81: Accessible Dance with Heather Stockton
Dance is about more than just moving your body. With today’s technology, it’s easy to layer other elements in addition to movement to create a product of expression. Dance is all about expression, it is for everyone, and it shouldn’t be limited to specific people who “fit the mold.” I’m joined today by Heather Stockton, a content creator and dance teacher who I recently discovered on TikTok. We are discussing accessible dance. Join us!
Show Highlights:
● Heather’s background with dance as the “true love” of her life overriding everything as she grew up
● How Heather discovered in college that dance can be a means of communication, storytelling, and expressiveness
● How body issues affected Heather’s first experience of dance not being accessible
● Why Heather’s mission in life is to make dance accessible and inclusive for ALL bodies and break down the stigma that connects it to just one body type
● Heather’s job today as a dance educator in an elementary school and a dance program developer whose work is based on accessibility and inclusion
● How Heather teaches through multiple modalities that apply to every gen ed and special ed student in her classes
● How dance provides multiple benefits for both physical and mental health
● How dance for adults can heal their inner child, provide community, and allow them to be curious, playful, and expressive
● Heather leads us through a BrainDance exercise (developed by Anne Green Gilbert) that can be done by people of any age, from very young children to elderly adults
Resources and Links:
Connect with Heather Stockton: Website, TikTok, and Instagram
Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook
Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning
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KC 0:00
Hello you sentient ball of stardust. Welcome to Struggle Care. I'm your host, KC Davis and I am here in the studio today with Heather Stockton, who is a content creator, a dance teacher and we are here to talk about accessible dance. And Heather, thank you so much for being here.
Heather Stockton 0:20
Oh, it's absolutely my pleasure. Thank you for having a conversation with me. So
KC 0:25
I want to hear some more about your background. But before I ask that, I just wanted to tell the world kind of how I found you on Tik Tok. Okay, I was like scrolling my FYP and one of your dance videos came on? Oh, and you were doing like, I'm gonna I'm gonna show my ignorance of like dance. But it was almost like a it was like really sped up. It was like a pop and lock looking situation. Is that close to accurate? Sure. Yeah. And it was so cool. And it was so entertaining. And in like it, it was a response video, because somebody had commented, you're not really moving that fast. You sped up the video or something. And you made a response video where you were like, Yeah, that wasn't a secret. Like, I'm not trying to pull one over on you. And you talked about how like, that's the medium. Yeah. And I thought that was so interesting. This idea that like in today's world, dance is about more than just what your body does in that moment. It's also these combinations of it's also about expression, and that you can layer other things like technology onto it, to create this product of expression that is, in fact, still authentic dance. And I thought that that was kind of an interesting segue into what we're talking about today. So tell me a little bit about your background.
Heather Stockton 1:47
Okay. Well, you know, I'm thinking about this morning, thinking about our conversation today and dance is really has really been the true love of my life. It's been like, my lifetime partner. My dad said that I started choreographing dances when I was three in my mom's backyard, and I just was always dancing at school. During recess, I made my best friend Marissa make up dances with me during recess, I started traditionally training at a dance studio when I was four, and continued with in that route until I was 17. So competitive dance studio dancer on my high school team, and really found a sense of belonging and community. And the dance team that I didn't really feel and the competitive studio route, we can talk about why not later, but I guess I was on a quest to feel that sense of belonging. And when I went into college, I discovered the art form of dance and how dance can be a means of communication, storytelling, expressiveness. And the craft of choreography, just really kind of grabbed my heart in an exciting way, when you know, we're first entering college and the whole world is at our feet. And I decided that in there that I wanted to be choreographer for the rest of my life and be an advocate for dance. I auditioned for a private arts college didn't get in, because I think what the letter said was, you know, Heather, technically, artistically, spiritually, you have everything we're looking for in this dance program, but it's because of your excessive weight that we cannot allow you in. And that, you know, it wasn't my first time feeling discrimination because of my body size. I remember, when I was eight years old, I was told I couldn't dance with my friends in this specific dance because I was too chubby, and I needed to lose weight. And when I received that rejection from the pirate arts college, it just kind of compounded this feeling of like, why not me, I love dancing with every fiber of my being. And I know that I could be right for this program. But just because of my weight, which could be argued, you know, for someone who may be underweight that is,
KC 3:55
well, and we know that that happens all the time in the dance world. And so I always find it interesting that the line of like, when people talk about it being about health, it's like, is it because I've seen some pretty unhealthy weights in the other direction, like of women that are not eating and men that are not eating? Heather, that that's such a powerful story. As an aside, I'm going to ask a question, you don't have to answer it. I'm actually asking it so that I can go back and splice it in between your answer just to really emphasize your answers. So you teach we're going to talk about accessible dancing, but I want in your own personal story. What was kind of your first experience with dance not being accessible?
