Teaching

Susan has devised what she has termed, an “assessment-based” approach to teaching dance technique, improvisation, and movement theory, which puts the learner at the center of the teaching-learning continuum. Integrating comprehensive assessment into the fabric of the course content assures that learners deepen their understanding of Laban Movement Analysis and Language of Dance concepts, the foundation of movement theory, as well as foster their ability to “own the material” from multiple perspectives. Howard Gardner’s Theories of Multiple Intelligences, and twenty years of cognitive science developments that form the basis of Brain-Based learning, helped her develop instructional strategies to expand student mastery of the skills, knowledge, understanding, and embodiment of course content, and begin on the journey toward achieving movement literacy. These methods assure the students become articulate about movement in multiple ways: moving, speaking, researching, creating using the theory and vocabulary of movement as defined by the Laban Movement Analysis constructs of body, effort, space, and shape, and the Language of Dance alphabet of movement.

Choreography

Gingrasso makes aesthetically well constructed works that

1. expand her ability to use human movement to communicate powerful ideas;

2. extend her personal and artistic boundaries by juxtaposing normally unrelated material;

3. create movement that expands the technical and performance capabilities, and aesthetic sensibilities of the student performers;

4. explore the use of voice with movement;

5. commission original sound scores or use live music;

6. collaborate with colleagues outside of my field;

7. entice the non-dance UWSP and Stevens Point community audience into the theatre.

Recent Developments

I enjoy collaborating with my UWSP colleagues to create work for our dance students. In 2001, I worked with the acting faculty and students in choreographing all of the choral odes for the mainstage production of Medea, directed by Steve Smith. Steve’s concept set the play in the contemporary Middle East. I trained the chorus of 12 actors to move fluently and successfully while wearing full-length burkas. In preparation for Medea, I explored choral movement fully in And, that’s beside the point (2001), using a chorus of 12 dancers and five principals. Roger Nelson, musical theatre faculty, asked me to choreograph, Alleluia, a work he had composed in 1990, based on the 7 stages of grief. I found the right movement vocabulary to create a 12-minute solo that evoked very powerful images. My interests in the relationship between voice and movement, in having music composed for my work, or composing my own scores, and creating work relevant to the lives of the Stevens Point audience, took a new turn in Across the Paths We Have Made (2000). For this artistic concept I learned new technology skills. including using a mini-disc recorder, conducting oral history interviews, burning rehearsal CDs of the biographical vignettes, creating movement that captured the intent of each vignette, working closely with dance program accompanist and composer John Strassburg, and assisting with the layering of the sound tracks and creating the performance CD. The presence of three participants from the original community project in the cast brought a heightened focus to the rehearsal process. The college-aged performers approached the creation and performance of this work with a great deal of reverence because they were responsible for bringing cast members’ stories to life. I created a men’s piece based on the oral history of nine Stevens Point men for Danstage ’03 using the techniques developed during the women’s oral history work. John Strassburg composed original music for Everybody has a story. Professor William Deering is creating a 2-hour documentary on our creative process and the completed work.

Grants

Gingrasso has received numerous grants and travel awards from UWSP to support additional study and conference presentations. In 2000, she and Dr. Leslie Wilson, School of Education, wrote and received a $168,000 technology grant from the University of Wisconsin System to fund the three-year Center for the Expansion of Learning and Teaching (CELT) project. Designed to educate the Stevens Point K-12 teachers to use multiple intelligences theory, brain-based learning strategies, and meaningful technology in the classroom, the project has made significant impacts on the district’s teaching/learning culture. In 2001, Gingrasso wrote and the department received a $10,000 matching grant from Dance USA to fund the National College Choreography Initiative (NCCI) to bring professional companies into the academic setting to set works on student performers and assist in developing outreach programs to foster dance audiences. The grant supported Ferne Caulker, founder and Artistic Director of Ko-Thi Dance Company, the third oldest African American dance company in the United States, her Associate Artistic Director, Roxanne Kess, and Musical Director McKinley Perkins to complete a residency at UWSP that resulted in substantial community outreach, and the premiere of Heaven and Earthbound, presented during our Danstage 02 season.

In 2003, Dr. Wilson, Dr. Martin Loy, and Gingrasso wrote and UWSP received 2.5 year $500,000 a congressional award from Congressman David Obey to foster changes in the teaching-learning climate at UWSP. The FACETS (Faculty Alliance for Creating and Expanding Teaching Strategies) project is a

• comprehensive, faculty initiated, professional development enterprise, emphasizing collaboration between the teaching staff of UW-SP and colleagues from UW-Marathon

• multi-phased design targeting monetary support for faculty development, teaching excellence, and student retention.
The FACETS project provides

• insights into the learning differences and expectations of those students representing Generation Y

• information on diverse models of teaching, newer theories of learning, and current research on cognition, memory, and the brain while relating all of these innovations and new knowledge to teaching application

• time for full time teaching faculty and academic staff to explore instructional methods to help diversify and better match lessons to the learning needs of newer generations of students

• opportunities to evaluate, expand, or improve current teaching, experiment with new strategies, or refine existing techniques

• competitive awards for stipends or release time devoted to teaching related projects, and/or collegial collaborations, and monies for professionally relevant literature and software

• incentives to dialog and collaborate with teachers from area high schools, as well as with members from area businesses to gain a better sense of the educational continuum of our students

• onging support from project directors for improving pedagogy, for research related to teaching excellence, and for implementing teaching innovations

Publications

In 1978, Gingrasso helped write the original Wisconsin Curriculum Guidelines for Dance K-12 in conjunction with the Wisconsin Department of Instruction. Heralded nationwide as a model for dance education, Gingrasso continued to conduct research on the state of dance education and dance education certification in the United States. Her research and subsequent understanding of the dilemma between state-mandated curricula and teacher certifiable curriculum areas resulted in the publication of several articles, a few of which are listed here.

• North Carolina: The State of the Arts. Design for Arts in Education. 93 (1), 9-21.

• Introduction For Dance on Paper: Update on The Status of State Curriculum Guidelines in Dance. Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 60 (5), 31.

• Dance Education Certification: Current Status and Significance, State by State. 1986. Design for Arts in Education.

Gingrasso has served on the boards of the American Dance Festival Association, American Dance Guild, Language of Dance Center, and been an officer of the National Association of Schools of Dance. She has consulted on tenure and promotion reviews for Utah Valley State College, University of Hawaii, University of Northern Texas, University of South Florida, Brigham Young University, George Mason University and Hampshire College.

sgingras@uwsp.edu