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VDM SHORT COURSE ARCHIVES

Links to the Virtual Dalcroze SHORT COURSES can be accessed through the registration site.
Descriptions of the courses are listed below.

Short-Course with Françoise Lombard (Canada)
Three sessions / 80 min. each

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Dalcroze Essentials: Improvisation

 

This course will be presented April/May 2025.

Short-Course with Ruth Alperson (USA) 
Three sessions / 80 min. each

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Dalcroze Essentials: Elementary Pedagogy, the Dalcroze way 

This course will be presented March 2025.

Short-Course with Anthony Molinaro (USA) and Stephen Neely (USA)
Three sessions / 80 min. each

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Dalcroze Essentials: Make it Music – Pedagogy

 

This course will be presented February 2025.

Short-Course with
Andrew Davidson (UK/Australia)
Three sessions / 80 min. each

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Dalcroze Essentials: Thinking, Making, and Doing Dalcroze 

"Dalcroze Essentials: Thinking, Making, and Doing Dalcroze"
A three-session short course with Andrew Davidson

This short course is a hands-on approach to Dalcroze principles to support educators in their teaching. You do not need any previous Dalcroze experience to participate; at the same time, those with prior Dalcroze experience are welcome and encouraged to participate as well.

In the course we will brainstorm Dalcroze subjects for classes, make sense of Dalcroze philosophy in a practical way, and work with musical repertoire in a Dalcroze way.

Depending on the interests of the participants signing up, Andrew will consider all three branches of Dalcroze education - rhythmics, solfege, and improvisation - and tailor the sessions to people's contexts.

 

This course was originally presented November 2024.

Short-Course with
Emma Shubin (Luxembourg/USA)
Three sessions / 80 min. each

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 Dalcroze Essentials: For the Private Lesson 

  

Gain new tools for incorporating movement, discovery, and improvisation into your private lesson studio. Some topics we’ll explore include:

  • Fostering creative practice: How many ways can we practice that? a hundred ways towards mastery: Does listening to it, moving it, singing count? What other ways can we empower our students to become co-creators in their learning journey outside of the lesson.
  • Rhythm is Character! Besides clapping, what other techniques can help students internalize rhythm? We’ll discuss activities requiring no extra materials or simple tools like a small ball, beanbag, or chopsticks.
  • Developing Internal Phrase and Pulse: How do we learn to communicate what we cannot see or touch like “phrasing” or “musicality”? How do we nurture an internal pulse in students while making the process creative, fun, and expressive? We’ll explore ways to enhance meter and phrasing awareness, as well as to boost musical literacy.
  • Multiple pathways to music literacy: A triangle between Ears, Eyes, & Fingers! How do these parts interact while we are learning? How can we support new pathways to learning through auditory, verbal, tactile, and visual cues?

You'll leave the course with ready-to-use activities tailored to your current students, and we’ll try them out together so you’ll be ready to implement them in your next lesson!

No previous experience with Dalcroze is required!

This course was originally presented October 2024.

Short-Course with
Joan Pope (Australia)
Three sessions / 80 min. each

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Dalcroze Essentials: Creating Sequences of Lessons 

  

Joan looks back on some seventy years of inventing sessions for a wide range of people and situations. She extracts the essential ingredients that make them ‘Dalcroze Experiences’. She will focus one session on children, another on teens and student-teachers, and the third on adults in local choirs, drama groups, and seniors in retirement settings.
 
West Australian Joan Pope attended the Dalcroze Centre in London in 1953, completed Dalcroze Licentiate, Sydney 1957, and finally (!) gained Diplôme Supérieure (Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, Geneva) 1999. She was Dalcroze Australia President for many years and conducted workshops, training sessions and DEIEB exams especially in South East Asia and Pacific regions.

This course was originally presented September 2024.

Short-Course with
Emma Shubin (Luxembourg/USA) & Weronika Balewski (USA)
Six sessions / 80 min. each

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Dalcroze Entrepreneurship: Building a Community Program 

Dalcroze Entrepreneurship: Building a Community Program


Course Description:
Embark on a transformative 6-week journey to become a Dalcroze Entrepreneur and pave the way to establish your own vibrant community music program. This comprehensive course will empower you to build, create, and sustain engaging Dalcroze-based programs for children and the communities that surround them.

