Teaching Through Movement
Source: JESNA PD Notes
Movement, Dance, Imagery, and Spoken Word. These are some of the techniques implemented by the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange as it trains educators in teaching text and prayer.
Known for their many performances, the company uses movement as a way to express Jewish history, text and prayer. The group travels throughout the U.S. and abroad performing and teaching in local communities. The company has recently initiated workshops for educators focusing on techniques for connecting their students with the emotional and personal components of Jewish text and history through movement within the classroom.
The workshops offered by The Dance Exchange are called “Embodying Text.” Shula Strassfeld, choreographer and Jewish educator with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, stresses the importance of physicality in prayer. “The more physical we get in prayer, using our whole body to experience a text, the more complete the experience.”
The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange is currently working on a year long professional development program with Temple Micah in Washington, D.C. This type of faculty enrichment can provide a deep, personal engagement in content which, in turn, can impact teachers, and ultimately students, in profound ways – both spiritually and intellectually.