting here thinking, I wish that this was around for the young lady who was often reported to be talking too much, who couldn't sit still. to the point where, you know, is she actually going to be a successful adult? Let's identify this at five years old. Is she going to be a successful adult? We don't know because she can't sit still and she can't be quiet and she can't focus. So I would like to think that I'm a successful adult. And I still have all of these attributes.

Lydia Hance:

Yes. And you are not alone. That is a common story. Like there are a lot of people who that was what happened in the classroom. Absolutely. I think it's a fairly small percentage of children who can really sit

Amy Elizabeth:

still. Well, and my question is, if they're sitting still, are they actually focusing? Are they actually paying attention? Because when I'm sitting still, I am completely checked out. I have no idea what you're saying. And that's just how that works. And I just... Yes. I say yes to all of this. I approve of this mission and this vision. Let's see how we can get this into every classroom and save all the little wiggles. Save the wiggles. For lack of better terms, save the wiggles. Let them wiggle. That should be your tagline. Yes. Okay. So here is season one. We are focusing on resilience. And I know we touched on this just a moment ago, but I want to go more specific with it. And we are really focused on dance's role in this idea of developing resilience. So would you say that the kinetic classroom curriculum has the potential to encourage resilience in these young academics? And if so, do you have a specific example or tool?

Ashley Horn:

I think it develops resilience by asking them to try things and to, when they try something, if it didn't have the outcome that they want, talk about that. Was that outcome exciting? If you don't, if you didn't like that outcome, let's just try it again. And so just getting in the excitement of being a person who's trying something and letting that be something that is like, you know, gets great.

Lydia Hance:

Yeah, there's something about the, because Because, and this is probably true for a lot of the art world, or at least the creating art world, the creation portion of it, is that we're not asking for an outcome. We're asking for the process and the attempt. And so they're literally, I mean, if they're following the directions and they're doing anything within the rainbow of the directions, they're being successful. And their five is not backwards. You know what I mean? It's not, they're not holding their scissors upside down and being told that they're wrong. It's like they don't, who knows what doing X, Y, and Z, when we're asking doing X, Y, and Z should look like. And so the wrongness of something is not hanging over them. It's just potential and joy.

Amy Elizabeth:

There is no right answer. That is something that I've actually learned recently and been in conversations about is the idea that you can't be wrong. You can make a clearer choice. But the reality is that you actually don't know whether the other choice was right or not because you cannot predict the outcome. And so if there is no right choice, what does that do for the person who is making a decision? What does that do for them? And I think for me, it's this idea of allowance and permission, which then creates possibility. And is that not what creativity is? And that's what our young people should be doing. They should be wondering. They should be investigating, exploring, discovering, or at least that's what I wanted to do as a young person. So There is one more question on here that said, where or in what moments have you seen examples of resilience in a young student? Like, can you give a specific moment that you thought this young person has just overcome this, push through this, bounce back from this?

Ashley Horn:

I think in my littlest students, what I see that is so joyful to me is when I have a young kid and they try something and it didn't work the way they wanted to or the outcome was different than they expected and they look at me and they have this like kind of like smile and they're like, I'm going to do that again. Or like they can accept the fact that whatever outcome they got wasn't their expectation and they accept it joyfully and they know that it's a safe place to try again or to try again next week. And with that, when I have a little student that is tenacious. They try something, they try something, they try something, and then one day it works and they can connect the fact that it's because they tried it so many times that it then worked for them. So they know that they are in charge of that progress for themselves.

Lydia Hance:

I think for me, when I'm observing a child in the frame dance world attempt to do something and it doesn't really happen the way that I think they want to do it. like be like, whoa, like surprised or like, you know, like a, not a negative, like there's not a negative. It's, it's like a fine thing that just happened. And then they just try it again. And to be like, oh my goodness, like what a gift it is that we have this information that we can teach in a way that does not provide that, that weight, that heaviness of the learning process.

Amy Elizabeth:

Yeah. Yeah, I've heard the word joy spoken a couple of times. And honestly, that's what young people are. They are joy and they are the curious, you know, we're encouraged to keep a childlike mind. We're encouraged to stay youthful and young, spirited. And I think it's because even as adults, we crave that joy, that just relentless, unfiltered joy. And I think it is so brilliant that we now have these tools that we can use, that we can bring in instead of the teacher saying, I don't know how to do this. It's like, well, here you go. Here are some tools that you can use that can empower the educational environment, encourage the students and support them beyond just the subject at hand. I think that's really incredible. So on behalf of everyone, Thank you. Thank you for bringing this tool and this resource to us. And Leah, Ashley, thank you so much for taking the time to share your research. And it is empowering to see the potential of dance in a more direct relationship with children's education and development. And with that, we are coming to the end of our conversation together. And this is where we put you in the hot seat. We call this our rapid round where we are asking all of our guests to complete these two sentences. So I'll start with sentence one. Resilience is.

Lydia Hance:

Resilience is vital. That's a better word. I was going to say essential. So I'll do something different. I'll say it's grit.

Amy Elizabeth:

I haven't heard that one. I enjoy it. The second sentence is dance has taught me.

Lydia Hance:

Dance has taught me about my relationship to the world. Dance

Ashley Horn:

has taught me to give myself grace.

Amy Elizabeth:

These are so beautiful. Thank you both so much again for giving your time, giving your energy, and bringing this new information to us here at Dance Unscripted. It has been a pleasure. Thanks for

Lydia Hance:

having us. Thank you.

Amy Elizabeth:

Thank you for joining us for Dance Unscripted presented by Aim to Dance. And thank you to Lydia and Ashley for the incredible work they are doing to help our little citizens make the most of their experiences and find success in all aspects of their development. You can find more about Frame Dance and Kinetic Classrooms at framedance.org or on social media at framedance. We will link We know that you could have chosen any other platform. You chose us and you chose dance. And for that, we are incredibly grateful. Season one of Dance Unscripted is brought to you by the Lamar University Center for Resiliency.