Special Projects

My endless fascination with dance of all kinds continues to lead me to explore new ways to share the joy of dance in unusual situations. Spiritual Retreats and Team Building explores how dancing together in a community can lead to a stronger bond between dancers plus personal insights about how we relate to ourselves, our world and our values. Play-Party Games are a form of dance accompanied by singing that was popular in the 1800s. The Mountain Folk Festival is an annual gathering of youth dance groups. Grant Writing explores my expertise in this area, which I offer to your organization.

Spiritual Retreats and Team Building

"I truly believe the lessons I learned today through dance will help me better myself in my own personal life. I learned very valuable lessons today that I am excited to put into action with all different types of relationships in my life. Thank you for an amazing day!”

Have you ever considered how dance can be a tool for spiritual growth? Have you noticed the sense of community that builds within a group who dances together? How vulnerability leads to mutual respect and connection? How lessons that come with learning a dance can be applied to life lessons? Allow me to lead your group in discovering new connections and personal insights through dance, introspection, nature, journaling and sharing. Read more 

Play-Party Games Research

In 2007 I was awarded an Appalachian Music Fellowship from Berea College. I used it to research the movements and tunes to 15 dance-like play-party games that were popular in rural western Kentucky throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I conducted extensive fieldwork, interviewing 75 people between the ages of 80 and 100+ who had participated in play-parties. I also conducted research in Berea’s library and archives. As a result, I was able to largely reconstruct these never before published games as they had been played in 1928. Read more

Mountain Folk Festival

The Mountain Folk Festival is a folk dance festival for youth that is held every year at Berea College in Kentucky. For two days groups of young people from 4th to 12th grade, along with their dance leaders and chaperones, gather to dance, sing and learn together, discovering others in their age group who love traditional dance and song. The festival has a mission of educating the next generation of dancers about the joy of dance and carries on a 76-year tradition of folk dance for young people at Berea College. It has been my joy and honor to co-lead a group that has attended the festival for the last 11 years. Read more

Grant Writing

For the last twenty years much of my income as a dancer and dance educator has been funded through the support of grants. These grants come from both public and private sources and are obtained through my efforts as a grant writer. I am pleased to report that well over 85% of the grants I have applied for have been funded. Read more

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