The Texas Educational Theatre Association recently awarded Kim Wheetley, executive director of the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts, their Emeritus Award recognizing his years of dedication and service to theatre education in Texas and the nation. From 1978 to 1989, Kim served TETA as a member of the Board of Directors for 11 years, and held the offices of chair of the Secondary School Theatre Section, chair of the Creative Drama Network, vice-president for Convention Programming, and president of the organization. He received the TETA Founder’s Award in 1985.

Several colleagues commented on his achievement during the TETA awards ceremony in Houston. “Much of what TETA and educational theatre in Texas is today is the result of the efforts of this man. His work from 1978-88 as the theatre specialist in the Division of General Education at the Texas Education Agency resulted in the expansion of a few drama classes into Theatre Arts I-IV, Technical Theatre I-II, and Theatre Production I-IV.” “I consider Kim to be a total man of the Theatre: playwright, actor, director, musician, technician, critic – but most of all teacher. He has the uncanny ability not only to inspire colleagues, teachers, and students, but to inspirit them – to enable us to accomplish more than we ever thought we could.” “Kim always put the ‘E” in TETA at the forefront of what he did. As a result, current and future generations of Texans are able to lay claim to outstanding theatre education.”

Philadelphia Dance Projects supports contemporary dance through projects that encourage artists and audiences to more fully participate and engage in the experience and pursuit of dance as an evolving form. PDP presents stimulating performances, workshops, classes, films, and forums for artists, students and a broad-based audience. PDP constantly surveys the contemporary dance world, keeping a close eye on current trends in content and style, while actively engaging in and appreciating the depth of work being created today which plumbs dance precursors’ traditions.

Mary LaBianca will facilitate a workshop on Dance and Literacy / Dance and Literature on May 5, 2012. Literature is a great springboard for dance making and exploration. Participants will delve into the connections between dance and language for young children, exploring the six language arts – reading, writing, speaking, listening, visually viewing and visually representing – and their relationship to dance through a variety of common creative processes.

On May 6, Mary will lead a workshop on Fundamental Truths: Adventures in Bartenieff’s Principles. Pioneering movement analyst Irmgard Bartenieff developed a system in the 1950’s and 60’s now called Bartenieff Fundamentals which has important implications for dance teaching. The interrelated principles can be used in technique, creative dance, and composition. This session will focus on the Fundamentals of Initiation and Sequencing as a framework for developing classes, and give participants the opportunity to explore the principles, analyze movement, and compose phrases.

Laurie Melnik will present two sessions at the American Alliance for Theatre & Education conference in Lexington, KY on August 8-12: Translation in Scale: Developing a Drama Program Based on Big Dreams and Overcoming Differences and Charging Ahead: How a Secondary School Theatre Program Brought Differering Communities Together. As a founder and past-president of AATE, Kim Wheetley will participate in Conversations on the Past: Wisdom from our Leaders in Celebration of AATE's 25th Anniversary.

The National Dance Education Organization has accepted Mary LaBianca’s workshop proposal Critical Shifts in Teaching for the 2012 NDEO Annual Conference, Focus on Dance Education: Many Cultures, Strength Through Diversity, being held in Los Angeles, CA on October 24-28.

Kim Wheetley
1988 – 1998

Susanne Burgess has been invited to present a workshop on Integrating with Integrity: Music as a Curricular Partner at the 30th International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference on Music Education. The conference will take place in Thessaloniki, Greece from July 15-20, 2012. ISME is a unique organization that represents music educators from more than 90 countries.

Laurie Melnik's article, A Moment to Process and Popcorn: A Mentor’s Perspective of AATE’s Lakeside Reflections, was published in the American Alliance for Theatre and Education's September 2011 digital magazine: incite/insight. Laurie writes, "Attending the summer conference brought me back to m first time attending AATE five years ago. This year I had the honor to attend with Diana Torres (from Sallie B. Howard School of the Arts in Wilson, NC), the inagural winner of the Lin Wright Professional Teaching Grant. Serving as Diana's mentor both at her school and at AATE brought insight on how meaningful the mentor/mentee relationship can be."