Adaptive BrainDance FREE! (IN PERSON) 10 weeks

Adaptive BrainDance FREE! (IN PERSON) 10 weeks

Children & Teens | Available

Ages: 13+ Teens and Adults
1/7/2025-3/18/2025
7:00 PM-8:00 PM PST on Tue
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Adaptive BrainDance FREE! (IN PERSON) 10 weeks

Children & Teens | Available

Adaptive BrainDance is for students of all abilities/disabilities. This creative dance class is filled with mindful support and open spaces to develop body awareness and experience social-emotional learning. The neurodevelopmental movement patterns of the BrainDance bring focus to our bodies and minds. We celebrate personal creativity and uniqueness as we navigate movement together. There are opportunities in class to reflect, share, and participate in active, ongoing conversations about how our bodies individually experience movement. We collectively investigate dance as an internal and external experience using supportive language, images, storytelling, and visualization to guide us. Participants are welcome to have support join class with them in the form of family or staff to aid their participation.

This class runs on a 10-week schedule in Winter of 2025.

  • The Creative Dance Center believes everyone should have the opportunity to dance. Adaptive BrainDance is offered at NO COST to ensure our community has access to this class. This free class is taught IN PERSON in the Lower Studio at the Creative Dance Center. 
Nyland, Joel
Joel Nyland

Joel has been dancing since age 3 and has been a leader in our Adaptive Dance program since it began. Joel shares: “I am a twenty-three year old dancer and song writer. I have danced mostly in my imagination my whole life because my brain functions differently and my body does not follow its instructions. Learning the BrainDance has increased my ability to move my body. I love helping others see the power of dance.”

A daily advocate for the spelling community, Joel is a “Spellebrity Ambassador” for the International Association for Spelling as Communication (I-ASC). Joel spells, “I am proud to use a letterboard to communicate” to advocate that nonspeaking people need to be recognized as intelligent human beings. Joel’s words and actions remind others to be kind and useful. He has performed his original songs in the Neurolyrical Café and at Boards & Chords. His first full album, Presume Competency, featuring Joel’s songs with contributions by Caden Rainey is available on Amazon Music and iTunes. His second album, Sounds of Gratitude, is available on many platforms including YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify.

Caplan, Sara
Sara Caplan

Sara Caplan (she/her) is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist originally from Dedham, MA. She received her BA Theatre: Dance Performance and her BS in Biology from The Pennsylvania State University in 2013 and her MFA in Dance from the College at Brockport in 2017. Caplan has performed in works choreographed by Elisha Clark Halpin, Sherone Price, Laura Peterson, Juanita Suárez, Maura Keefe, Kendra Portier, Mariah Maloney, Beth Gill, Elise Beers AachixQaaduug, Lucille Jun, Bri Wilson, Shenandoah Harris, Madeleine Gregor, and Anja Kellner-Rogers. She currently dances for Karin Stevens Dance and collaborates on various independent movement projects. She has presented works in various theatres and urban venues, as well as virtually, in Pennsylvania, New York, and Seattle. Sara has more than 10 years of experience teaching in studio and has taught at the Pennsylvania State University, The College at Brockport, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Slippery Rock University.