Kat Abdenholden, Dance Educator, Renaissance School for the Arts, Appleton Area School District
This is the second in a series of Wisconsin Arts Educator interviews in honor of Arts Month 2024. The featured educators not only demonstrate excellent teaching but also innovative ideas.
Kat Abderholden's journey in dance began during her childhood but truly flourished at the age of 14. She studied contemporary dance technique and choreography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a guest artist at Danceworks, Inc. in Milwaukee, serves as an instructor at Valley Academy for the Arts in Neenah, and teaches dance at the Renaissance School for the Arts in Appleton. Additionally, Abderholden dedicates her skills as a choreographer to the Lake Arts Project, a program fostering artistic expression among at-risk youth and veterans, particularly addressing post-traumatic stress disorder through movement therapy. Her career spans across continents, as she has performed, directed rehearsals, and choreographed for various dance companies in the United States and Europe.
Kat agreed to tell us a bit more about her work and the importance of dance education in Wisconsin:
Chris: Why is dance education important and essential for our learners?
Kat: Students learn content through visual, audio, kinesthetic, and tactical strategies when dancing. We can use dance education to create movement activities that help students better understand complex concepts from math, science, and humanities. For example, to see and hear about the process of photosynthesis is different from experiencing the process of photosynthesis through a dance activity with other students. Scientifically, when we move, we strengthen new and existing neural pathways and cognitive function in our students. The results seen in students can look like improved memory function, attention, thought transformation, and executive functioning. By using dance education to expand our understanding of teaching and explore the physical embodiment of learning, we provide our students additional opportunities to engage in learning.
Chris: Describe your role and position in the Appleton Area School District.
Kat: I am a dance teacher at Renaissance School for the Arts, an arts-focused high school charter in Appleton, WI. Renaissance School for the Arts is a process-based school engaging students in collegiate and high rigor academic, multidisciplinary arts curriculums and promotes collaborative practices of community over competition. My role within Renaissance School for the Arts is to provide dance classes that allow students to enter from any dance experience. I teach dance tools, practices, and techniques that students can use to creatively integrate movement as a resource for problem solving, collaboration, connection, and innovation. I predominantly focus on dance practices where students can source from their own movement experiences, showing that students can become proficient in dance through their unique experiences.
Chris: What innovative practices have you used to engage and connect with your students?
Kat: “You are already an expert!” - I tell my students they are experts at moving. I focus on the pre-existing movement patterns students have used prior to my classes and strengthen the understanding that dance is just another form of communication. Many of my dance activities are focused on connecting movement and other interdisciplinary practices students are learning, for example music, sports, and other creative practices. Students are encouraged to enter into the dance practices with the understanding that they already have experience expressing themselves through movement. A musician uses movement to create sound through their instrument, a painter uses movements to spread paint on a canvas, and an athlete uses movements to communicate across the field. The last thing that I practice in my spaces is “PLAY”. I encourage students to get messy, experience joy, and play with the concepts presented in class. I try to deconstruct the perceived pressures that students might assume when dancing and focus on all the learning in the exploration. "PLAY" allows students to feel confident that all dance movements are valid, and when we are exploring movement, we can stumble upon new complex ways of moving or engaging in community.
Chris: What hopes and aspirations do you have for not only your dance program, but also dance education in Wisconsin?
Kat: Dance is one of most underutilized art practices in arts integration. When we are dancing with our students, they engage in visual, audio, kinesthetic, and tactical learning. Students want to move and share their thoughts in space, but often do not have the tools or resources to create movement into ideas. When we use dance practices in classrooms, educators can teach students to be confident in presenting, move through creative viewpoints on different topics, transform thoughts, and connect with students through alternative ways of communication. I hope to find ways to integrate more dance into the Appleton Area School District and share new, exciting was to engage students in learning. In turn, I hope school districts in Wisconsin want to hire more dance educators in classrooms. By hiring dance teachers with a background in dance, we can help others understand and expand the perceptions of dance in classrooms and the impact dance has on student learning.
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Chris Gleason
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
This publication and previous issues are available from: Division of Academic Excellence> Teaching and Learning Team> Arts and Creativity. https://dpi.wi.gov/fine-arts/newsletter
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