Education

I am dedicated to educating students from the ages of three through adult.  I particularly enjoy working across disciplines, combining dance with other arts to provide students new and exciting learning opportunities.  I am qualified to teach ballet, modern, tap and jazz technique, improvisation, composition, dance kinesiology, dance history, and pedagogy.

View a brief sample of one of my classes here.

Creative Arts in Guatemala

For two summers I traveled to Guatemala through Highland Support Project's Mayan Arts Program to teach arts-integrated lessons in the schools of the highlands.  I am developing relationships with La Cumbre and Sector Dos, both elementary-middle schools in the mountains of the country.  My students at SUU have traveled and taught with me,gaining invaluable pedagogic experience.  I look forward to continuing this work.

Logo by Alisa Petersen

Arts*Lab Teacher at Work

I recently collaborated with Birgit McMullen, Alisa Petersen and Michael Bahr to develop Arts*Lab, an interdisciplinary arts workshop at Southern Utah University.  We facilitated free workshops in dance, theatre and visual art for Cedar City, UT children ages 3-11.  SUU Elementary Education majors designed and implemented these workshops, utilizing the arts to teach English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and more.  What began as a dance class for about 65 students grew to an arts experience for over 700 local children each year.

Would you like a similar experience for your community?  Contact me to discuss your unique needs, and I will develop a high-quality arts-integration workshop designed specifically for your community. 



Arts*Lab Teacher at Work

Below is a video created by Corey Parker, a former student in the theatre production class at Thomas Dale High School.  It documents an interdisciplinary assignment I created and led at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that incorporated students from the dance, music, theatre and visual arts programs at Dale.  This is just one example of the collaborative experiences I can design for your students.

Student Collaboration at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts


To bring me to your students, please contact me at DenisePurvis@suu.edu