Professional Learning

Anne Green Gilbert (she/her) founded the Creative Dance Center and Kaleidoscope Dance Company in Seattle, Washington in 1981 and the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers in 1994. She was the Director of CDC from 1981 – 2014. Anne has had a varied teaching career starting as an elementary school teacher, moving on to dance and pedagogy classes at University of Illinois Chicago and University of Washington, then teaching children’s dance classes at Cornish College and Bill Evans/Dance Theatre Seattle before starting the Creative Dance Center. She was an adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University for many years and taught for Lesley University’s Outreach Masters Program for ten years. Anne taught infants through adults at Creative Dance Center for 30 years. She continues to teach older adults at CDC. Anne trains teachers through the Summer Dance Institute and CDC Educator workshops. For 40 years she conducted hundreds of workshops and residencies across the United States and abroad. Anne developed the BrainDance, a focusing warm-up exercise, in 2000. The BrainDance is used in many schools, studios, and homes around the world. Anne is internationally recognized for her work with young artists and the creative process. She has choreographed dances for university dance companies as well as local Northwest dance companies and Kaleidoscope Dance Company.

Anne is the author of Teaching the Three Rs Through Movement (1977), Creative Dance for All Ages (1^st edition 1992, 2^nd edition 2015), Brain-Compatible Dance Education (1^st edition 2006, 2^nd edition 2019), Teaching Creative Dance DVD (2002) and BrainDance DVD (2003/2016), as well as numerous articles. Anne has also collaborated with composer Eric Chappelle on the CDs, BrainDance Music and Music for Creative Dance Volumes I-V. Anne is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization, and Dance and the Child International (daCi). Anne served on the daCi board for twelve years. Anne is founder and Past President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington, an organization promoting quality dance education in all Washington State schools K-12. As a member of the Arts Education Standards project, she helped write the Washington State Dance Standards and Learning Goals. Anne is the recipient of several awards including the National Dance Association Scholar/Artist award in 2005, the National Dance Education Organization Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, the Lawrence Tenney Stevens American Dance Award for her work with boys and men in dance in 2014, and the American Dance Festival Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching in 2016.

Anne is the mother of three amazing Kaleidoscope alums and grandmother of seven dancing grandchildren. She lives in Seattle with her talented husband, David.

Dionne Kamara (she/her), a former member of Urban Bush Women performance company, is currently a resident teaching artist in New York City. Dionne teaches creative dance integrating academic curriculum to children in public schools, enabling them to express their thoughts and ideas through the art of dance. She has taught creative and traditional West African dance in schools, community centers and cultural institutions in the New York metropolitan area for many years and also teaches creative dance to infants through adults in several NYC studios. Dionne has been an SDIT faculty member since 2003.

https://www.dionnesimonekamara.com/

Terry Goetz (she/her) is Director of the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington. Terry has been on faculty of the Creative Dance Center since 2000 and began training intensively with CDC Founder Anne Green Gilbert in 1997. She teaches Nurturing Baby, Parent/Toddler, and Parent/Child Creative Dance classes and Ballet and Modern Dance for older children and adults. Terry has taught in preschools and elementary classrooms as a teaching artist, and in studios throughout the Seattle area since retiring from Pacific Northwest Ballet where she danced from 1988-1995. Prior to performing with PNB, she was a member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater from 1986-1988. During her career Terry performed works by George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, José Limón, Antony Tudor, Lar Lubovitch, Mark Dendy, Merce Cunningham, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Ohad Naharin, Petipa, and Bournonville, as well as performing full-length classical works. Terry presents workshops locally, nationally, and internationally, training dance teachers, early childhood specialists, educators, and teaching artists in BrainDance and Brain-Compatible Dance Education. She has presented at the National Dance Association and National Dance Education Organization conferences. Terry has taught for the International daCi (Dance and the Child) Finnish Chapter, the daCi National Gathering at the University of Washington, the daCi World Congress in Copenhagen and Adelaide, Australia, the Kuopio International Dance Festival, the Edmonton and Indiana Orff Schulwerk Associations, the East Asia Regional Council of International Schools Conferences held in Shanghai (2013) and Manila (2016), Hubbard St., and at universities in the US (The Hartt School, East Carolina University, University of Washington, University of Tampa, Skidmore College, Hofstra University) and Canada (University of Alberta). She worked with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in WA state as a Dance Specialist developing updated state-wide K-12 Learning Standards for Dance. Terry is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization and served as President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington. She co-directs the One-Week Refresher Course for the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers with her colleague Anna Mansbridge. In 2015 Terry was honored as Dance Educator of the Year at the Fall DEAW Conference. This annual award is presented to dance educators working in the state of Washington who exemplify excellence in dance education.

Anna Mansbridge (she/her) is Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope Dance Company and Mosaic Dance Company. She is originally from Australia and the UK, and now resides in Seattle, WA. She holds a First Class Honors Degree in Dance and Education from Bedford College, UK, and an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Mills College, CA. She has been on faculty at the Creative Dance Center since September 1999 teaching all ages. She has created many dances for Kaleidoscope Dance Company and co-directed the company with Anne Green Gilbert for 5 years before taking over the Artistic Directorship upon Anne’s retirement in July 2014. Mosaic Dance Company was first formed by Anne in 2006. After a hiatus Anna reconvened the company in the Fall of 2018 to offer additional performance opportunities to interested CDC students. Anna is also the Founder (in 2000) and Artistic Director of Seattle Early Dance, a company dedicated to recreating dances from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. She has directed/choreographed a number of early operas and concerts locally with Pacific Musicworks, Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington Music Department, and Early Music Seattle. Her choreography for Christoph Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice (1774) presented by University of Washington School of Music and Pacific MusicWorks at Meany Theater, was descried in a review in the Seattle Times as “effective and beautiful.” In addition, Anna has directed a DVD titled Baroque Basics: An Introduction to the Dance and the Music of the Baroque Period, and she has taught early dance workshops in the US, Europe and Asia.

Anna has been an adjunct instructor at Cornish College of the Arts and the University of Washington, and she is the former Chair for daCi USA (dance and the Child international). She organized the very successful 5th National Gathering at the University of Washington, Seattle, June 2014. Anna co-directs the one-week Summer Dance Institute for Teachers at the Creative Dance Center with Terry Goetz, and she gives workshops in Brain-Based Dance Education locally, nationally and internationally.