UTAH STATE OFFICE OF EDUCATION 2016-2017 ANNUAL REPORT

TANNER DANCE

Mary Ann Lee, Artistic Director Lyndsi Pace, Program Manager

Mariana McNamara, Financial Manager

Tanner Dance 2016-2017 USOE Statistics and Totals

Students Served: 21,702 Teachers Served: 1,472 Traditional & Charter Schools Served: 252 Districts Served: 25 Programs/Services Delivered: 232 Student/Teacher Instructional Hours: 2947 Total USOE People Served: 23,174

Community Members Served Outside of USOE Funding (not included in State Totals; includes Private School & Home School Students/Teachers): Students/Teachers in Private/Home School: 707 Other Community members: 4,550

Total Number of People Served: 29,546 (including students, teachers & community)

Submitted July 1, 2017

Summary of Tanner Dance’s Self-Evaluation

Cost Effectiveness:

The Tanner Dance Program is committed to maintaining high-quality, cost-effective programs. Tanner Dance balances cost-cutting measures with efforts to increase our visibility. The organization continuously strives to incrementally increase programs as funding becomes available through public and private partnerships and looks for ways to collaborate with the other POPS organizations, as well as other arts and cultural organizations. Tanner Dance manages the cost-effectiveness of our programs through the use of strategic analysis and short-term and long-term planning. The organization achieves these goals through ongoing staff collaboration, board participation, the involvement of volunteers with specific backgrounds related to these objectives, and in-kind donations of professional services. Line item funds appropriated to the Tanner Dance Program from the Utah State Legislature cover 42% of the organization’s arts in education programs and services. As required, Tanner Dance matches these funds, as well as leverages the POPS funding to cover the remaining 58% of the overall cost of our arts in education programs and services.

Procedural Efficiency:

Tanner Dance is privileged to receive funding through the Fine Arts Professional Outreach Programs in the Schools (POPS) and is committed to fulfilling the central goals of the POPS program, as well as following the processes and procedures required by the Utah State Legislature and the State Board of Education that govern this program. Tanner Dance strives to meet all of the necessary requirements to participate in the POPS program and receive POPS funding. Tanner Dance regularly attends POPS meetings and activities and participates in collaborative practices and peer review. Tanner Dance demonstrates accountability as a POPS organization by: 1) providing core-related services and instructional and supplemental materials to schools, 2) ensuring that materials arrive at schools at least two weeks in advance of the beginning of services, 3) matching funds provided by POPS, 4) submitting annual reports to the USOE, and 5) maintaining our role in the rotation schedule with the other dance companies. In addition, Tanner Dance maintains statistics and other detailed records of the programs and services delivered to Utah districts, schools, students, and teachers.

Collaborative Practices:

Tanner Dance works collaboratively and cooperatively with the Utah State Office of Education, the professional arts organizations in the POPS program, and Utah’s districts, schools, and educators to provide critical and meaningful arts learning experiences to Utah’s students and teachers. Tanner Dance is very grateful for the collaboration that takes place between the POPS organizations. Regular and ongoing peer review provides crucial feedback and generates new ideas to improve the arts learning and arts in education programs and services provided by Tanner Dance. Collaboration amongst the POPS organizations has also been helpful in providing a forum for sharing ideas and best practices within our group, as well as allowing Tanner Dance to participate in joint advocacy efforts that have allowed all of the POPS organizations to improve and strengthen arts in education efforts throughout Utah. In addition to working with all of our partners in the POPS program, close collaboration exists between Tanner Dance and the other professional dance companies to ensure that all children and teachers in Utah receive dance related experiences, services, and programs.

Educational Soundness:

Tanner Dance programs and services are designed to support the Utah State Fine Arts Curriculum and National

Standards in Dance. As Utah’s second oldest arts organization, Tanner Dance incorporates dance and movement using high-quality, innovative, and sequential arts instruction. The organization is committed to integrating dance training and arts education as an essential part of every Utah child’s experience, along with pre-service and in-service experiences for teachers.

Professional Excellence:

Tanner Dance, established in 1937, is recognized as a state, national, and international leader in youth arts education and teacher training and strives to ensure excellence in its programs and services. To demonstrate and promote the essential role of the arts in the learning and development of every child, Virginia Tanner established one of Utah’s first Arts in Education (AIE) programs in the 1960s. The Tanner Dance AIE program incorporates dance and movement into academic curriculum using high-quality, innovative, and sequential arts instruction. Arts in education remains a central focus of the overall vision and mission of the Tanner Dance Program. Faculty who work in the various programs are skilled dance artists who not only choreograph and perform, but are trained to bring the art form of dance into the classroom and help students express their own voices through dance. Faculty are trained in many forms of dance, including ethnic genres, and understand dance in the context of the world. Tanner Dance works closely with the USOE, other POPS organizations, and school leaders to design and deliver programs and materials with dynamic and powerful connections to the core curricula. Tanner Dance programs and services are designed to teach the art form creatively and effectively and to help students achieve specific fine arts core objectives and life skills. Learning activities include hands-on, engaged experiences inherent to the art form and provide opportunities for students to interact with dance artists. Professional development activities for educators include strategies for helping teachers develop and expand skills in teaching the state and national standards in dance.

