Teens Invited To Share Stories In Virtual Spoken Word & Movement Workshops

Core Dance, the professional dance organization, is seeking teens ages 15 to 18 years who have a story they want to share with the world. Teens Activate is a virtual workshop, with two sessions, that runs from June 1 through June 12, 10am to noon, Monday through Friday.

Each workshop will take place online on the Zoom platform with space limited to 10 slots per session. Spoken word artists Chris James and Marcus Montgomery will partner with Amanda Sieradzki, an interdisciplinary choreographer, educator, and arts journalist to guide the teens to create their own works which integrate words and movement. A virtual showcase will be held at the end of each session. To register https://donate.coredance.org/campaigns/13066-teens-activate-2020.

"Core Dance works in the community as a catalyst for social change," said Sue Schroeder, artistic director and co-founder of the dance organization. "Today, when young people face so many challenges to their future, we want to offer them tools that help empower them to find and activate their own unique voices and give them a platform to activate their concerns and dreams."

Teaching Artists

Chris James is a national award-winning spoken word poet, TED Talks speaker, playwright, educator, photographer, and self-published author. James develops and facilitates art integrated poetry writing and performance workshops from K-12 across the country. Through his work, he educates on racial barriers and socio-economic challenges and how we can overcome. He is also very passionate about the awareness of mental health. https://www.thechrisjamesjourney.com/.

Marcus Montgomery, owner of Next Move Consulting, provides creative approaches for engaging and educating youth, specifically at-risk youth and minority males to help them find their voice in education, life and in the workforce. He is the author of Portholes: Windows into My Soul, which uses poetry to motivate students to read, write, and think critically. His most recent book is the Seven Unwritten Rules of Success. http://www.nextmovecgi.com/home.html.

Amanda Sieradzki is an interdisciplinary choreographer, educator, and arts journalist. She is the artistic director and founder of Poetica, a dance company that values collaboration, bodies, and voices in motion, and the community. Her teaching builds on Anne Green Gilbert's brain compatible dance education and emphasizes creativity and self-expression while strengthening mind-body connections. She is currently a dance faculty member at the University of Tampa and writes about dance for a variety of media. https://www.poeticadance.com/about.