Events

Dance Artist Cynthia Word to Discuss

Arts Integration and Role as a Teaching Artist

The School of the Arts in Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters will present a free lecture with professional dancer and teaching artist Cynthia Word on Friday, November 4, at 3 p.m. in the Schmidt Center Gallery. This gallery is located in the Performing Arts Building on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road.

After introducing her artistic background and current work as the artistic director of Word Dance Company in Bethesda, Maryland, Word will discuss her experiences as a teaching artist and her use of arts integration methods when providing arts education programs in school settings.  Her lecture is aimed at arts students, faculty in the arts, kindergarten through 12^th grade teachers and administrators, and professional artists in South Florida interested in learning more about arts integration and the role of a teaching artist.

Word Dance Theater, the company founded by Word, specializes in the dance philosophy of Isadora Duncan, who is revered as the “Mother of Modern Dance.”  Since 2001,   the company has created six major productions in the Washington, D.C. area and has performed in other national and international venues. Word has also been involved in providing arts education by working with numerous schools and arts agencies. Through training from the Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington D.C. and Lincoln Center in New York City, she has developed successful methods for working with teachers and children in schools by employing arts integration methods.

In her lecture at FAU,  Word will discuss how artists can work in school settings as “teaching artists” and how employing arts integration techniques, a method of combining arts and other academic disciplines, can benefit schools arts programs by linking to core curriculum. Implementing such arts education philosophies in the schools, including developing a regional core of teaching artists, is a goal of the School District of Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach County Cultural Council. Word is visiting Palm Beach County in association with a professional development workshop for Palm Beach County teachers at the Kravis Performing Arts Center on Saturday, November 5.

Word earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree from George Washington University, where she also started her teaching career. She received an honorary certification in teaching and performance from the Isadora Duncan International Institute and also serves as a Dance Education Consultant with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.