“I just saw the last performance for our Scholars...My heart is full of joy seeing my Ritter Bears coming on and being alive! You and your team have really made an impact on our little school. I know our scholars will forever remember this!”
Liz Daisy MoralesTSP Coordinator, Ritter Elementary
hdd education residencies are curriculum-based residency programs for schools, after-school programs, and community centers led by HDD teaching artists. We challenge students to view and interact with their surroundings in new, creative ways. With the ability to be adapted for various skill levels and lengths of time, our residencies activate participants’ minds and bodies through site-specific education and performance, enabling students to take part in creative experiences in their own neighborhoods.
Workshops begin with class work, exploring time, space, and other concepts to gain familiarity with movement. As the residency progresses, students navigate themes using improvisation, choreographic tools, and different dance styles to obtain vocabulary, confidence and comfortability. Lastly, with the guidance of our teaching artists, students field trip around campus to locate a site that speaks to them and supports the theme for the final performance. Once a space is selected, students and teaching artists animate the space and prepare for the final performance, which takes place on the last class and in front of an audience.
Past residencies at schools and community centers including: East LA Performing Arts Academy, Warren Lane Elementary School, El Sereno Middle School, A Place Called Home, St. Mary’s Academy, Culver City Middle School, Culver City High School, Gabriella Charter School, Salesian Boys & Girls Club, Watts/Willowbrook Boys & Girls Club, Seoul Arts Academy, East LA Community Center, Animo Jefferson, Gompers Middle School, Lake Balboa High School, Orthopaedic Hospital Medical Magnet High School, Avalon High School, Bellingham Elementary, The Center for Early Education, and Arminta Elementary.
LAUSD Partnership
In 2017, hdd education was invited to partner with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to provide free dance programming to underserved schools with a score of 1 or 2 on the Arts Equity Index.
Since the beginning of our partnership with LAUSD, hdd education has held residencies at the following schools: Animo Inglewood, East LA Performing Arts Academy, Curtiss Middle School, Orthopaedic Hospital Medical Magnet High School, Warren Lane Elementary, El Sereno Middle School. Culver City High School, Avalon High School, Gompers Middle School, Bellingham Elementary, Lake Balboa High School, and Ritter Elementary.