Heather Stockton 4:36
Such a good question, and it's
KC 4:39
okay, you don't have to answer it. I'm going to splice your really powerful answer. acceptance letter. Do you have anything else that you want to say about it like Well, it's true like I think off the dome like it's totally at least in a professional sense, not accessible to people that don't have the specific body type that dancing places are looking for. Right? I
Heather Stockton 4:59
think that that is As I think that is the biggest misconception, because who gets to decide, you know, who has access to dance, right? And it could really go back to systemic problems that I feel like all funnel into Weiss's site, white supremacist cultural norms. And really dance belongs to everyone dances in every form of culture. And oftentimes, those who are gatekeeping, you know, are trying to withhold this, this idea of dance as this elite art form, which, to me is so much more, it's a given right for every body for every person. It's interesting,
KC 5:39
because I so I have a theater degree. And when I was in college, you know, the theater department and the dance department were like, ARM and ARM, you know what I mean? Like, they were separate, they had their separate classes, but like, they overlapped a lot, you know, and, you know, dance students often would audition for shows, especially if there's a lot of dance involved. And I worked in the costume department, we would often costume the dancers. And one of the things that I think so interesting is that when it comes to theater, it's like we had white kids, black kids, Pakistani kids, you know, we had men, women, we had skinny kids, fat kids, we had kids in between, we had kids that were able bodied, we had kids that were disabled, we had like, it was like, there was a space and I don't think theater is great at this. I'm just saying in comparison, it was like we had lots of different types of people and types of bodies, because plays were about the real world. Right? So you needed old people and young people. And this, that and the other Right? Like, you know, we did a show that featured a disabled lead like so it was like you would it's okay to source the way that people actually look in the world, because plays are about actual people, even if they're fictional. And it's interesting to me looking over at the dance department where it's like, is dance not supposed to be doing the same as dance not supposed to be about the real world, right? Like, it's this one, only this one body type that we want expressing very human things that dance is intended to expression, I always thought that was interesting. That
Heather Stockton 7:11
is my mission, in my case is making dance accessible and inclusive for all bodies, everybody can dance and breaking down those the stigma that's connected to it, that it's just one body type. And, you know, going back to tick tock, that's one of the many beauties of a tick tock community is that you get to actually see all bodies dancing, and celebrated and celebrating each other. And it's been so powerful to be a part of that community and just see beyond, you know, what has been kind of our limited visibility of dance in the States and around but as I've like, expanded my own possibility of dance, of course, like I see so many versions, and so many different ways of building community and having all bodies represented and feel like they have access. And going back to when I got denied from the private arts college, my partner got into college. So we did end up moving to that state. And within five years, I had opened doors for myself made things happen for myself. And as a graduate from the private arts college I was doing, basically everything that a professional choreographer and dancer could do at that time without having the degree or the access that college would have given me because I demanded it for myself. And I put myself out there and audition for dance companies and let my passion and my talent really speak for itself. Rather than like saying, I shouldn't do this because I look a certain way or you know, that's bullshit. So
KC 8:47
and that kind of leads us to do today. So tell us about your job now?
