Mentoring the Muses
Through Mentoring the Muses, a special partnership with Hunter's Muse Scholars Program, select AGDEP students have the opportunity to teach dance and dance critcism to undergraduate Muse Scholars. Muse Scholars Director Dara Meyers-Kingsley and AGDEP Director Kathleen Isaac design specific classes by consulting with AGDEP students, who bring their own training and experience to the sessions they lead. AGDEP students help the Muse Scholars learn how to appreciate and critique dance using professional analytical skills, then take them to the dance floor, teaching new techniques during special workshops, which have been held both on and off campus at venues including Ballet Hispanico, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Studio 353.
Previous Mentoring the Muses sessions include:
- Elizabeth Portnoy leading ballet classes at Ballet Hispanico, a Manhattan organization that celebrates Latino cultures through dance
- Sharmita Saha and Prashant Sitaram instructing Muses in Bollywood Fusion Kathak
- Danielle Harris teaching lessons in jazz dance, complementing a Muse outing to see Wynton Marsalis's jazz oratorio Blood on the Fields at Jazz at Lincoln Center
- Lannette Alvarez instructing Muses in Graham technique and modern dance at Studio 353 to prepare Muse Scholars for the 2013 New York City Center Fall for Dance Festival featuring The Martha Graham Dance Company, Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., and Dorrance Dance
