Wow, I just realized how long it has been since I have entered anything into this blog. I guess I have been really busy. Hope to write a bit more now that I am taking the DEL Foundations course at the Y as well as continuing to study Flamenco with JoDe Romano. And I Am sure I will have a lot to say about the NDEO conference in Chicago next week. So stay tuned for updates and coming attractions.

Let’s start with the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL)

The DEL Foundations course, is allowing me the luxury to look at my own practice, solidify many of my current teaching methods, and learn some new approaches and techniques that will increase my effectiveness in the classroom. I have always heard such positive feedback about the practical tools and applications that DEL provides.

Here are some thoughts on my first two weeks in the program.

First week was fun and interesting from the name game right up to the road map of how we got there. I actually really enjoyed making my map and then hearing what others had to say about their maps. It is a truly intriguing group of students from all walks of life and levels of experience with the common desire for and love of dance and movement. What struck me strongly about the evening was the diversity of the people in the room from age, to race, to nationality, to experience, to professions, and to styles of dance backgrounds.

I must admit that I am anticipating that some of the material we will be covering will be redundant to me so I am looking at ways to see with a fresh eye, to find things that I may not have or do in my current practice. I am looking at this experience as a way to see the big picture not just what my practice is or what I can do in my own classroom. I am very interested in seeing what is possible outside of my own practice and what kind of impact the acquisition of new material combined with my experience will have on the field of dance and dance in education.

This led me to thinking about my dance education philosophy. At the center of my philosophy is my belief that dance is essential to the growth of each person’s search for authenticity, as well as each person’s individual expression of “self.” In addition to promoting physical well being dance expands the psyche, encourages social interaction, and promotes thoughtful critical thinking. It also supports the development of each person’s specific voice and his or her unique way of self-expression through movement (something which I got from studying with Erik Hawkins). I believe that promoting the pursuit of this authentic self-expression will produce the next generation of forward thinking dancers, choreographers, and educators and thus enliven the aesthetic elements of dance in performance, research, and education.

I am going to end here for the night and let my philosophy on dance and dance in education have time to sink in and work its way through my thought process. More to come soon. Stay Tuned!

First of all I was very excited by the Common Core when I was originally introduced to it. As a performing artist ti made a lot of sense, as an educator it seemingly valued all of the things I value and find important. 

THE BASICS ARE: 

• Demonstrate independence

• Build strong content knowledge

• Respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline

• Comprehend as well as critique

• Value evidence

• Use technology and digital media strategically and capably

• Come to understand other perspectives and cultures 

All things that I could easily get behind. I even conducted workshops at my school for parents in helping them understand what it is and how to make use of it at home. The problem is the over bureaucratic and rushed implementation of the standards devoid of any creative aspect. 

The push for testing does not help either. It's depressing to see how much time we spend at my school on test prep and the push for kids to perform well on these tests. What are we preparing students for? Since there seems to be strong backing for the Common Core from large corporations, I am viewing it with a bit of skepticism. I want my students to be creative thinkers and to have marketable skills. However I am not so sure I want to hand feed the corporate structure. Students are not commodities that can be pre-programmed. 

If I am to truly honor the Common Core I want my students to be independent, knowledgeable about content (which may include knowing facts not just where to find them),be flexible and responsive to others,work at understanding with a critical eye,use the current tools at hand but not be dependent on them, and most importantly question and search for evidence. I want their education to be experiential and I want them to relate what they learn in literature, art, dance, science, math, etc. to their lives in a real way. That is at the heart of eduction whether I teach dance or science. 

The Common Core probably should have been tested out first on a few select schools and then gradually rolled out. We were given standards to meet without getting the tools or training to help us out. As usual we are flying by the seat of our pants, which works for a little while but is not a wise long term strategy. What could be essentially a great template and/or guideline for learning becomes an overly commodified tool to supply a workforce to an increasingly de-humanizing corporate hierarchy. 

The same is true of the Danielson protocols for effective teaching. Something that was meant as a tool for teachers to be self-reflective and aid in improving their teaching practice has become a overly micro-managed evaluation system that has teachers scurrying around to make sure that they are operating at a highly effective level all of the time. 

The fact is that teaching is messy and does not always occur or operate at a highly effective level all of the time. Like everything in life, things are just not going to go the way you planned and sometimes you even fail. And as any artist knows, it is necessary to fail and then to get up and try again. Failure becomes part and parcel to the learning process. How we make use of our failures to inform our process and progress ourselves as human beings is what is important. This is what we should be focusing on and not meeting some prescribed set of standards, Common Core, Danielson or anything else that comes along the way.

NDEO and Teacher Evaluations

It's been awhile since I have posted anything here. So just some thoughts on what has been going on the past two months.