The resultant goals, plans, or both for continued evaluation and improvement:

Tanner Dance strives to ensure excellence in its programs and services by regularly reviewing program quality and effectiveness and through continued evaluation of ways to improve programs and services. The organization measures the success of our programs, both individually and programmatically, by analyzing the utilization of our programs and services through enrollment, requests for services, feedback from the community, participant evaluations, and attendance at events. Individual successes are measured anecdotally through observation and information. Ongoing assessment includes bi-annual professional development workshops for the faculty who work in the various Tanner Dance programs. In these regular workshops, faculty receive ongoing training, share new teaching materials, lesson plans, and other curriculum resources, conduct peer evaluation, and share feedback and best practices with one another.

An important component of ensuring excellence in our programs and services is an annual review of our overall organization. Tanner Dance carefully analyzes programming at the end of each fiscal year by the full-time staff with input and feedback from faculty, as well as from the constituents served by Tanner Dance. Changes are made accordingly for the upcoming year. In addition to self-evaluation and assessment, the Tanner Dance Program benefits from the peer review process through the POPS program. Tanner Dance is pleased with the results, outcomes, and impact of our services and programs on students and teachers. Students continue to show an increased desire to develop and improve their skills, a renewed belief in themselves, deeper awareness and appreciation for dance and the

arts, and demonstrate an overall excitement for learning. Teachers show added self‐assurance in teaching the arts and

appreciate access to Tanner Dance performances, presentations, professional development opportunities, and materials, such as lesson plans.

Summary of Tanner Dance’s Self-Evaluation Continued

OVERVIEW

PURPOSE & MISSION The mission of the University of Utah Tanner Dance Program (TD) is to allow children to experience the

joy of moving and the discipline of dance, to nurture the creative process, and to share the results of this training with a broad population base.

Tanner Dance Arts in Education services provide students, teachers, and communities the opportunity to interact with professional dance educators, as well as Children’s Dance Theatre company members. These interactions enable those in the schools and throughout the community to understand dance as an art form, use dance as a teaching tool to fulfill state core curriculum requirements, and explore dance as a means of self-expression. Through Side-by-Side Dance Training Residencies, lecture demonstrations in schools, professional development workshops for educators, and fully produced concerts, TD provides educational experiences that support the Utah State Core Curriculum in Dance and integrate dance into other curriculum areas. It gives children, teachers, students, and communities the opportunity to joyously participate in, view, and make dance a part of their life-long learning.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES

SIDE-BY-SIDE DANCE TRAINING RESIDENCY PROGRAM In TD’s Side-by-Side Dance Training Residency Program, dance training for students and teachers in

grades K-6 is in-depth and sequential. This program delivers dance directly to the classroom in trimester, semester, and year-long weekly classes. TD dance specialists are trained in many forms of dance, including ethnic genres, and they understand dance in the context of the world. The dance specialist and classroom teacher work together to create dance and integrated subject curricula.

STUDENT LEARNING: The Side-by-Side Dance Training Residency Program supports in-depth, curriculum-based dance experiences that engage students and their teachers in quality dance instruction. The program provides an opportunity for students to experience the joy of moving and the discipline of dance, while achieving proficiency in, and conceptual understanding of, dance skills in technique, improvisation, and choreography. Students engage in the creative process, understand and value dance as an art form, and find an expression of their own creative voice. The program teaches students to understand how dance, in all of its forms, fits into the context of the world, and it uses the Utah State Dance Core Curriculum to provide students with an understanding of dance. Students are taught by skilled dance specialists who are not only choreographers and performers, but dance instructors who are trained to bring dance into the classroom as an art form. Dance specialists help students create dances that are an expression of their own voices. The program allows students to acquire and practice dance technique, create performance works, and demonstrate skill levels based on the state standards in dance with the use of student portfolios. As part of the in-depth student and teacher training experience, participants choreograph dances based on integrated dance and classroom curriculum to perform in an INFORMance. During the performance, students demonstrate their newly acquired skills and display their artistry and creativity in movement for their peers, teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders. These INFORMances allow the participants to have an intimate understanding of dance as an art form from the perspective of the performer. Pre- and post-assessments, in written and video form, as well as dance lesson plans, are implemented to help gauge student learning and command of the dance core

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curriculum. Four Side-By-Side Residency classrooms are selected each year to participate in a community performance in Tanner Dance’s Black Box Theatre alongside other Tanner Dance performing groups and musicians in the community. Additionally, students from various Side-By-Side classrooms are invited to participate in a scholarship class at Tanner Dance on a weekly basis and given additional performance opportunities.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: The Side-by-Side Dance Training Residency Program offers weekly professional development. Dance specialists and classroom teachers plan dance training for students that is in-depth and sequential. The dance specialists, as mentors, work with classroom teachers to create dance and integrated subject curricula based on the Utah State Core Curriculum in weekly 15-minute meetings. Teachers and specialists evaluate classroom successes, strategize classroom management, and take the opportunity to reflect on student learning.

