"CDDC is a major force in modern dance and is a unique and valuable resource for the modern dance community in New Jersey. The Company's innovative choreography projects, performances… and arts educational activities have had a major impact on expanding dance interest and exposure…"

~Phillip Thomas, Former Director of Arts Education, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ

Education & Outreach

CDDC offers the highly successful CREATING CULTURAL COMMUNITIES program, including residencies in K012 schools and community based organizations, comprehensive university residencies and master classes and workshops in professional training programs/studios in NYC and nationally.

K-12 and COMMUNITY RESIDENCY – SPEAKING THROUGH DANCE

We move… We speak… From the beginning of time, individuals and communities have defined themselves and their worlds through movement and dance. From the stage to the street, we observe and come to understand others. In doing and creating, we come to understand and shape ourselves. Through it all, the understanding of ourselves in relation to the universe and our own realm of possibilities continue to expand.

Through master classes, teacher training workshops, video lecture, and our acclaimed Backstage Pass Performances, and more; CDDC brings dance to schools and communities. Known for its unique ability to engage and inspire students of all ages, CDDC connects dance to life and the curriculum in ways that meet its own goals as well as the comprehensive NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts for Grades K-12.

In the end, these Standards ask schools to immerse students in art exploration in which students will:

-Experience the art and thereby increase aesthetic awareness.
-Learn skills, the materials, elements, and terminology of the art.
-Create art individually and collectively and express through their art.
-Critique and analyze their own and others works of art.
-Identify the social, political, cultural, and historical context of works of art, art forms, and styles within art forms and show how art helps us understand our world and each other.
-Apply their newly acquired knowledge and creative skills in other arenas of life.

TEACHER TRAINING

These professional development workshops introduce the modern dance art form and provide hands-on experience for classroom teachers. The sessions promote understanding, risk taking and validation of individual work and expression. Curriculum materials include the history of modern/contemporary dance, information on the structure, and its vocabulary.

BACKSTAGE PASS PERFORMANCES

CDDC is known throughout the country for its superb artistry and engaging Backstage Pass performances. CDDC presents an extraordinary program that merges the art of dance with Ms. Dorfman’s creative drive to communicate about the commonality of the human experience.

With both premiere and repertory performances, our Backstage Pass offeres unique opportunities. Student and community audiences are engaged in a dance concert as both observers and participants and learn about the artistic work and the process by which it is made. They watch, respond, move and create in a unique art experience. Backstage Pass ends with audience members joining CDDC on stage and in their seats to create a final dance together. An artist/audience discussion concludes the performance.

UNIVERSITY RESIDENCY AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMS

MASTER CLASSES

From the onset, Carolyn Dorfman’s class structure is based on technically demanding work that simultaneously challenges dancers to balance their own individuality and the work of the ensemble. Dancers must recognize that they constantly exist in relation to space and each other. With an emphasis on center-driven movement, weight transfer, breath phrasing, musicality, intention, nuance, focus and strong technique, dancers are given a class that develops body, mind and spirit. They move individually and collectively to gain insight into personalizing movement choices in performance, while expanding technical and dramatic range. At all levels of ability, Dorfman’s classes include aspects of CDDC’s repertory and connects the work to the rich legacy of contemporary dance.

REPERTORY RECONSTRUCTIONS/COMMISSIONS

In addition to master classes in technique, composition and repertory, CDDC is available for repertory reconstructions and choreographic commissions. CDDC has a rich and varied repertory with works that can be set on university students. With both mixed and single gender works, Dorfman’s works challenge students technically, teach strong partnering skills and demand strong individual performance and cohesive ensemble work.

Study Guides are available for all residency activities.