Heather Stockton 8:51
Yeah, yes. So I am a dance educator. I've worked at the same elementary school for the last seven years. And I came to the elementary school because I was in partnership with the nonprofit organization I worked at called Luna dance institute. I am no longer with the organization as I have been hired full time by the elementary school because the teachers and the administrative staff really advocated for me to be hired on as one of their full time teachers. And what I've done is developed a fully fledged dance program, one of only two in Oakland, California. And what that means basically is that every child at the school has dance. And the school is a historically black school majority black students, and a third of the school population is special ed, or special needs community. And really what I have been developing for the last seven years with this dance program is access and inclusion and instead of teaching a traditional dance style, I prefer to really embed radical pedagogy into my curriculum, which means that every child has a right to freedom and liberty education through creativity and constructivism learning through play. So to break down dance, basically, it's moving your body through space with a sense of time, rhythm, and energy and expression. And I,
KC 10:13
that's really powerful. I don't think I've ever heard someone give a definition of dance. And I certainly have never heard someone give a definition of dance that was universal, like that made me feel like I could do it. Or that anybody can do it. I mean, I assume that the students in your school that are disabled, that it's a range of disabilities, that there's physical disabilities, mental emotional disabilities, probably some kids that are neurodivergent. And, you know, I was sort of reflecting on my experience in the like theater arts when it comes to disability. And like, we had this one class called movement, where we would learn all sorts of things, how to move basically. So there's like some juggling stuff there some like stage fighting, how to fall and not hurt yourself. And there was a young man in our class that had a mobility disability. And so he was in a wheelchair. And there was this real effort to make the class inclusive for him, even though he couldn't do some of the physical moves we did. But what I found was interesting was that the inclusion was basically you're going to participate in everything to the degree you can, and we're going to, like, the modification wasn't creative. It was like, Okay, if we're throwing someone over our shoulder onto the ground, well, you can do the exact same move, but he won't go over your shoulder, he'll just go in front of you, since you're sitting in your wheelchair. And it was like, Okay, so we're like, halfway there, right? Like we're including, but it was almost like, we'll just pretend like it's really happening when you're looking at it, and you're like, but we could never actually put this on stage. It doesn't look real. It doesn't, you know, there's no like inclusion to the point where I just I hate when it feels like, okay, we're letting the disabled students do it. And they can't really do it. But we're pretending like they can do the free throw, and then we'll all cheer. Right?
Heather Stockton 12:03
You know, that frustrates me so much, because, for me, in my experience of teaching, all you have to do is ask them, it's as simple as that is, how would you do this? How would you like to do this, and when I'm teaching, I don't differentiate my curriculum from you know, special needs to Gen Ed, I teach in a way that's universal design for learning. So that through multiple modalities through instruction through like modeling, and writing and visual resources, hopefully every student can find an entry point. And I teach in a way where I give them options, like I'll say, like, Oh, can you find a twisty shaky dance with your upper body? So I'm not saying like, Okay, do this specific movement that, you know, I can do is giving opportunities for every student to say, like, well, maybe I don't have an arm, maybe it doesn't feel good for me to move my upper body like that. So I'm gonna find a different way to do it. And when you're just like doing it for the children, when you're just like, kind of imposing, you know, this is the way that it should be, you're taking away their agency to find out for themselves. And through constructive learning, they really need to figure out these ways of creating and learning how to relate to each other in ways that are building their self confidence and agency and learning for themselves and intrinsic motivation. And if in teaching and traditional curriculum and academics, I feel like there's this sense of only one way of being smart. And with dance with the arts, you there's an expanded range of possibility of so many different ways to show your intelligence. And that's through discovery of your own intelligence. Does that make
KC 13:45
sense? Yeah. And you mentioned universal design, in case someone's listening that doesn't know what that means. It's really this concept that, you know, if we design for everyone, including people who are disabled, it will actually make the design better for everyone, like it will benefit everyone, right. So as simple as like, if a building is inclusive to a disabled person to get in, it actually makes it more accessible for even someone that is not disabled. Like it makes it easier. It makes products better, it makes systems better. And I mean, you're I'm listening to you talk about it. And I think about how many kids that don't have a diagnosis, but have a form of disability and even kids that don't have a disability. I mean, I'm just thinking about myself, like I'm so painfully Caucasian when it comes to dance that it was always I was always embarrassed to participate in dance because I am not flexible. I hear rhythm really well. But I don't necessarily like I didn't have early childhood experiences with dance where I like know how to make my can't like think of a way to move my body and make my body do it. You know what I mean? And I always wished that I had because like when I would watch all of the students that were in the dance department, it just looks like it feels good. And it Oh, always wanted to do it. But I always felt like I missed the boat. Like, I can't be a beginner at my age. And if I am I certainly don't want anyone to see me beginning and I wouldn't know how to start. And if I did, I don't think I could do the like the right moves.
