Posts by Dawn Pratson
Updates from the DEI Committee
Recently I attended a reunion of the k-8 school where I taught from its founding in 2005 until 2016. The Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School was founded by a group of primarily Asian American but also African American social justice activists and folk arts advocates. The vision of the school is to teach through a…
Read MoreMovement Training for Dalcroze Eurhythmics Specialists
My introduction to Dalcroze eurhythmics came when, in 1997, Lisa Parker hired me to teach movement in the Dalcroze program at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. In an effort to design a movement course that served Dalcroze students, I started taking, and immeasurably enjoying, all the eurhythmics, solfège, improvisation, and pedagogy classes…
Read MoreConversations on Undoing Racism (May 2024)
The DSA began our monthly “Conversations on Undoing Racism” in August of 2020, in response to the events surrounding the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. We have met every month, except one, since then. Here is an excerpt from a participant’s email response to a recent session: THANK YOU for…
Read MoreLooking at the Differently-Abled
In my last blog entry, I wrote about our recent online discussion on Dalcroze Eurhythmics with differently-abled bodies, and shared a couple of personal stories that arose, some from the perspective of a student with a disability, some from the perspective of a teacher working with students with disabilities. I also related my own story…
Read MoreUndoing Racism
Our monthly, hour-long conversations generally have very little plan or structure. Sometimes I suggest a reading or watching of a video, but not usually. At times, I like to start with a quiet centering, a 60-second “pause,” as my Alexander teacher and colleague Anne Johnson would call it – closing our eyes, feeling our feet…
Read More2022 DSA Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Survey
The Dalcroze Society of America (DSA) is embarking on a process to investigate and improve our organization with regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this effort, we are joining many organizations in addressing a long history of unequal opportunities and disenfranchisement for BBIA (Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian), the differently-abled, LGBTQIA, and others. In…
Read MoreUndoing Racism
This reflection was written on August 7, 2021 July 25 was our twelfth Zoom meeting, marking the one-year anniversary of our monthly sessions discussing “undoing racism in music education.” I hosted the meeting on Zoom from my AirBnB in Dallas, TX, where I was teaching and learning at the Dalcroze School of the Rockies Dalcroze…
Read MoreUndoing Racism, May 2021
I am writing this the day after President Biden’s first address to Congress, where he stood, for the first time in US history, in front of two women leaders of the house: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris. I am heartened that President Biden is diversifying leadership in the government, and that his…
Read MoreUndoing Racism, March 2021
The monthly conversations on “Undoing Racism in Music Education” have continued. We’ve had three conversations since the last blogpost: one in December, one in January and one in February. I wish I could have posted something each month, but time has been speeding by faster than I expected. Our conversations have consistently been fruitful. We’ve…
Read MoreUndoing Racism, December 2020
We are in a unique time. Our conversations have the potential to bring about major cultural shifts, I believe. I hope so! But they are painful, I guess, like most growth spurts. Even the idea that one must have pain in order to grow is questionable, as my practice of the Alexander Technique posits. Yet,…
Read More