Concert Performance + Workshops
Teaching Philosophy
I believe teachers are most effective when they meet their students where they are. This process results in a concrete foundation that helps build a positive and enlightening setting that seeks to elevate students to their highest potential. An opening exercise to build to identify the common ground is to guide students to create the class culture and etiquette through a consensus team effort. My favorite activity to start is "make the line". In this game, students are responsible for lining up in shoe size from smallest to largest shoe size without talking. This initial process assists in scaffolding a sense of teamwork and collaboration.
I am a firm believer in learning from one another. Everyone in the class is a contributor to ideas that help the growth of the collective. I challenge my students to often think critically on how social and political topics, past and future, can serve us as an outlet for creative innovation. I provide my students with the tools to defend their innovative ideas. Dance offers a unique avenue to be vulnerable, revealing one's identity, story, and life via sound and movement. I believe asking students to engage in such an exercise requires a group effort to build a common ground to clear paths for innovation and creativity.
Every student is unique, and everyone's methods for learning are different. Over the years, I have developed numerous teaching methods to accommodate a diverse pool of students. Two of my most effective philosophies are inclusion and collaboration. In making an effort to understand where students are in their practice, one builds a bond of trust and encourages students to be involved. In addition, creating an environment where everyone is a contributor to the class ignites a sense of ownership and commitment to growth. Finally, I often start with a five-minute improvisatory circle to ignite exploration. This space permits our bodies and minds to explore our creative ideas and bring them to fruition.These two basic philosophies have proven to aid my students to continue a creative, physical, and intellectual journey..
Workshops/Lesson
“Say it With your feet”
Offer to all levels.
Part lecture and part physical introduction to tap dancing, tap dancer Gerson Lanza shares the history and background of this American percussive art form. Participants will engage in activities to help channel rhythm, body coordination, and musicality. Additionally, this workshop is designed for participant to learn how the body can serve as an instrument using sound and visuals to tell a story.
The workshop also includes a live performance demonstration of how tap dance has served as a catalyst for Lanza’s Afro-Honduran culture to flourish in his rhythm
Jazz+Tap=Conversations
Offer to beginner level
This series leans heavily into examining historical context and physical practice to provide a building block to further your knowledge about wholesome view of tap dance. Alongside carefully selective video footage, writing assignments, and in class performances, participants will strengthen their critical thinking, understand musical notations, and embody skills in relevance of tap dance technique. Once the completion of the series students will be able to:
1. Understand musical notation of a bar, chorus, and basic jazz standard form.
2. Demonstrate proficiency in tap dance vocabulary and basic movement.
3. Speak affectively on the history of tap and its relationship to jazz music.
5. Articulate the difference between Hoofing, Broadway Tap, Rhythm Tap.
Private Lesson
Offer to all levels
Available in person in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia Area.
Zoom private lesson available. (worldwide)