The Dance Department is involved in a variety of outreach programs designed to bring dance performances and workshops to area schools.

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Project Reach

In 1994, the dance department joined with Phoenix Dance Company, UMBC's professional dance company-in-residence, to create Project Reach, a program of performances and workshops for elementary and middle schools. Through generous funding from the Morton and Sophia Macht Foundation, and the Maryland State Council on the Arts, professional dancers and student apprentices worked together to perform engaging assembly programs designed to introduce children to the world of contemporary dance. They also led workshops in the schools, providing the children with direct, hands-on experiences with dance.

 

D.A.R.E. ® America

In 2000, Phoenix Dance Company participated in the D.A.R.E. ® (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, presenting middle school assembly performances, and conducting ten-week sessions of after-school workshops at several Baltimore County middle schools. A group of UMBC students, alumnae, and professional dancers worked together on this project, under the direction of Julie Peoples-Clark, a dancer with Phoenix, and a D.A.R.E. ® area representative.

 

 

Community Service Course

In 2001 the Dance Department received a Shriver Center Higher Education Service-Learning Grant to support the design and initial offering of a new service-learning course entitled DANC 301S Dance and Community Service. Building on outreach activities of Phoenix Dance Company, the course offered students an opportunity to use their talents and skills in a community service project. Students investigated the use of the dance experience as a means of addressing important social issues. They developed an assembly program of dances, modeled on the D.A.R.E. ® America format, and taught workshops at a local middle school for ten weeks.