Vermont Alliance for Arts Education » Conference

7th Annual Vermont State Dance Festival

VAAE — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:01:35 +0000

Hey, Dancers!

Rebecca McGregor sends along this catalogue for the 7th Annual Vermont State Dance Festival, as well as a copy of the sign-up sheet.

From Rebecca’s Introduction:

The Vermont State Dance Festival is an annual event that began in 2003. After touring all of the Vermont high schools that had dance programs in 2002 as part of an independent study in college, I wanted to create an event that allowed teachers and students from all over Vermont to work together, learn from one another, and share knowledge. The Vermont State Dance Festival offers high school aged dancers of all disciplines an opportunity to study new and varied techniques with professional dancers and to showcase their skills before professional artists, teachers, their student peers and the general public.

The event is composed of three elements: a day-long series of workshops led by the professional artists; a closed session for the dancers to perform prepared choreographies for feedback from a professional, student peers and participating dance instructors; and an evening performance open to the general public. The festival is intended to introduce students to new dance styles and techniques that they might not routinely be exposed to in their high school dance programs, or studios to allow students to interact with experienced professionals, and to provide the students an opportunity to perform before a larger audience than they might typically enjoy.

This festival has been a great success over the years, and this one promises to match them all.

Downs Rachlin Martin Continues Support of VAAE

VAAE — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:31:54 +0000

Walter E. Judge Jr, a director and member of the Litigation Practice Group at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, presented a check for $1,000 on behalf of the DRM Community Fund to Thomas Stevens, executive director of the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education, on August 25. VAAE’s mission is to support arts education in the public schools and to contribute to the professional development of arts teachers.

The DRM Community Fund was launched in 2000 to celebrate the firm’s 50th anniversary. Since then, DRM has awarded more than $180,000 in small grants to approximately 180 private, non-profit organizations in Vermont and western New Hampshire to support innovative, grass-roots arts, education, economic development and historic preservation projects that strengthen community.

Judge, the sponsoring director for the grant, has been a member of VAAE’s board of directors for four years. He also has served on several of the organization’s committees and assists with events. “I am very excited about VAAE’s future under the leadership of the new, energetic director, Thomas Stevens. We are pleased to be able to support this valuable organization’s efforts to advocate for arts education programs for all students and to provide professional development opportunities for arts educators.”

DRM is a full-service law firm with more than 60 attorneys and seven offices in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. DRM provides legal services to local, national and international clients in practice areas that include bankruptcy and business restructuring, business law, captive insurance, energy and telecommunications, family law, health law, intellectual property, labor and employment, litigation, real estate and land use, environmental law, tax law and trusts and estates. The firm represents clients in legislative, regulatory and public affairs through the Government and Public Affairs group. DRM is the law firm member for Vermont of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading association of independent law firms.

Important News About Our Fall Conference

VAAE — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:07:26 +0000

Regretfully, we are postponing our annual fall conference.

The VAAE board of directors arrived at this difficult decision based on a desire to bring the best possible professional development opportunities to our members, and we believe the fall date was too soon for us to deliver on our traditional quality this year.

However, plans are already underway for an exciting, vibrant conference next spring that we believe will be better suited to everyone’s schedules. We expect to announce the new date for our rescheduled event later this fall, and will work with our workshop presenters to determine their availability, as well as on actively recruiting more presenters.

VAAE is committed to presenting a high-quality professional development conference for teachers in Vermont. We thank you for your patience and we look forward to letting you know more about the rescheduled conference once we know more.