What's in Your Hands? Cultivating Empathy and Empowerment Through Aesthetic Education for 21st Century Students |
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This session demonstrates how the arts can be deeply and meaningfully integrated with curriculum, while also fostering a sense of empathy. More and more, character education is becoming ingrained in the education process. As we move further into an era in which jobs are automated and computerized and our communications are increasingly through the technology of social media, cultivating empathy is essential for well-rounded human beings and competitive workers in the 21st century. Participants will be introduced to the basic concepts of aesthetic education, a particular arts education mode of learning employed the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville, in which a particular work of art is the both the center of and springboard for creative exploration. Viewing of “Give Your Hands to Struggle” will be followed by a discussion of the role of empathy in the dance and throughout the creative process. What is the purpose of empathy in the classroom and beyond? How do we encourage it? How and why are the arts uniquely qualified to address and develop this essential quality? You will be called to consider and honor legacies of historical figures as well as your own personal contributions to your community. Through reflection, inquiry, art making, and consideration of contextual material, you will take a concentrated journey through a creative process which involves brainstorming, critical thinking, problem solving, individual and small group work, and non-verbal communication. |
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Amanda Cantrell Roche has worked as a dance Teaching Artist for Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Education program since 2000, conducting aesthetic education residencies for grades K through 6. Independently and in collaboration with a team of lead teaching artists, she designs and facilitates professional development for teachers and other teaching artists. She was recently selected to become a part of ArtistCorps Tennessee, a select group of Tennessee Arts Commission teaching artists who conduct arts-based service learning residencies in schools. Community and service-centered, Amanda has collaborated as an organizer, choreographer or teaching artist with organizations such as Global Education Center, Nashville CARES, and Vanderbilt University. A mother of two, she also birthed and has nurtured Blue Moves Modern Dance Company since 1989, and more recently the human rights group One Human Race 4 Justice. Along with three TPAC lead teaching artists, she formed Hero Journeys Workshops to offer aesthetic education personal development workshops for the general public. Her alchemy is most powerful when she combines a trilogy of her deepest passions: dance, writing and social justice. Amanda's blog. |
photo by Martin O'Connor |
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