Art of Living The Question

Transforming early childhood education through dance & somatics
With Hetty King

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When interviewing Susan Bauer for The Embodied Educator Summit on The Embodied Teen, we ofcourse dove deep into her embodied pedagogy specifically designed for teens. That did leave me with a question 'and how does this embodied pedagogy then relate to the little litte ones'?

Susan referred me to Hetty King, who has studied with Susan - amongst other wonderful embodied experts and educators - to explore exactly THAT QUESTION! " ... as I left the practice of really being a dancer on a daily basis, and moving into teaching, I wasn't sure at first what to do with all of that. and. Oddly enough is kind of what has what led me to, this dissertation process, which is where I am now.

All this time forward, was really starting to question, well, where does all this somatic world live in my life as a teacher with young children?"

When you pop in to listen or watch our conversation, you'll notice the curious and playfull unfolding of Hetty's search for The Right Questions through her embodied PhD process. It's so cool to hear her break traditional patterns of doing research and finding an etnographic approach to gather data with her kids in Kindergarten! And to shift the paradigm of not just chasing answers, that there's such beauty in Finding Better Questions.

Embodied Pedagogy with the Little Ones

I think Hetty is so cool for showcasing how research can be an embodied process too! Especially and almost inevitably when working with young kids development Pre-K age 4-5.

"especially with young children. it's just a much more kind of democratic environment and that requires something different from a teacher."

Her Movement Adventures through Story are an inspiration to open up exploration, conversation, inquiry about what it is like to be in a body, as a kid. How to come into dialogue with some aspect of themselves, whether that is skeletal or more conceptual.

Come and listen to learn what it is like to take children through activities as they are stories with the example of "two big feet meet the earth".

 "They're very abstract concepts, which for kids can be really like, that's a challenge. They're pretty concrete thinkers. Surprisingly enough, they went along with me on these adventures"

She'll also share some first findings as her PhD is getting into her data analysis phase now! One of her coolest findings and the reason why I started this podcast is the power and need for Communities of Practice :))))

Learning is a process and not just an outcome. Thus embodied practice can offer a beautiful foundation to guide learners processes in learning. A regenerative learning space, instead of a degenerating learning space.

Movement Adventures

"I found that I have to create the community. To practice. And then that becomes the community of practice that we're constantly co generating. And how cool is that?"

Hetty is a dancer and mover in heart and soul, having had so many great teachers to learn from in her years as a professional performer. One stood out for her, Nancy Topf, they both spoke the same language of body!

Unfortunatley Hetty lived through Nancy's life passing, and was gifted this legacy of her work, with piles of notes and Lombardo - come on over to listen to figure out who that is :) and to get an impression of a very interesting embodied educator in the somatic field. Nancy initally started calling it release work!

For all the body nerds out there, this is a very intereting book, especially because it adresses this positive inquiry on body landmarks through an embodied lens; like all the domes we have in our body.

" There's the dome of your mouth ... and these all stack within your body. How do these domes speak to you? so there are ideas like that. And so they all come to life or they become animate in a way and they have these conversations and it's very lighthearted. "

I wish I had asked Hetty more about exploring the domes, but there;s always an opportunity for another conversation, and read the book ;)

Continuing Nancy Topf's Lineage

"My experience with with Nancy Topf was so transformative to me as a dancer and as a performer and as somebody just whose body was, how I expressed myself."

Hetty King, is a native New Yorker. holds a collection of titles ; from BFA, MFA, MA, CMA, RSDE®, RYT200, TT®. She has been a part of the New York City dance and performance world as a performer, choreographer, dance educator, writer, and scholar since graduating from The High School of Performing Arts in 1985. She is ABD (all but dissertation) in the Ed.D. Dance Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where her research focuses on the possibilities of somatic pedagogy for early childhood dance education.

Ms. King’s choreography has been presented in New York City and across Canada. As a dancer, she worked in the companies of Ralph Lemon, Marta Renzi, Victoria Marks, Bill Young, and David Dorfman. She also performed with a variety of magical dancers like Allyson Green to Irene Stamou, and Lin Snelling.

Hetty has been in the field of dance education since 2000, she has served a wide range of populations from in-school, after-school programs for humans of all ages from preschool to senior citizens. She has developed and taught PreK-5 dance programs that focus on the creative process in both public and private schools.

For her impactful work Hetty received the Saul Birns award, complete tuition remission at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities, three Jerome Foundation Commission Grants for choreography, and a US/Mexico Fund for Culture Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Arnhold Foundation grant. Hetty has presented numerous times at NDEO’s National Conferences, internationally at DaCi (Dance and the Child International), and at the Toronto Children’s Theatre. She is a contributor to Dance Education in Practice and Contact Quarterly Unbound and has reviewed books for JoDe and The Journal of Somatic Dance.

As a student of the late somatic movement pioneer, Nancy Topf, Hetty nurtured a love of the somatic arts as they relate to dance, embodiment, and the education of the whole child. Hetty was certified by Nancy and completed her posthumous manuscript in June of 2022.

Hetty was the Program Director for the Dance Makers in the Schools program at Movement Research, one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Currently, she is the full-time dance educator for grades 3K-2nd at Public School 145 K, the Magnet School for Leadership Through Engineering in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Hetty lives in Brooklyn with her husband, a theatre technician at the Metropolitan Opera, their two adopted daughters, their cat, Clyde, and their frog, Snowball.

Bio

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// REFERENCES

People

Melinda Buckwalter
Susan Bauer

Principles

Tonic Function - Janda Approach (this is well explained here)