On Friday, October 21st 2011, CODE held its 41st annual Drama and Dance Conference at Blue Mountain Inn Resort. This year we celebrated the partnerships between teachers and artists as we ‘reached’ outside-of-the- box so that professionals from these two worlds could finally collide and learn from each other! The workshops ranged from drama on social issues and integrated arts to movement for film and hip hop dance. Workshop follow-up materials will be available on the CODE website shortly.
We were very lucky to have Hannah Beach as our keynote on Saturday afternoon. Hannah spoke to us about her childhood and her experiences with dance. Author of the popular “I Can Dance” series, Hannah gave us some insight as to where all of her ideas stem from and we were truly inspired. Hannah has recently written “I Can Dance A Better World” which explores real life issues such as inclusion, hunger, stereotypes, the environment, authenticity, and children’s rights.
The conference was a huge success, with more than 100 participants attending the CODE conference for the first time. A special thank you is extended to Bev Bonk, Pat McCarthy and the Conference Committee for all of their hard work in planning such a wonderful event! Other highlights from the weekend include our mentoring program, which began on Friday night, a very successful trade fair which ran for the three days, the Banquet dinner and Saturday evening Gala which featured presentations from many of the Saturday workshops, and finally the AGM on Sunday morning. Next year’s conference has been announced and will take place October 19th - 21st at the Nottawasaga Inn Resort in Alliston. We hope to see you there in 2012!
Photograph courtesy of Ron Dodson