Weronika Balewski and Emma Shubin, with a combined 20 years of experience in the Dalcroze community, are passionate about creating opportunities for teachers and increasing accessibility to this approach across diverse communities. Through their work at Integral Steps in Colorado and Massachusetts, they have successfully implemented various approaches to partnerships, registration, scheduling, and funding, serving thousands of students and families over the past 12 years. Integral Steps currently offers year-round programming for ages 0-18 with over 25 weekly classes and 3-6 weeks of summer camps; community events and partnerships with local schools and organizations; as well as educational opportunities for teachers.

During Sessions 1-4, participants will dig into the nuts and bolts of creating a vibrant and sustainable program and will engage in reflection and brainstorming assignments. In Sessions 5 and 6, they will present their ideas, receiving valuable feedback from both the group and instructors. This personalized approach ensures that each participant's unique questions are addressed in greater detail.

Session 1: Breaking into New Communities
Uncover the secrets of community outreach. Define your audience, location, and course duration. Design your dream program, explore enrollment strategies, and decide whether to establish your own school or collaborate with existing institutions.

Session 2: Curriculum & Development (E only)
Master the art of curriculum planning, including short and long-term strategies. Explore the Integral Steps model for creating dynamic learning experiences, incorporating activity sheets, certificates, and tools that emphasize both product and process. Learn about advocacy and sustainability for long-term student engagement.

Session 3: Preparing to Launch and Ongoing Marketing (W only)
Discover effective strategies for community events, library meet-and-greets, and demo classes. Gain insights into successful program launches and sustained marketing efforts, balancing educational content and community engagement.

Session 4: Retention, Mental Health, & Budget 
Explore techniques for student and teacher retention, addressing mental health considerations of both students and teachers. Discuss boundaries and explore sustainable practices for yourself and future teachers. Delve into the financial aspects of entrepreneurship, covering teacher compensation models, budgeting, and the psychology of money and pricing.

Sessions 5 & 6: Project Pitch and Wrap-Up
Pitch your project and receive personalized support and feedback from Weronika, Emma, and other participants. Further explore previous topics based on participant needs and requests.

Join "Dalcroze Entrepreneurship" to transform your passion for Dalcroze education into a thriving community program! We are so excited to share with you what we have learned and empower you to succeed. 🎶✨

This course was originally presented March-April 2024.

Short-Course with
Anthony Molinaro (USA)
Six sessions / 80 min. each

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Game-ify the Curriculum
#Winning in the Elementary Classroom

Join us for an inspiring and transformative six-week online course led by Anthony Molinaro, a certified teacher of Dalcroze Eurhythmics with 17 years of experience in public school classrooms nationwide. Prepare to embark on a journey of exploration, innovation, and unparalleled student engagement.

Course Overview:
In this interactive course, educators will delve into the world of movement-oriented games, unlocking the hidden potential of experiential learning. By dissecting a diverse range of original games, participants will uncover the remarkable learning opportunities they offer. Anthony Molinaro will carefully guide you through the principles of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, enabling you to design and enhance your own games that captivate students' hearts and minds.

Discover the Power of Dalcroze Principles:
Drawing upon the core tenets of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, this course places joy and discovery at its very core. Anthony Molinaro has ingeniously developed a groundbreaking system for game design, enabling you to foster unparalleled student engagement, stimulate creativity, and promote flexibility—all while achieving remarkable outcomes aligned with standards-based teaching.

Course Highlights:
1. Uncover the learning potential: Analyze and explore a variety of movement-oriented games, examining their unique educational benefits and uncovering the untapped potential they offer within your classroom.

2. Dalcroze principles in action: Dive into the foundations of Dalcroze Eurhythmics and witness firsthand how these principles can revolutionize your teaching methodology, empowering you to create dynamic and transformative learning experiences.

3. Design your own engaging games: Learn the art of crafting captivating games that maximize student engagement and inspire a love for learning. Through Anthony Molinaro's expert guidance, you will unlock the keys to creating educational experiences that leave a lasting impact.

4. Foster creativity and flexibility: Embrace the boundless realm of creativity, encouraging your students to think outside the box, explore new possibilities, and adapt to different situations, all while meeting educational objectives.

5. Powerful results and standards-based teaching: Discover how incorporating Dalcroze principles into your game design can unlock powerful results and seamlessly align with standards-based teaching practices, ensuring your students thrive academically.

This course does not require prior background or experience with Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

This course was originally presented September–October, 2023.

