Helen is on the faculty of the internationally recognized Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington, and is an Artist in Residence for the Montana Public Schools. She frequently presents workshops for classroom teachers on integrating dance into the elementary curriculum. Helen is also a choreographer and performer of modern dance. Inc. She has been Director and Playwright for Kids Action Theater Play Productions in Seattle since she founded it in 1988 and has written, directed and produced over twenty- five children's plays, as well as being composer and music director for several other shows. Pamela has worked as a children's music and movement specialist for over ten years and currently divides her time between Kids Action Theater, choral conducting, and composing.
Movement is the currency of life.
Even when our bodies are at rest there is movement in the slow rise and fall of our breath and the coursing of blood through our veins. We move to survive, to learn, to discover where we end and the outer world begins. Young children, in particular, have a nearly insatiable desire for movement. Witness the desperate striving of a toddler to take his or her first step, the breathless, active bodies of children on a playground, or the constant squirming of students confined to desks, and you will see how powerful the drive toward movement can be. But, all too soon, we expect children to suppress the urge to move-to sit still, be quiet, stop fidgeting, pay attention.