EVERY-BODY

THE CLASSES

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We offer Movement Therapy for children and young adults with mild to moderate physical/cognitive delays and disabilities such as Autism, Down Syndrome and ADHD.

Like other art forms, dance helps us to perceive and communicate who we are. It should be part of every child’s education but is particularly effective in the education of a special needs child.

WHAT DO I WEAR?
Please wear comfortable clothing. Tights or sweat pants, loose shirt or leotard.

REGISTRATION:
Pre-registration is required. Send check and registration form to: the Children’s Arts Corner, 1403 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington MA 02420. Tel.: 1(781) 862-3117 or email us at: Madeleine@artscorner.com. You can also fax us at: 1 (781) 275-1898.

This Program is run under the supervision of Madeleine Kando, M.Ed., Director of the Children’s Arts Corner. She is a graduate of the Expressive Therapies Program at Lesley University, specializing in Movement Therapy as a form of intervention for Special Needs Populations. She has worked for many years as a Movement Therapist on staff at the New England Rehabilitation Hospital and has been certified as a Registered Movement Therapist with the American Dance Therapy Association.

HOW TO REGISTER

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Please go to our website:The Children's Arts Corner
or download our Registration Form here. Fill it out and send it in with your payment.

WHAT IS MOVEMENT THERAPY?

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Movement therapy helps children express through movement that which cannot be expressed through words or other more cognitive forms of expression. Dance is the most fundamental of the art forms and is idially suited for young children, especially children with special needs. It promotes socialization, emotional integration, increases attention span and helps children learn goal directed behavior.It gives them a sense of accomplishment by promoting creativity.

MOVEMENT THERAPY IN ACTION

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Movement Therapy rests on the principle that body and mind interact, so that a change in movement will affect a change in emotion. The teacher will mirror the child's movement and create a bond on which the child-teacher connection develops. Improvisation in movement with the guidance of the teacher will evoke new ways of being in the child. Group activities support and stimulate social skills and by moving a 'story' children find a way to express feelings that would otherwise be repressed.

ABOUT US

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EVERY-BODY was created by Madeleine Kando, M.Ed. Madeleine, who is a registered Movement Therapist and former dancer discovered very early on that movement can be a very powerful tool in the lives of young children. A perfect medium for self-expression, movement taps into children's innate desire to express themselves through the bodies. EVERY-BODY is a culmination of her training and work as a movement therapist and her experience teaching young children the art of Dance.

SCHEDULE

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This 8 week course begins April 13 2009
Cost: $175.00

tues: 9:!5 3-6 (with parent)
thur: 3:45 6-9 yrs
thurs: 4:30 8-12 yrs

EDUCATION

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Children start life with the potential to absorb information and learn skills of many different kinds: they can learn how to dance, talk, think, build things, play music, act (pretend) and much more.

In school, however, the emphasis is on ‘academics’, the three ‘R’s”. But we forget that children are multi-faceted in their ability and desire to learn. Even though schools will not admit this, learning does not even have to involve language. A child might tell you an endless story about what happened to them that day, but others would rather move and show you with gestures. Yet another child will draw a picture and still others will build something with a lego set to express their experience.

Unfortunately, after a child enters school a lot of that rich caleidoscope is parked in the basement. Only language (writing and reading) and counting matters. I wonder how many children are left behind because they just happen to be weak in ‘verbal intelligence’?

But what is the value of a factual thought without this rich caleidoscope? Just an interesting oddity if you ask me. Yes, I am smart: I know that 2 green apples and 2 red apples make 4 apples. But what makes it interesting is whether red apples taste better than green apples. Or trying to stack 2 red and 2 green apples. Maybe drawing 2 green apples and 2 red apples.? Or carving a green apple..

Once you start applying imagination and creativity, your factual thinking about apples becomes transformational. Thinking about how to juggle apples, how they taste, how they look.. that is what the Arts are all about. And the Arts are not truly concerned about the mind. They tap into our emotions and our senses. Our taste, smell, vision and hearing.

Education that thinks that the ‘senses and emotions’ are not important in the learning process is doomed to fail. Not only are the Arts an extension of our senses, but they are like flashlights that illuminate other academic subjects. The Arts gives meaning to knowledge.

Aside from the fact that many children have intelligences that do not get addressed in a society that does not value the Arts in their educational system, the children who DO excel in those types of intelligences, i.e. verbal/mathematical, miss out on developing their other types of intelligences: kinesthetic, visual, musical and spatial.

A trapeze artist at the Cirque du Soleil who dazzles us with their triple somersaults on a tight rope. The gymnast balancing on one hand on 20 stacked chairs: are they not ‘intelligent’? Does their ability to use their ‘kinesthetic intelligence’ not border on genius? Martha Graham once said: ‘If I could say it I wouldn’t have to dance it.’

The problem might lie in the use of the word ‘Art’. It usually means an art ‘product’: a painting, a sculpture, a sonata. Yet ‘the arts’ are more than anything else a product of creative thinking. It involves problem solving and critical judgment. The process of creating a work of art is where the true value lies. Without The Arts in a child’s life knowledge is bland, like a dish without salt. Soon that child will loose interest and turn into one more ‘drop out’. Let’s listen to our children and tap into their ‘multiple’ intelligences. That is where the true success of education is to be found.

Some of the information contained in this article is based on reading the following :Boston Public Schools As Arts-Integrated Learning Organizations by Eric Oddleifson, Chairman CABC

THE CHILDREN'S ARTS CORNER

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Does your child love to dance to music, to sing, to pretend and to tell stories? The Children’s Arts Corner takes full advantage of this characteristic. Through dance and music, puppetry and drama, French and Spanish, children are given rich opportunities to explore the world and themselves. Dance develops coordination, muscle strength and grace; music teaches rhythm and pitch; puppetry allows children to communicate unselfconsciously; and our French and Spanish classes enrich their minds. Putting on shows encourages children to open up in front of others and our toddler classes will give your child the best possible start in life. Young children see the world in a complete and whole way. For them, there is no difference between learning and playing.

Please go to THE CHILDREN'S ARTS CORNER to find out more..