Heather Stockton 15:13
I hear you, Casey. And I think that that is how so many people feel, you know, and, and I hear I mean, a lot of my comments on tick tock are saying what you just said that you don't feel like you could belong, or that you don't feel like you would know where the entry point is, or that you're a beginner at your age. And that's really what I'm trying to just like break through to people is that like, no, everybody can dance and dance has so many benefits for your mental health, for your physical health for your whole being really. And speaking of early childhood, I know that in California, right now, I live in California, there's, you know, advocates statewide are really trying to get dance into every early childhood program on top of Elementary and Secondary Education, just so that children can have those embodied experiences at such a important time developmentally, but I want to say to you that, oh, you can just start with putting out some music and just like feeling what feels good for you like figuring out what does dance feel like for you, and what really gets you going and find, you know, try to find a community that you can feel safe and expressing and trying it for yourself.
KC 16:29
I wish that like it not just with dance, but with everything. But I think there's something about the arts in particular, I wish that there were places that were more explicit about entry points for adults, because it's not hard to find a beginner's dance class for a child. And but if you go to like dance studios for adults, like yeah, maybe you can find a beginner class, but like, what is beginner me? Yep, you know what I mean? Like beginner, meaning like, I've been dancing, tap my whole life, and I'm gonna try beginner ballet or lay, I have never danced a day in my life, because it is. So the embarrassment of like, not knowing how to do something is really hard to get over, especially when you walk into a place and you go Can't really I want to learn how to do this, but I don't know where to begin. There's nothing worse than like starting a class and you can't keep up. Or you don't understand the basics. And you're right. Like there's not a lot of people that will talk about, you know, how do I find my way? And one of the things that I talked about in my book is this idea that like, movement in childhood, like started out as joyful. Yeah, right, like playing tag running after your dog. Like it was play. And then like, at some point, I mean, I blame PE class, which is what I say in my book, right, which is like, we took a bunch of kids that love to run around and play games. And we were like run laps, do push ups and add all of the like social dynamics into that of how like ashamed you feel about your body or your ability with all your peers. And like it stripped the joy away. And I feel like now we have all these adults that like movement is a chore, right? It's exercise. It's go to the gym, it's do this. And it's like how do we begin to get curious about how to get joy back into movement as an adult? Yes,
Heather Stockton 18:16
that part? Yeah. So when I'm teaching and I'm not just talking about elementary now, I also teach at a studio here in Oakland, that is my main value as a teacher is to center joy for everyone in the room, right? And joy can be different for everyone, you know, everyone's coming in with their own experiences. But if you create or hope to create a community in a space where the individual is seen, as well as the whole, it goes into like, okay, well what are your community building practices? Like? How are you building trust in the space? And how are you helping to get people in a place where they can feel embodied and actually feel like they are ready to have fun with it again, and to be playful and have a sense of curiosity around it and i always break down my classes in a way that it's like, okay, you come in we meet each other you know, get to know who's in this space, we go through the brain dance a warm up, we explore different movement possibilities, and then we improvise with those possibilities. So then that brings them like kind of problem solving and curiosity and then there's a create aspect to class where you're creating and expressing and you share it with everyone and then there's the connection of like, oh, this is what I saw you do so you feel seen you feel celebrated and hopefully you feel like you had a joyful experience with dance.
