Kate Kuper

All of Kate’s teacher workshops are “hands-on, bodies-on.” Participants are encouraged to dress for movement. Kate makes everyone feel safe and secure about trying new ideas. Handouts and resources are always provided. Custom workshops and extended in-services are also available in collaboration with the needs of the site.

Teacher Workshops require the use of a large, open space, chairs for participants, and one to two display tables.

BRAIN BOP! Improve Student Learning and Behavior through Movement

From birth to twelve months, we acquire a huge number of connections in the brain. If any of the crucial connections are missed, due to lack of “tummy time” or other circumstances, they are pruned away through disuse. Fortunately, the brain is flexible, and teachable. BRAIN BOP teaches development movement patterns that help reorder connections, leading to a healthy brain and improved concentration, social skills, math and reading aptitude.

Based on "The BrainDance" (developed by Anne Green Gilbert), it only takes 5 - 10 minutes, it’s fun and easy, you don’t need any supplies except floor space and music, and you can adapt or change the method of presentation to suit your needs and the developmental level of your students. Kate will model Brain Bop activities and provide handouts so that you can take what you learn back to your classroom and use it the next day. Companion CD: Brain Bop: Warm Ups for Muscles and Minds

Appropriate For: Special Education Teachers, Music, Art and Physical Education Teachers, Reading Specialists, Occupational and Physical Therapists
Materials Cost: Companion CD
Program length: 1 - 5 hours

Also Available: Brain Bop for Early Childhood Preschool through Kindergarten(taught through nursery rhymes, rhythms and songs).

Here's what teachers are saying...

On behalf of Riverton Elementary School, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to you for your wonderful Brain Bop workshop you did with our students and staff. The students have been talking about it for days and the teachers are having a lot of success implementing it into their classroom schedule. They are quickly starting to feel more confident in using the sequence and seeing many positive results. We appreciate you sharing your talent and knowledge with us. We especially appreciate how engaging your teaching style was for our students.We hope to have the opportunity to work with you again in the future.
Holly Becker, Art Teacher
Riverton, Illinois, 2009

AlphaBeat: Creative Dance Activities for Young Children

Learn how to lead activities from Kate’s compact disc AlphaBeat including circle dances, warm ups, and activities that model creative dance basics: expression, movement in place and traveling, and shape making. Then, learn how to make simple dances with your students based on poems and extension activities using your own music resources.

Appropriate For: Preschool–Grade 2 Teachers
Materials cost: Companion CD
Program length: 1–2 hours

Here's what teachers are saying...

I woke up at 5 am this morning with a head full of new ideas triggered by your class yesterday. Thanks for the inspiration. You are the first instructor who sent me home with ALL the necessary information so that I would be able to use the new ideas. Thanks for sharing your gift of music and creative movement with us. I can tell that you love what you are doing and that is what makes you a great instructor.

Danita Lemmer/Dance Teacher
The Plains, Virginia 2005

Step On the Beat: Getting Started with Dance in the Classroom

Learn how to lead ice breakers, warm ups and other activities from Kate’s book, DVD and compact disc set Step On the Beat including a clap along song, movement and rhyme activities that introduce and reinforce the importance of contrast in the arts, warm-ups, shape making activities, circle dances and more. Then learn extension activities that work with the instrumental only tracks on the compact disc.

Appropriate For: Pre-Kindergarten–Grade 8 Teachers (Art, Music, Physical Education, and general classroom instruction)
Materials cost: Companion book, cd, dvd
Program length: 1–2 hours

The World In Our Feet: Making Cultural Connections through Dance

Learn dances that parallel your foreign language program (from French, German, and Spanish speaking cultures) and are terrific for stretch breaks, as social skill builders, to improve concentration and coordination, and for performance. Music for the dances provided.

Appropriate For: Grade 3–Grade 12 Teachers (Art, Music, Physical Education, Foreign Languages and general classroom instruction)
Materials cost; $10 per person/site
Program length: 1–2 hours

Dancetalk: Creative Dance and Language Development

This dynamic workshop explores the connection between creative movement and young children’s language development. Join Kate Kuper, award-winning educator and choreographer from Illinois, to examine how creative movement can help increase students’ vocabulary and their use of verbs and adverbs to express movements; develop their abilities to find rhythm and rhyme in words; and build their comprehension skills. Workshop activities also develop social and life skills, such as focus, concentration, imagination, and cooperation. Discover for yourself how hands-on, bodies-on learning makes for a dynamic, energized and joyful environment where children express themselves cooperatively, creatively, and physically!

Appropriate For: Preschool–Kindergarten Teachers
Program Length: 3 hours
Materials Cost: Companion CD

This Teacher Workshop is also offered through the Kennedy Center’s Partner’s in Education program.

The Write to Dance

In this “hands-on, bodies-on” workshop, discover how the writing skills of organization, focus, elaboration and integration can be brought to life through creative dance, folk dance and choreography. After learning parallel dance and writing concepts, we’ll apply our knowledge to crafting a “rough draft” of a dance. Finally, we’ll examine journal questions as authentic writing prompts. Dress to move!

Appropriate For: 3rd through 6th grade teachers and support staff.
Materials Cost: Companion CD
Program length: 3 hours

It's About Time

Learn to teach dance concepts related to time: speed, pulse, and pattern. Kate models 3 complete lesson plans for PreK/K, 1st - 8th, and a multicultural lesson on West African rhythm and movement for intermediate elementary through high school. Detailed suggestions on space, time and behavior management are included.

Appropriate For: PreK through 12th grade teachers and Teaching Artists
Materials Cost: Companion CD
Program length: 3 hours