MARK DEGARMO DANCE’S DANCE EDUCATION ROUNDTABLE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Mark DeGarmo Dance & Chelsea Factory Present

Mark DeGarmo Dance’s Dance Education Roundtable for Social Change

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 6:00PM
45-minute conversation, to be followed by a reception

FREE

Roundtable Panelists:
Callie Hatchett | MDD Teaching Artist in Dance & Creativity
Melissa Levy | E.S.L. Teacher, P.S. 154 Harriet Tubman Learning Center, Harlem
Johnathan Putterman | Drama Teacher, P.S. 521 Archer Elementary, Bronx

Roundtable Moderator:
Kathleen Kheel | MDD Board President; Director, Discovery Programs, Upper West Side, NYC

Mark DeGarmo Dance’s Dance Education Roundtable for Social Change 2024 will explore the reasons why its dance and literacy education program was deemed “a national model” by the National Endowment for the Arts. A Johns Hopkins University researcher published a 2018 study showing that MDD’s embodied cognition program, “Partnerships in Literacy through Dance & Creativity,” offered promising evidence of its impacts on students’ academic learning through “statistically significant” increases in its public school students’ grade 4 state reading tests. This public event will raise awareness about the work that MDD does to annually bring dance education to up to 1,000 students, 200 teachers, and under-resourced New York City public elementary schools across the 5 boroughs. Panelists include public school educators and teaching artists who will share their knowledge and perspectives on MDD’s work in NYC public schools. MDD has brought dance education to over 75 NYC public elementary schools since 1988.

About Mark DeGarmo Dance:
Founded in 1987, Mark DeGarmo Dance (MDD) is a nonprofit organization working in a long-term artist and dance company residency from Studio Theater 310 at The Clemente Center in Manhattan’s Lower East Side since 2001. MDD’s mission is to educate New York City communities and children; create, perform, and disseminate original artistic and scholarly work; and build intercultural community through dance arts. MDD commits its resources to serving anti-racism, social justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and sovereignty across multiple fronts through dance arts in NYC, USA, and internationally.

About Mark DeGarmo:
Mark DeGarmo, PhD, BFA is a New York City-based transcultural transdisciplinary dancer/performer, choreographer, writer, researcher, learning theorist, and Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of Mark DeGarmo Dance. Honors and awards include Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship (Peru), Martha Hill Dance Fund Mid-Career Award (USA), USA Department of State American Cultural Specialist Award (Ecuador), and The White House Millennium Artist Program supported by The National Endowment for the Arts (USA).

Mark DeGarmo Dance programs are supported, in part, by private and public funds from American Online Giving Foundation; Benevity; Frances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation; Bernheim Foundation; Blackbaud Giving Fund; Friends of Mark DeGarmo Dance; The Harkness Foundation for Dance; Jody and John Arnhold; JPMorgan Chase Foundation; Mental Insight Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Network for Good; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; New York City Department of Education; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; PwC Charitable Foundation; Religious Society of Friends; Richard and Lisa Cashin Fund; Ruth and Seymour Klein Foundation; and Sarah J. Finlayson and Lindley G. DeGarmo Fund.

Health and Safety Protocols
Chelsea Factory will be implementing the following procedures to help ensure the health and safety of our patrons, staff, and artists:

• We practice contactless ticketing and will be checking patrons in by name (no need to show printed or digital tickets).

• Masks are optional.

• While Chelsea Factory strongly recommends vaccination against COVID-19, proof of vaccination is not currently required for audience entrance to performances and public programs.

Click here for our full Health and Safety Protocols.