Date: May 06, 2013

Teaching the Joys of Dance

May 8 Performance by Hofstra's Dance Programs and AHRC-Nassau

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY …  Hofstra University’s Dance and Dance Education Programs and the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (AHRC-Nassau) will host a celebratory, end-of-year showing, titled Moving Words, on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, at noon in Dempster Hall, Room 209, located on Hofstra’s South Campus. The performance is free and open to the public and will also include works by dance majors Andre Goddard and Martha Lavery.

Hofstra’s Dance and Dance Education Programs have been working with the AHRC-Nassau for the past five years to help adults with mental disabilities explore their creativity through dance.  All Hofstra participants volunteer their time by choreographing and leading one hour workshops each week for the AHRC-Nassau participants under the direction of Anita Feldman, director of the Dance Education Program at Hofstra.

The lead instructor in this program is Dance Education student Teresa Schmitt. The dancers have worked this semester on making movement studies inspired by poetry. Hofstra volunteers are gaining teaching experience and are given the opportunity to impact other people’s lives through the arts.  The AHRC-Nassau adults have shown great improvements and much happiness from the Hofstra dance workshops.  

The Hofstra University Department of Drama and Dance provides students with the opportunity to develop and hone their skills as performers, deepen their appreciation for the arts, and find careers in the theater and beyond. The Dance Program offers two undergraduate degrees: a B.A. in Dance, and a B.S. in Education - Dance Education. Hofstra has approximately 100 dance and dance education majors, and 60 dance minors.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution of higher education where more than 11,000 full and part-time students choose from undergraduate and graduate offerings in liberal arts and sciences, business, engineering, applied science, communication, education, health sciences and human services, honors studies, the Maurice A. Deane School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.

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