Amanda Cantrell Roche www.amandacroche.com
Amanda is a lead teaching artist for TPAC with 20 years’ experience facilitating arts residencies for youth and professional development for educators. Trained in contemporary dance, restorative arts, and journalism, she works with students, teachers, and youth in the juvenile justice system to give agency and facilitate authentic creation of works of art in dance, visual art, writing, or multi-media. She choreographs for Blue Moves Modern Dance Company, a collective she co-founded in 1989, and writes for NashvilleSkyline.org. Amanda’s alchemy is most powerful when she combines a trilogy of her deepest passions: choreography, writing, and social justice.
Email: amanda.c.roche@gmail.com
Sample Programs Offered
Program Type: Arts Integration, Arts Appreciation
Program Description:
- Students reflect on the concept of legacy and what it means to be an ambassador for their school or classroom. They identify characteristics of their school or classroom culture that are positive, and that need to be shared with others. Through warm ups and small-group activities, they explore expressing these concepts through dance or theater, eventually completing an original dance or skit to represent their school or classroom. Connects with Core Competencies.
Lesson Plan Example: Download File
Program Type: Arts Curriculum, Arts Integration, Arts Appreciation
Program Description:
Students will engage in the Narrative 4 Story Exchange, exchanging true, personal stories. These exchanged stories will be used as raw material for creating theatrical vignettes or dances. Students will engage in hands-on, inquiry-based activities exploring using vivid spoken language and precise body language to enhance storytelling. With their partner, they will create a fictional character, with his/her own personal story, told through a monologue and/or dance.
Lesson Plan Example: Download File
Program Type: Arts Appreciation
Program Description:
This residency allows participants to articulate concerns and anxiety about the climate crisis as well as reflect upon and articulate ways in which they resource themselves and practice mindfulness and self-care. Students are given agency to choose the art form — dance, spoken word, or theater — in which to present their climate concerns and their coping strategies. The infinity symbol is used as a structure for performances featuring multiple solo expressions.
Lesson Plan Example: Download File