Short-Course with
Elda Nelly Treviño
Six sessions / 80 min. each

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Latinamerican music: a rich source for Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Music Classrooms

Are you curious about finding novel repertoire to enhance your teaching  practice? This short course will take you through a journey of discovery of  Latinamerican traditional music rich in rhythmic patterns and beautiful melodies. We will work through Dalcroze eurhythmics exercises which can fit students of all ages and musical backgrounds. We will explore traditional music from different Latinamerican countries and short  piano pieces written for didactical purposes: music in simple and compound meters  both regular and irregular, pentatonic, tonal, modal melodies, and dance music.

Through a journey of discovery, we will emphasize musical aspects such as rhythmic patterns, melodic contours, phrasing, harmony, and character, which offer opportunities to work on the four areas of study of the Dalcroze pedagogy:  eurhythmics, solfège, improvisation, and plastique animé. Furthermore, we will explore various excerpts of concert music based on Latinamerican dance rhythms suitable for plastique animé. A lead sheet (music notation) with the lyrics in English and Spanish will be provided along with the links for recorded versions of the music available in public platforms. 

This course does not require prior background or experience with Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

 

This course was originally presented May–June, 2023.

 

Short-Course with
Stephen Neely
Six sessions / 80 min. each

INVITATION to
The Self and The Shared Gesture

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The Self and The Shared Gesture 


Exploring the therapeutic and wellness opportunities of music & movement
• What happens when we sync up our motion with the motion of others?
• How might shared breath, shared trajectory, or shared gaits contribute to feelings of calm, stability, confidence, and community?
• What is the experience of bodied empathy and how might it lead to deeper connection with our friends and colleagues?

The Dalcroze Eurhythmics classroom, first recognized as a space for musicianship training, has yielded therapeutic benefits since the first explorations in 1903. We see these benefits even more clearly now after almost 120 years of practice and growth in the method.

In this 6-session short course, Stephen Neely will lead us through common Dalcrozian interactions with a focus connection, community, empathy, shared gesture, awareness of self, risk, intimacy, and vulnerability – lessons critical for advanced musicianship, but also central to a healthy and rewarding participation in our extra-musical worlds. 

 

This course was originally presented June 1–22, 2022.

Short-Course with
Dawn Pratson
Six sessions / 80 min. each

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Virtual Dance with Dawn Series 3

New in Series 3: We will explore the meaning and practice of somatics, with a little history. Dawn will also share an activity each week which teachers can immediately apply in their classroom.

 

This is a weekly, 80-minute long, Dalcroze-inspired movement class to develop and maintain functional, expressive and musical fitness. Principles of grounding, alignment, efficiency of movement, spatial intention, rhythm and phrasing, among other concepts, will be addressed through guided activities and improvisation.

 

This course was originally presented September 25–November 7, 2022.

 

Short-Course with
Dawn Pratson
Six sessions / 75 min. each

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Virtual Dance with Dawn Series 2

 

This is the second series of a weekly, 75-minute long, Dalcroze-inspired dance-movement practice to develop and maintain functional, expressive and musical fitness. Principles of grounding, alignment, efficiency of movement, spatial intention, rhythm and phrasing, among other concepts, will be addressed. We will play with movement as personal and communal metaphor, and other material as it arises. Some vocal and tonal play will also be included.

“We see light etched by shadows, feel joy emerging from sorrow; the present hovers between the past and the future. Between all these opposites, there is a sense of movement that renews the clarity of each experience.” Irmgard Bartenieff, with Dori Lewis, from Body Movement: Coping with the Environment.

This course was originally presented March 28-May 9, 2021.

Short-Course with
Dawn Pratson
Six sessions / 60 min. each

Doodling & Noodling from "Virtual Dance with Dawn Season 1"

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Virtual Dance with Dawn Series 1

Six hour-long dance-movement classes to develop and maintain functional and expressive fitness. Principles of grounding, alignment, efficiency of movement, spatial intention, rhythm and phrasing, among other concepts, will be addressed. We will also play with movement as personal and communal metaphor, and other material as it arises.

“ We see light etched by shadows, feel joy emerging from sorrow; the present hovers between the past and the future. Between all these opposites, there is a sense of movement that renews the clarity of each experience.”– Irmgard Bartenieff, with Dori Lewis, from Body Movement: Coping with the Environment.

 

This course was originally presented Januaru 31–March 15, 2021.

 

 

outstanding video clips?

Have you found any special gems in the video archives? Maybe a 3 min clip that was extra helpful? We would love your help recognizing these gems so that we might pull them out and post selected excerpts from the meetings. We would be so appreciative if you would send your suggestions to virtualdalcroze@gmail.com.

 

So many hours of amazing content!

Be sure to check out the
MEET-UP ARCHIVES
and the
MASTERCLASSES ARCHIVES

.