Dancers are sometimes excessive achievers, however Shawn Roberts is one thing else solely. Former School and Education Director of Spectrum Dance Theater, present director of Seattle Theater Group’s Dance for PD® (Parkinson’s), Dance with Life, and AileyCamp packages, licensed life coach, graduate pupil, mother and grandmother, Roberts’ resume is chock full. But itemizing off positions doesn’t fairly seize how influential Roberts has been, touching hundreds of lives by way of dance training within the Seattle space. Nor does it seize her heat, vitality, and thoughtfulness. With her fast smile and effusive storytelling, you recognize straight away that she has the sort of contagious enthusiasm that marks the perfect of educators.
Movement has been integral to Roberts so long as she will keep in mind. “I grew up dancing. We were always dancing. I grew up in Central Seattle, we were always dancing in our neighborhood. It didn’t occur to me that I could even study dance.”
Her first formal dance coaching got here by the use of the Seattle Imperials Drum Corps and Color Guard, right here in Seattle within the Seventies. When Roberts joined round age 13 (examine her out on this 1979 Imperials efficiency), the Imperials had lately employed Stanley Knaub, a choreographer who included jazz, ballet, and fashionable into the colour guard repertoire—one of many first to take action. With the Imperials, Roberts traveled to point out and compete all around the nation. “We rehearsed 7:00 to 7:00, seven days a week, especially right before a tour, so I really learned dance, discipline, and focus. We had dance classes everyday with Stanley, ballet, modern, and jazz. And when I decided I wanted to move on from there I was probably about 16 or 17 and I just started studying at every studio in Seattle.”
The one the place she felt most at dwelling was at all times Spectrum Dance Theater, on the time underneath the directorship of Dale Merrill. She took class each probability she might get and ultimately constructed a aspect enterprise doing company retreats and motion workshops for fortune 500 firms. But it wasn’t till her early 30’s when she began working with children—serving to out in her younger daughter’s dance class at Spectrum. One factor led to a different, and Roberts was quickly instructing younger kids 5 days per week. In this she had discovered a calling. “I knew what dance could do for a child—how it brought forth the best in me… It was teaching friendship, it was teaching cooperation, it was teaching self-discipline, listening, and really feeling great about themselves.”
Roberts’ instructing drew an enormous following, and Donald Byrd acknowledged one thing particular when he assumed management of Spectrum in 2002. Previously Spectrum’s dance faculty had been principally leisure, however Byrd gave Roberts the reins to develop this system, each in-house and thru outreach to varsities. Over the subsequent 14 years, Roberts constructed the lauded curriculum-based program that exists right now. Empowering college students has at all times been on the forefront of Roberts’ pedagogy, with lessons serving college students from the ages of strolling by way of seniors. “The whole thing about Spectrum is that no matter who you are and what your background is, there is a place for you. No matter what your facility is, if you have the desire to dance you should have that right. And that was my belief and mission.”
It was by way of her work at Spectrum, and this mission, that she linked to a different life-calling. Seattle Theatre Group approached Roberts about establishing a Seattle department of Dance For PD® (Dance for Parkinson’s), a world-wide program developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2001. Initially she solely deliberate to run this system, however after finishing the coaching, the decision to show was too sturdy. “I just loved it so much—loved every bit of what I saw, the impact that it had on the students, the people with Parkinson’s who took it. I loved it so much that I went on to get my certification in teaching Dance for PD®, which was one of the first certifications in the country outside of the founding directors at Mark Morris Dance Group. And when I retired [from Spectrum] my plan was to continue to build the Dance for PD® program in Seattle and I ended up doing that and more.”
Movement is a strong instrument for individuals who have Parkinson’s, a illness that impacts the nervous and motor programs of the physique. Through the adaptive design of the strategy, dance turns into not solely a sensible instrument—for instance, a dancer having issue getting out of a chair might choreograph themselves out—but in addition a technique for connecting with their bodily selves and accessing pleasure at a time when it’s most wanted. Roberts personally witnesses the transformation in each class. “[The dancers] come in very much a part of what they’re dealing with on an everyday basis. And then during class, through the movement, you just see this light that begins to shine through their movement and who they are…They are the movement. They are their light. They are their joy. How they carry themselves and how they move is just so different when they come out.”