KC 19:47
Gosh, that is such a different it sounds like such a different experience than anything I've ever experienced where you walk in and it's like warm up stretch your muscles. Here are the moves. were memorizing these moves and there's an objective like right way to do the move and wrong way to do the move. But like when you first told me about this, when you say like, you know, I'm not teaching technique, I'm teaching expression. And I thought, okay, so like, even then I had an individualistic idea of it, right? Because like, there were times in theater where we'd be in movement class, and they'd be like, Okay, I'm gonna put on some music. Everyone just move how they feel. Right? Right, like, okay, great, that's fine, I'll do that. But when you talk about marrying this idea of not just individual expression, but like the idea that you would present a problem, and we would talk about the way the movement feels, or what we want to express, and that there's this interacting with each other, that builds the dance. I mean, that sounds like something I would really love to experience.
Heather Stockton 20:47
Yeah, you know, I've heard after classes from adults, that they feel like they're healing their inner child and connect, connecting with each other and creating with each other, it really gives this experience of I just did something for myself, but also found a sense of community.
KC 21:05
And there's learning to it. Like, I feel like in my mind, okay, if I go to this modern dance class, I can learn these techniques, but it's also very rigid. Whereas, like, when I think of, oh, we're just teaching expression, I think of like, not a lot of room for growth, because like, Sure, I can do that. Like, I can put music on and be like, Okay, this is like how it feels to move. Okay, here I am moving. But how do you introduce challenge and growth? And like, how can this one way I feel like moving turn into something else? And then how can I pair it with other ways of moving? And then how can I put it together in a way that, you know, is interesting to me visually, not just the way it feels? And it occurs to me that I don't think I've ever heard someone lay that out. It's not just one or the other, right? It's not just we all learn the moves. And we've created a piece or loosey goosey just like move how you feel? But like, how would you you know what I mean? Like making that and a growth experience, where you're like getting outside of the bounds of just what you're doing in that moment, right?
Heather Stockton 22:05
There's a science behind it. There's structure behind it, you know, actually, if you're open, could I lead you through a little brain dance? Okay, cool. So the brain dance was designed and created by Aaron green Gilbert. And she worked with neuroscientists to develop this foundation of moving that replicates the developmental patterns from infancy to three years old of how you're basically moving and discovering the world around you. And basically, she broke down all those developmental patterns and made it a sequence. So that early childhood all the way up to you know, elders can do this and immediately find a way to ground themselves have a sense of embodiment, clarity, improved cognition, and also expression. And so I do this as a warm up for every class, okay, so it always starts with breath comes back to breath. So let's just both take a moment and take a deep, inhale, fill your lungs up with air and a long, slow breath out. I like to put my hands on my belly to really feel my belly rise and fall. Inhale, belly rises. Exhale. Fall can even put your hands on the side of your ribcage and feel your ribs expand and contract on the inhale. Inhale, expand. Exhale to contract. Getting some oxygen to our brain into our respiratory system. The next part is tactile touch. So go ahead and give your whole body a squeeze your arms, your fingers, the top of your head, temples, any place that you feel like might need a little extra love. And I'm sure you know this but tactile sensation is really grounding way to locate your body and space. It's those proprioceptors firing. You can also move on to padding so padding. Choose your pressure can be light, or hard, whatever you need today. Don't forget about your lower body. In the backside, I always forget about the backside. And then we go into core distal. So stretching out from our core. I like to say you're stretching out like a starfish. So really reaching out through those limbs, your fingers, your legs, your toes all the way out as far as you can stretch and then you're gonna contract and curl up around your core kind of protecting it. So you're reaching out opening opening opening. This is like a baby be discovering the world around them. And then contract curling into your core and learning how to protect yourself and having a sense of your core. And then we'll go into head tail. So this is activating the spine is a simple way that you could do that is doing the snake, you know, the 90 snake where you're moving your head, and then the tail follows side to side. So imagine your spine looking like a snake moving side to side. Another way you could do this is with cat cow arching and curving your back and your spine. So really finding that head tail connection and opening up the juices, the spinal juices, all right, after we get our spine moving, we're gonna go into the upper lower