Dance Educator Enrichment Program (DEEP): A Model for Professional Development

Abstract

In 2001, North Carolina Dance Theatre, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system joined forces to create a multidimensional, professional development program for dance professionals (teachers and artists) in the public schools called, The Dance Educator Enrichment Program (DEEP). DEEP was designed to strengthen and enrich the teaching skills of dance educators while providing additional resources for teachers and professional artist-educators. Using the Capturing Creativity curriculum, created for the North Carolina Dance Theatre based upon its current repertory, dance educators participated in workshops with artist-educators who would later conduct comprehensive dance lessons and residencies in the schools. After each dance workshop, educators received a volume of lesson materials to enrich their classroom resources. A second tier of this program, called DEEP Peer Circle, was formed as a support group for dance educators and professional artist-educators where they could evaluate and analyze their own teaching methods, style, and lesson choices with others. Ultimately, this model for professional development provided a comprehensive way to help dance educators create a learning environment to promote creativity, inquiry, analysis, and interaction while linking the professional dance world to the public school classroom. A two-year evaluation study was conducted simultaneously with the model. This article shares the evidence of the efficacy of the DEEP program.