Mettler Studios'
Summer Mettler-based Dance Teacher Training
Taught by Mary Ann Brehm and Karenne Koo
Monday -- Saturday, July 14--26 2025
(Sunday July 20 is a mid-course day off)
Tucson Creative Dance Center
3131 N. Cherry Avenue Tucson, Arizona
Three 2-hour Follow up sessions on Zoom, Times TBD
Tuition:
First Week--$350, Full Course--$550
IACD members receive a $30 discount
Scholarship aid is available
Schedule:
9 am to 4 pm daily with an hour and a half mid-day break
Each day will include movement studies, relaxation, discussion, and integration time with flexibility of class time according to the needs of the course.
Week 1 will present Mettler's core material and principles
Week 2 will provide opportunities for practice teaching by participants, extended group dance improvisation and theme development, and deepening experience of core material.
Follow-up Sessions will be developed according to the needs of the group.
Register and pay HERE, please indicate you are paying for the July Teacher Training
See housing information below. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in housing
For information: contact mabdance@aol.com
Up to Date Covid-19 vaccination required.
Covid testing immediately before the workshop is requested.
Do not attend the workshop if you test positive to Covid-19
Masks optional unless transmission levels increase
Mettler Studios' Dance Teacher Training provides a full-immersion experience of individual and group dance improvisation and strategies for teaching for all ages and abilities. The work is based on principles developed by Barbara Mettler.
To register and pay online CLICK HERE
Include a brief description on your movement/art background, and specific needs, and other information you deem pertinent for this course in the space provided on the form
You may also pay by check made out to Mettler Studios
contact
mabdance@aol.com to receive the mailing address.
WORKSHOP LEADERS
Mary Ann Brehm was Barbara Mettler's dance teaching assistant and a member of the Barbara Mettler Dance Company. In addition to teaching Mettler Studios' Teacher Trainings, she is also the director of Mettler Studios Certification Program. She has taught adult classes at the Tucson Creative Dance Center for over 20 years and has worked extensively with children in school settings. She has been a faculty member in the Creative Arts and Learning Master’s Program at Lesley University. She is the board president of Mettler Studios and a past president of the International Association for Creative Dance. Mary Ann has recently compiled a series of videos of Barbara Mettler's lessons available here and is the author of Foundations of Barbara Mettler's Approach to Dance, and Creative Dance and Learning. She has a PhD in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Karenne H. Koo is a dance artist committed to developing and practicing multi-disciplinary approaches to encourage and stimulate the art of inclusive dance as an instrument for building community. She has co-taught Mettler Studios' online Teacher Trainings for people in Vietnam since 2022, In 2017, she co-founded Dancesequences Inc., a nonprofit community dance organization with the mission to advance inclusion through movement and dance. Utilizing Mettler-based Creative Dance as a foundational resource, Karenne facilitates dance programming to people of diverse abilities, experiences and circumstances in the U.S. and around the world. She is a Certified Mettler-based Dance Educator and a recipient of the 2022 inaugural J. Mare Founder’s Award from Ben’s Bell.
PURPOSE
- To cultivate the natural creative movement resources of individuals and groups
- To study and practice movement as a medium of creative expression
- To explore the use of the body as instrument and movement as the material of dance
- To provide teachers with the necessary tools for teaching creative dance
WORKSHOP MATERIALS
Individual and group improvisation studies in the materials of dance, including themes such as:
- Individual and group improvisation studies in the materials of dance, including themes such as:
- the kinesthetic sense as a guide for discovering movement forms
- force, time and space and their connections to drama, music, and visual arts
- organic form, where movements and themes evolve naturally one from another
- the unity of sound and movement
- dance and the environment
- building skills for group dance improvisation
- cultivating theme development of improvisational form
- non-verbal decision-making
- Directed exercises
- Discussion of principles of dance and how they apply to teaching
- Short reading assignments on lesson themes
- Materials and methods of teaching creative dance and improvisation on all levels
- Adaptation of materials to specific teaching endeavors according to the interests of the workshop participants
- Opportunities for practice teaching in Week 2.
for more information on course content contact mabdance@aol.com
Required texts:
Materials of Dance as a Creative Art Activity
by Barbara Mettler and
Foundations of Barbara Mettler's Approach to Dance: Principles and Teaching Guidelines. by Mary Ann Brehm (Both are available at our
bookstore or in person at the Teacher Training.)
Recommended text:
Creative Dance and Learning: Making the Kinesthetic Link by Mary Ann Brehm and Lynne McNett (available online)
FOLLOW UP MENTORING PROGRAM
Mettler Studios offers a program of mentoring for workshop participants for using the materials and approach from the course in participants' work during the following year. The mentoring is adaptable to your needs but often includes help with lesson planning, curriculum development, adapting the material to different settings via Zoom conferences, email and phone conversations. Seen as in investment in the legacy of this approach, those who avail themselves to the mentoring are elidible for partial tuition waivers and housing assistance during the workshop.
HOUSING
We are investigating Airbnb arrangements convenient to the Tucson Creative Dance Center. Contact Mary Ann Brehm mabdance@aol.com for further information on housing possibilities. It would be helpful to us that you do this before making your own housing arrangements. We may be able to help you find the most economical arrangements. Some housing subsidies are available to those with financial concerns.