parts of our body. So upper body, this is what we use for our main means of expression. So let's see, find a point in your room to focus on and then reach towards it really slowly. Could be with your head, it could be with your arm could be with your chin, your shoulder, just find a sense of reaching towards something nice, yes. And then find a different point and a different body part to reach toward it slowly reaching, feeling that sense of stretch and opposition. Alright, now let's take it up shaking, shaking, shaking your hands, find a different body parts shake your upper body and change to a different body parts of shake. Shaking is so important. It helps us release whatever we're holding in our muscles, all those emotions and feelings, literally moves, moves it through our body gets it out. And then last, let's find a wave. A wave with your upper body could be slow waves could be fast waves, squiggly lines, just a sense of undulation moving and coursing through your upper body. And then going down to the lower body. So lower body is all about grounding into the earth, transporting through the world. And I like to find circles in my lower body. So circling my ankles, circling my knees, finding a rotation a circle in my hips. And then bringing down the shaking to your lower body to so shaking, you're shaking your feet, shaking one leg, shaking both legs, shaking your hips, shaking your knees. And I'm sitting down right now. But I'm bending my knees just finding kind of like a way to access those quad muscles or like those big strong leg muscles just like giving them some love and letting the blood flow a little more strongly. So that's upper lower. The next part is body side. So thinking that you're dissecting your body with a zipper vertically. And just focusing on one side of your body. This is a way that we can connect the different hemp the two hemispheres of our brain. So think of maybe just spelling your name with your right side of your body any way you want. Could be your arms and your legs, spilling them in tandem. Just getting away to get that right side of the body moving. And then moving over to the left side. You can shake, you can carve. You can make slashing movements gets a different kind of energy dynamic in it. Or wiggle. All right, that's body side. Now we're gonna go into cross lateral. And this is really helpful for my kids because it helps kids learn how to read because it connects those the hemispheres of the brain and works with tracking so that kids can really learn to cross over their body. So take your right hand shake it, cross over and give your Glee's your left ear squeeze, and then take your left hand, reach over your body cross over give your right ear squeeze. And then just keep doing that for yourself however you want crossing over the body in different ways with your arms with your legs, just crossing over that medium plumb line allowing your brain to connect. And then the last one is my favorite is vestibular. I call it Dizzy time for my kids. And basically, you're just going to try to get as dizzy as you can to really set off your vestibular of their brain. And you can do if you're sitting down, you can shake, shake, shake as hard as you can, you can go upside down, I like to turn or roll my body around. But just give your body a nice little dizzying practice. However, whatever that means to you. Just try to get as dizzy as possible. And then when you're done, you'll feel that kind of fizzy, Dizzy feeling of your body literally recalibrating, and centering. Because sometimes we gotta get off balance to remember what it feels like to be on balance. Right. Let's just take one last breath together
KC 31:14
I feel so energized. Yay. That's the hope. That's the right dance. Oh my gosh, I feel like I haven't. I truly feel like I have not moved my body in that many ways all at once since college.
Speaker 1 31:33
Oh, we all got to do it. Love it.
KC 31:38
I might start doing that every morning.
Heather Stockton 31:40
Great. I do it every morning. And it really helps me start the day off with a clear mind and, you know, being in my body and yeah, I'm so glad.
KC 31:49
That's awesome. And it's such a different focus and warming up than stretching, right, like just the canticle of making your muscles work.
Heather Stockton 31:57
Which you know, you can you know lay in stretching as a part of like the lower body movements and I do for my kids. It's really a practice of meeting yourself wherever you are that day and whatever truly feels good at the moment in a structured way. Well,
KC 32:11
Heather, this was really compelling and I had no idea I was gonna get a mini lesson so I really appreciate that. But can you tell people where they can find you online if they want to watch you dance?
Heather Stockton 32:24
Sure, you can find me on Tik Tok with mix piggies dance club MX underscore piccies underscore dance underscore club could find me on Instagram at double underscore have h e t h double underscore my website is dancing with has h e t h.com. I teach at flow house in Oakland, California and at Grass Valley Elementary in Oakland Unified School District and I am co director of Lex poets Dance Company and sweet and sour productions.
KC 33:00
Amazing. Well Heather, thank you so much and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much can see
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