Dancers Using Technology

Wendy Whelan Uses Technology

If you haven't already read this short Wall Street Journal piece this week, check it out. It highlights ballet icon and New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan. The article is about the various tech tools she uses in her personal life and for dance-related ideas. 

click here

Resource for K-12 Teaching Artists: Word Clouds

 

If you are a teacher who likes using word lists to inspire improv activities or short creative projects, consider using a website to make a visually interesting "word cloud" for your next class. There are numerous sites to build word clouds. Today I highlight the site Tagxedo. Use the site to build your word cloud, save it as a JPG on your computer, and then print out color copies to give the students.

Give yourself 15 minutes to explore the site and play around. Go to http://www.tagxedo.com/.

Then, here are the basic steps.

1. Click "Create."

2. Click on "Load." "Enter Text" to add what you want in your word cloud. Here is an example I made today of basic locomotor steps.

4. Click on the word "Shape" to alter the large shape the words will be in.

These word clouds are also simply visually interesting - post them in the studio. Gather words from your students and make word clouds as a form of reflection about a project, performance, or field trip. Students in middle school and high school can make their own word clouds to use for an upcoming choreographic project or as a reflection tool about your course, a performance, or a field trip.