EnhanceDance Director
Andrea Downie (she/her), Founding Director of EnhanceDance
|
ANDREA DOWNIE, PhD, is the Founding Director of Enhance Dance, an educational initiative established in 2017 that strives to support flourishing in dance by sharing evidence-informed and equity-informed principles and practice to humanize and enhance dance teaching, training, performance, and wellness. She is a founding member, Past President (2016 & 2017), Secretary and Co-Chair of the Continuing Education Committee for Healthy Dancer Canada (HDC), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health, well-being and performance of all dancers. She is HDC's longest serving board member, instrumental in the development of the organization, and having served in every role within the organization since its inception in 2008.
Andrea is a dance educator, researcher and choreographer with 25 years of experience. She is a SSHRC scholar and completed her PhD in Kinesiology at University of Calgary. Her doctoral research focused on embodied human flourishing in and through dance at the intersection of dance education, dance science and somatic movement. She received her MA in Dance Studies and her HonBFA in Dance Performance from York University. Her master's research focused on motor learning, and from it, she developed the Multisensory Pedagogical Model for Dance Skill Instruction to enhance dance skill learning. Andrea completed her professional training at Dance New Amsterdam (formerly Dance Space Centre) in New York City, and performed with Jody Oberfelder Dance Projects while there. Andrea is a certified Level 1 & Level 2 Conditioning-with-Imagery Training teacher, the C-I TrainingTM Course Director, as well as the provider of the Level 1 C-I TrainingTM Teacher Course & Certification. She is one of only a few certified teachers of Simonson Technique in Canada. She is also an member of the Advisory Group, a Registered Provider and Assessor with Safe in Dance International for the Healthy Dance Certificates. Andrea has experience working with professional, pre-professional and leisure dancers of all ages, levels, and abilities. She works actively across Canada as a teacher-tutor, guest dance instructor, choreographer, and speaker, enthusiastically sharing her passion for dance. Her dance classes are intelligently structured, founded on evidence-informed principles and practice, and strive to cultivate and sustain equitable and humanizing teaching and learning environments. Her choreography delves into various aspects of individual and collective experiences to explore how dancing can be transformative. Andrea resides in both Toronto and Calgary. She is an assistant professor in the Dance Program at University of Calgary. Her classes encourage social somatic awareness, movement efficiency and effectiveness, and individual artistic expression within a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment. |
Affiliations
|
Andrea holds the following fellowships & certificates
Andrea is a member of
|
Andrea Downie
|
