Come and join us for a lively conversation with a gentle and sharp curiosity for embodying care. Care for the younger ones in our education systems, to guide their development through a more sustainable lense where everyone is whole. Where our senses, experiences, questions, curiosities - educators as well as young learners - matter. Where they are seen, heard, allowed to BE, without a counter advice, a counter narrative a counter performance.
Hetty King - Dancer, performer, educator, mom, wife, choreographer, New Yorker, cat and turtle owner and embodied educator - makes it an art to live the question. And it's her personal motto to help children "be personally literate". not only living but researching the question of: '
Tune in and explore:
- How to create movement adventures through stories, to help children come into a dialogue with themselves,
- Why questions matter as much as answers (if the answers even matter at all :P)
- The importance of embodied anatomy in working with the body, also with children
- The Myth of "it's all about them" (the students:)
- Three Preliminary Findings on Embodied Pedagogy Early Childhood Ed.
// TIMESTAMP
00:00 Welcome to The Embodied Educator
00:17 Hetty King's Impressive Background
05:08 Influential Teachers in Hetty's work & Life
09:38 The journey from performer to teacher/educator
14:28 The Art of Living The Question - answers necessary?
17:30 Finishing Nancy Topf's Manuscript
30:17 Movement Adventures in the Classroom
38:46 Being intentional with language
42:42 Navigating Classroom Dynamics (private vs public)
43:16 Ethnographic Embodied Data collection
// EMBODY MOMENT @58 minutes
I love how Hetty brings in a different voice, view and vocation to teaching embodiment with children! Her embodied practice is about guiding the little ones into relaxation, and providing them with an opportunity to not hear someone else's voice. Tune in @ minute 58.
If you teach young ones, and feel like experimenting gently in your classroom, we would love to hear how it went! Feel free to reach out and share your and your students process and insights.
// BIO
Hetty King, is a native New Yorker. holds a collection of titles ; from BFA, MFA, MA, CMA, RSDE®, RYT200, TT®. She has been a part of the New York City dance and performance world as a performer, choreographer, dance educator, writer, and scholar since graduating from The High School of Performing Arts in 1985. She is ABD (all but dissertation) in the Ed.D. Dance Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where her research focuses on the possibilities of somatic pedagogy for early childhood dance education.
Ms. King’s choreography has been presented in New York City and across Canada. As a dancer, she worked in the companies of Ralph Lemon, Marta Renzi, Victoria Marks, Bill Young, and David Dorfman. She also performed with a variety of magical dancers like Allyson Green to Irene Stamou, and Lin Snelling.
Hetty has been in the field of dance education since 2000, she has served a wide range of populations from in-school, after-school programs for humans of all ages from preschool to senior citizens. She has developed and taught PreK-5 dance programs that focus on the creative process in both public and private schools.
For her impactful work Hetty received the Saul Birns award, complete tuition remission at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities, three Jerome Foundation Commission Grants for choreography, and a US/Mexico Fund for Culture Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Arnhold Foundation grant. Hetty has presented numerous times at NDEO’s National Conferences, internationally at DaCi (Dance and the Child International), and at the Toronto Children’s Theatre. She is a contributor to Dance Education in Practice and Contact Quarterly Unbound and has reviewed books for JoDe and The Journal of Somatic Dance.
As a student of the late somatic movement pioneer, Nancy Topf, Hetty nurtured a love of the somatic arts as they relate to dance, embodiment, and the education of the whole child. Hetty was certified by Nancy and completed her posthumous manuscript in June of 2022.
Hetty was the Program Director for the Dance Makers in the Schools program at Movement Research, one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Currently, she is the full-time dance educator for grades 3K-2nd at Public School 145 K, the Magnet School for Leadership Through Engineering in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Hetty lives in Brooklyn with her husband, a theatre technician at the Metropolitan Opera, their two adopted daughters, their cat, Clyde, and their frog, Snowball.
// IN CONTACT WITH HETTY
🤳🏻 Linked In: @Hetty King
// THE EMBODIED EDUCATOR
🌍 www.theembodiededucator.nl | liz@theembodiededucator.nl
👀 Watch+subscribe via Youtube @TheEmbodiedEducator
📱LinkedIn: @Liz Wientjes
📱Instagram: @Liz Wientjes - The Embodied Educator
We love to hear how these conversations move you and your educational practice! Hwo do you integrate embodiment into your learning / classroom / school? It's awesome to see what's inspiring you and leading to more embodiment in education.
The Embodied Educator Podcast 👩🏻🏫 is hosted by Liz Wientjes. If you have quetions or suggestions for guests or topics please don't be shy, drop a message. Hearing your ideas/experiments/questions/doubts/moves/stars rocks my world ❤️🔥
- Nancy Topf - BOOK: A guide to a somatic movement practice
- Dance Education Laboratory - Hetty King
- Susan Bauer - The Embodied Teen - https://susanbauer.com/
- Melinda Buckwalter - Composing While Dancing: An Improviser’s Companion https://melindabuckwalter.wordpress.com/melinda-buckwalter/
- Tonic Fucntion - Janda Approach (well explained here)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Some parts are written with help of AI - apologies if there's an inconsistency or inaccuracy - I create this podcast in my spare time and totally out of love for learning, teaching and paying it forward :-)