Gracie whyte

They share this knowledge on both the business and creative sides of the field on a community-focused online platform on Patreon in an affordable manner. A year later when both were back in L. Both Whyte and Berg are performers, choreographers and dance educators. As well as teaching K students, professionals, and as guests at various higher education institutions, they currently teach at the collegiate level, University of California, Los Angeles and American Musical Dramatic Academy, respectively.

Because they are both educators as well as performers, they began reflecting on the differences between teaching a consistent group of students in an academic setting and their open professional classes, such as Ground Grooves.

She went on to say that the idea for the book was initially investigating a tool that was asynchronous so that if someone came to take a Ground Grooves class it would be helpful to them with their class-taking process. As we started writing it, we had all of those purposes in mind. I asked where the title Ground Groove originated. Whyte said that she had just finished grading her first papers for her Modern II class at California State University, Long Beach where she teaches part time in the Department of Dance.

It is a technique class which also has a writing component and they were working on Module 1, Noticing. The class had a group discussion and she expected them to be more nervous about the comparison pillar due to the more than a year of not dancing with other people. It feels that this book, after a year of everyone reflecting and stepping away, show how we all have been experiencing similar things.

Whatever self-work that the students have been doing, I think, is reflective of what Laura and I were trying to take into the book. One of my questions was whether the content of the book came from each of their personal dance training experiences such as conflicts, injuries, or risk taking in class. So, to rework the way you get to dance feels important to us and if you can implement that kind of mindfulness without being injured seems ideal.

I asked why they chose the number of thirty-six classes for the workbook. Was it based around the number of weeks in a college or university semester?

We wanted it to be small enough to fit into your dance bag, back pack, or your purse. We also wanted it to be robust enough that we felt as though the user of the book could go on a transformative journey. They also wanted this workbook to be a reasonable task. They did not want this to take years and years to complete as that would appear too overwhelming to students. Thirty-six classes fitted their goal.

Reading the list of titles for the Modules and Pillars of this workbook, it appeared to be delving into the realm of psychology. Terms like self-talk, taking risks, comparing oneself to others, the whole self and ones purpose in dance.

Everything has been used in a class at some point somewhere. We pulled a few things so that we were touching on every Pillar in every Module, but nothing has been tested from Module 1 through Module 6 as it exists in this exact form. So far the reactions from their students who have used the workbook have been positive.

In the papers that Whyte mentioned earlier, she noticed that her students were feeling overwhelmed by the stimulus of being back on campus and that this was affecting their focus. Referring to the workbook, they stated that it was helpful to have a specific task to direct them even before they start moving. The number of prompts vary from Module to Module. The house is where you come from but will no longer go. Where a new grief sparks the older griefs you thought were sturdy.

The griefs that were your foundation, layers first then walls and doors, an attic, a shed. Time, human limits, and memory. A changing identity and the illusion of a stable one. Here is an exploration that resists narrative, the discovery of a shifting identity through sensitivity of movement. Search this site. Gracie Whyte. Project Description house of to be The house is where you come from but will no longer go.