Roberts additionally runs STG’s Dance with Life program, an offshoot of Dance for PD®, that goes instantly into assisted residing and nursing houses. “I think we were in our second year of Dance for PD® and we realized that there were people who couldn’t get to our classes,” Roberts remembers. The Dance with Life program is for individuals with Parkinson’s or some other bodily or neurological problem, together with individuals in reminiscence care. The program has been on maintain for Covid security, however hopes to proceed quickly.
Sitting on the cross-section of all her abilities, Roberts can be in her sixth yr directing the Seattle department of AileyCamp delivered to the Puget Sound space by Seattle Theatre Group. The nationwide program for center school-aged youth, designed by the incomparable Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is a lot greater than only a dance camp. “It is a personal development camp first and foremost. Dance classes are one of the vehicles, but the students also take personal development classes, writing, and art classes. The personal development classes really go right in on lifting self-esteem, teaching critical thinking skills, decision making, and leadership skills to help students be the very best version of themselves,” Roberts says.
AileyCamp is open to college students who haven’t any earlier dance expertise, and after I marvel about what it should take to attempt dancing at such a socially tender age, Roberts assures me that each pupil finds the bravery to point out up. “This is where our greatness is, when we as human beings are able to go from being in a place of fear and I can’t do this to finding that power within us and just moving forward and doing what we’re afraid of doing. Our AileyCampers are phenomenal beings. You look at their art work, you look at their movement, you look at their accomplishments during camp…They’re absolutely going to change the world.”
This summer season is STG AileyCamp’s second yr in a web-based format. Last yr Roberts felt it was necessary to proceed Seattle’s department of this system, and pivoted on-line to nice success. “My concern when transitioning was how were we going to really get that energy, break through that wall, that Zoom wall, and really have them feel our staff’s virtual arms around them?” She credit the resourcefulness of the instructors, who stand up near the display screen, examine in with the scholars, give them constructive uplifting encouragement, and discover artistic methods to maintain college students engaged. Over the previous yr Roberts has continued month-to-month on-line meetups with alums of this system, instructing goal-setting, resolution making, management, doing vanity workouts, and integrating them into different STG programming like DANCE This.
In addition, Roberts is at the moment pursuing a grasp’s diploma in medical psychological well being counseling at Antioch University. But this isn’t as a result of Roberts anticipates switching careers. “I will always be involved in dance in some way. And I’ve also had this inner urge to really support healing from the inside out as well. It’s just more. It’s just more of the work that I love to do.”
This new diploma will additional assist her in serving to individuals reside the life they envision and can work alongside her present certification in transformational life teaching, for which she already sees purchasers. When I ask if she ever sleeps she says she does, and provides “If I wasn’t doing what my heart loves, it would probably feel very difficult… like oh my gosh how can I get up this morning. And it really doesn’t. It feels like this is what I’m here to do and it’s my work. How am I going to serve today? Because it really is about serving.”
It may be very inspiring to see how dance has performed out, and continues to play out, over the course of a profession. During the interview I admit I obtained misty eyed a number of instances, as a result of Roberts spoke fact to what so many dancers know of their hearts: that dance, when used as a instrument for good, modifications lives. She jogged my memory of all the perfect issues about dance—its energy to make us the very best individuals we may be, in tune with ourselves and with our communities. For Roberts, it’s been a journey knowledgeable by a lifelong love of motion and believing within the capability of the self.
“I have this mission that dance is a vehicle for healing. It just is. It’s a vehicle for lifting the quality of life. And once I really committed myself and stood in that personal mission, opportunities began to open up. I just had to say yes to them. Did they seem bigger than me?…YES. And what I had to do was realize that they were here for a reason. I had to get out of my own way and do the work that I needed to do, be open to learning and growing, as I was being of service, and now I look at the breadth of work I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of and still am a part of. I feel very grateful for that and appreciative that I’ve had the opportunities to give in this way.”