First of all, the NDEO conference in Miami was amazing. lots of very interesting and high quality presentations and the panel I moderated on Men in Dance Education was very well attended and incredibly successful. Many of the workshops that I went to specifically addressing men and boy's issues in dance were very informative.

I also got to connect with many friends, colleagues, dance teachers, and dancing partners that I haven't seen in awhile. I took two movement classes. One on African Dance, which was exhilarating and humbling at the same time and one with the incredible dancer and teacher Lori Bellilove.

I didn't get to see much of Miami other that the downtown area, the bay, and Little Haiti but that is fine with me. I did get to see some of the Ironman competition which was going on just a few blocks from the hotel.

After an exhilarating and informative weekend I came back to teaching and Department of Education bureaucracy that includes the Common Core and the new Danielson Protocols for teacher evaluations. What a mess and how frustrating. The whole thing is just being rolled out in such a manner that it has everyone on edge. From teaching to the new standardized tests to being evaluated on the look of your classroom and the quality of your bulletin boards. Now I know these might be important but how about the "quality" of your teaching and not in 15 minute snippets or even one full period classroom observation, but your overall impact on the students and the school environment. It is just all so frustrating and seems to keep us doing tons of paper work that has little to do with the education of children.

More on these topics as the year unfolds and we get closer to our quality review. In the meantime here is a picture of many of the men who were in attendance this year at the NDEO conference.

NDEO Conference 2013

The NDEO conference in Miami is just two weeks away. I will be there as both a participant and presenter. I am moderating a panel on Men in Dance Education. The panel consists of Barry Blumenfeld, Stafford C. Berry, Jr., William (Bill) Evans, John-Mario Sevilla, and Benny Simon, a current current graduate student in Dance Education at Steinhardt, NYU.

Men make up 52.9% of the workforce (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2010 American Community Survey) and 26.8% of the workers in education, training, and library occupations (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey) At this conference men will make up approximately 4% of attendees. Though it is considerable that fewer men in the field of dance education join the organization, the number is far below the national average for educational fields. We feel that we can safely infer that men are simply a small minority in dance education. Why is this when men make up a much larger percentage of professional dance companies? Where are the men going after they perform? Why do so few go into the field of dance education? What keeps those who pursue a dance education career in the field? How can we draw more men in to the field, and perhaps keep more boys dancing as well? 

The members of this panel comprise a diverse, multi-generational group of men in dance that offer insights into these questions and more. By drawing on their own experience as dancers, choreographers, and educators they provide a backdrop for a myriad of topics concerning men in dance and what the future may hold for this persistent and irrepressible minority within the world of dance education.

Check out the "Thumbs Up" about me and the NDEO panel in the NYSDEA newsletter. Go to this link and scroll down to the "Thumbs Up" section. http://www.nysdea.org

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

Come to one of these upcoming performances 

at the CoolNY Festival in Dumbo, Brooklyn

I will be performing my solo "Whisper" 

and a new duet with Lauren Naslund 

"For Kiki: An Artist's Life Remembered"

Check below for dates and times

Hope you can make it to one of the performances 

They are a lot of fun and have a fascinating variety 

of choreographers and performers  on every program.

See you there!!

Company Videos Andrew Jannetti & Dancers (playlist)

As the year comes to and end I wanted to share this compilation video that I made of my work over the past 30 years. If you haven't seen this yet, enjoy!

Happy New Year!!

Andrew

Got back from NDEO just in time for Hurricane "Sandy"

Five days in darkness and no hot water.
Had a blackout at school on Wednesday, had to drive home through a snowstorm and tomorrow it is supposed to be 65 according to the weather stations. Go figure.

For the most part things are back to normal for me but not for many people. Many of my friends are still without power, going on 12 days now. I am hoping that relief will come soon and I feel for all who lost everything as a result of Sandy. One welcome relief from all this stress was the reelection of Barak Obama. Yeah!!

Please check out the new info on the Cultural Diversity page of my blog. Lesson plans and links  to other informative websites are available for your perusal.

All the best,

Andrew

"Moods Swing" Jessica Lewis and Andrew Jannetti (Jessica Lewis Arts/Andr...

For those of you who missed it, here is the video of our performance last week at WAXworks in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Enjoy

New Year New Potential

I am featured along with three other colleagues in an article is in this month's Dance Teacher Magazine.
Check it out here or go to this link: http://www.dance-teacher.com/content/new-year-new-potential

I was recently interviewed for an article in Dance Teacher magazine on Older Adults and exercise. Here is a link to the article.  It is a very informative article on Seniors, dance and exercise. Take a look.

http://www.dance-teacher.com/content/senior-moves