Outreach & School Programs

Students from Frank Sinatra School of the Arts performing after a Spring 2021 residency with IDDF.

Grades K - 12 Educational Programs

Grades K- 12 Program Descriptions

Workshops

  • One-Time sessions suitable for all movers! Workshops are customized to the needs of the school and participants. In these sessions, our teaching artists focus on accessible dance for all bodies and movement explorations that are designed to encourage joy and expression.

Residencies

  • Explore dance technique through classic choreography! Residencies are ongoing dance classes, with each lesson building upon the next. Capstone activities can be either performance or process related. Students will explore the history, significance, and dance of Isadora Duncan. Students will also have the opportunity to reflect on their personal experience, improvise, and begin to discover their inner-creative voice.

In-School Performances

  • A look at the history and dances of Isadora Duncan! Students will enjoy an interactive performance experience and a narrated journey through the dances of Isadora. While watching classic choreography, students will learn about Isadora’s life and be guided through seated, simple movement exercises. 

University Program Descriptions

University workshops can be delivered in a single session on ZOOM or in-person. A semester long residency can be scheduled for students to perform the repertory.

  • An Introduction to Isadora Duncan Master Class takes an immersive, broad look into the technique, history, philosophy, and life of Isadora.

    Students will be introduced to basic Isadora movement principles and vocabulary - with an emphasis on breath and movement initiation.

    Students will also engage with Archival video footage, excerpts of Isadora's writing, and imagery. After class, students will have gained a deeper understanding of classic modern dance heritage.

  • Join Lori Belilove and Duncan Dancers dancing in support of Ukraine.

    Students will learn Isadora's Marche Heroique and Varshavianka, re-imagined for the stage by Lori Belilove, herself of Ukrainian ancestry, honoring the heroism, valor, and grit of the Ukrainian people.

    “Art can succeed where war fails” - Lori Belilove

    “With boundless indignation I watched these poor grief-stricken workmen carrying their martyred dead… If I had never seen it, all my life would have been different. There, before this seemingly endless procession, this tragedy, I vowed myself and my forces to the service of the people and the downtrodden.” -Isadora Duncan

    **As seen in the 2023 Battery Dance Festival

  • Your students will learn excerpts from Isadora Duncan’s signature solo The Revolutionary led by the world's leading Isadora Duncan interpreter, Lori Belilove.

    Join Lori Belilove in exploring The Revolutionary, also known as Ode to the Oppressed. This remarkable solo, choreographed in 1924, has been hailed as a timeless political dance statement. The workshop will include a warm up, phrases from the dance, historical overview of the social and political context of its creation, and a video screening of numerous interpretations of the work by select guest dancers.

    In learning Duncan repertory Belilove goes beyond the movements or “steps” to enrich the experience with the narrative behind the dance including references to other solo legacy dances choreographed by American choreographers danced by women.

  • Your students will learn excerpts from Isadora’s classic choreography Water Study with the world’s premiere ambassador of Duncan Dance, Lori Belilove.

    Set to a short Schubert Waltz created ca.1914 for the Isadorables (Isadora's company), this workshop includes a review of the Duncan waltz, focused torso warm-up to execute phrases from the dance, along with historical context and inspiring videos housed at the Isadora Duncan Foundation Archives. We will dive into imagery sourced from the mythological and religious history of water, including water dieties, nymphs, mermaids, ritual baths, and sacred rivers.

    

    From Lori Belilove, “I chose to share this particular repertory piece, as the Water Study explores Duncan’s unique use of weight and musicality. Unlike many of Duncan's dances that reference Classical Greek influence, this dance, differently, draws its inspiration from the movement of water, a universal and an elemental force of nature…”