News: NDA Awards Extraordinary Teachers
In March, the National Dance Association presented Dance Educator of the Year Awards to middle school teacher Freddie Lee Heath and college professor Shelley Cushman. Both will present programs at the AAHPERD National Convention in 2011.
Heath, winner of the Dance Teacher K–12 award in 2007, teaches at Ligon Magnet Middle School in Raleigh, NC. His secret to success, he says, is keeping up with the changing times: “Dance educators have to be brilliant and resilient now, because if a principal looks into your classroom and sees that children aren’t engaged, your dance program could be cut.”
In addition to teaching full-time and running an after-school tap company, Heath is in graduate school for school administration at North Carolina State University. He is also working on two books. One is about dance for senior citizens (he teaches precision dance and jazz to women ages 60–80), and the other is a dance education book for phys-ed teachers.
Cushman is professor of dance at University of North Texas and has served on the faculty of California State University– Fresno, College of the Sequoias and UCLA. She holds a BA from CSU–Fresno and an MA from UCLA, but credits growing up in the public school system with inspiring her teaching philosophy. “There, arts and performance were an integral part of the curriculum,” she says. “Teachers really nurtured a sense of lifelong learning, an appreciation for the creative process and risk taking.” Cushman is also working on creating a series of cinematic caricatures, 30 intermedia collaborations that combine choreography, original music and film.
Photo courtesy of Freddie Lee Heath.