COLLABORATION: TD dance specialists and classroom teachers collaborate to develop content-focused lesson plans, evaluate and

assess student learning, and plan overall classroom management. The dance specialists meet periodically to coordinate and collaborate on lesson plans, core content, organizational planning, and other items as necessary. Classroom teachers and dance specialists compile residency portfolios that include teacher observations, anecdotal journaling, and pre- and post-dance assessment, as well as lesson plans that are created and implemented during the residency. The TD Artistic Director, Arts in Education Director, program managers, dance specialists, school administrators, and teachers collaborate on the implementation of the Side-by-Side Dance Training Residency Program in the school. Discussions include core content, best practices, logistics, residency requirements, operational planning, and evaluation.

OPERATIONS: Side-by-Side Dance Training Residency Program classes and performances are targeted at grades K-6 and take place in a school setting. Contact hours vary in length depending on the residency agreement, but include weekly 45-minute classes and 15-minute teacher meetings. Expansion depends on funding, school interest, and staffing. The goal of this program is to help classroom teachers gain the knowledge, skills, and appreciation of dance as it applies specifically to the dance core curriculum, as well as the ability to use dance as a tool to integrate other curricular areas. The teachers learn to add dance instruction into the syllabus of the classroom, while the students learn the required elements of the dance core curriculum. Based on findings from student, teacher, and dance specialist evaluations and journals, 90% of the students achieved proficiency in the entire dance core curriculum at their grade level, including all of the stated objectives in Standards One, Two, Three, and Four. TD’s goal is to continue to expand this program to serve more schools outside of the Wasatch Front.

SIDE-BY-SIDE RESIDENCY PROGRAM 2016-2017

Districts Schools Instructional Hours

Teachers Students Community Services Charter

4 16 2224 551 14,232 6040 209 3

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Professional Development for Educators Tanner Dance offers a variety of professional development workshops each year. Workshops are offered in connection with all lecture demonstrations and performances. Teachers receive lesson plan packets and a CD with music recommendations in order to prepare their students to be a part of the Children’s Dance Theatre performance. Teachers can also use the lesson plans as follow-up activities to the performances. Teachers are encouraged to work with colleagues to develop and implement dance into classroom curriculum. Teachers are asked to self-assess and evaluate students upon completion of implementation.

The goals of Tanner Dance’s professional development programs and services are focused on

arts integration, improvement in teaching methods, and student engagement and achievement. Programs and services are designed to increase the capacity of K-12 educators to provide high-quality arts education linked to the implementation of arts standards and arts-integrated instruction. Educators also learn how to create lesson plans that can easily be implemented in a classroom setting. Professional development opportunities help participants find innovative, creative approaches to learning in and through the arts. Applying techniques developed and refined since 1937 by Virginia Tanner and the Tanner Dance faculty, hands-on art-making activities involve educators in the processes of discovery, questioning, reflection, and cooperative learning.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Tanner Dance offered four in-depth professional development workshops this year. A year-long, six-part workshop, a weekend workshop, a two-day Arts Express workshop, and a week-long summer intensive workshop. The six-part workshop required participants to design curricula specific to their own teaching situations. Participants created a total of four lesson plans and corresponding teaching materials. Educators were required to submit a portfolio which included their lesson plans, as well as written reflections, examples of student work, and photographs of their in-class implementation. In-class mentoring by Tanner Dance specialists was available to all participants.

Infinity Professional Development workshop was presented in connection with Children’s Dance Theatre’s (CDT) spring concert, Elfwyn’s Saga. This is a more in-depth approach to professional development including content in visual art, language arts, life skills, and dance to give a comprehensive way to introduce the story to students prior to the performance. In addition, teachers received lesson plan packets that were developed by CDT faculty to accompany the performance. Movement spanned grades K-6 and was accompanied by music that was made available to the teachers. An overview of the performance was presented to give teachers an understanding of the creative process involved in developing the music, costumes, and choreography for the production. Teachers were taught to recognize the elements of dance and how they correspond to the elements of music. Teachers were given time to prepare the implementation of dance lesson plans in the classroom. Teachers also had a question and answer period with the dance specialists to offer suggestions and help where needed. Following this workshop, participating teachers and their students attended a performance of Elfwyn’s Saga. The outcome was that teachers actively participated in Elfwyn’s Saga production by preparing their students to understand the art form of dance and its elements as presented by CDT. Collaboration with the dance specialists and other

UTAH STATE OFFICE OF EDUCATION 2016-2017 ANNUAL REPORT

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UTAH STATE OFFICE OF EDUCATION 2016-2017 ANNUAL REPORT University of

Utah Tanner Dance Program

colleagues was required as teachers prepared lessons that would be implemented in the classroom. Teachers were prepared to view the performance with keener eyes and were able to be philosophers and critics, going on to share this knowledge in their classrooms.

During the two-day Arts Express workshop on June 13-14, 2017, participants received in-depth instruction on integrating music, dance, drama, and visual arts with the science, math, and language arts core. Participants created dances, songs, narration, and visual art projects based on creative writing, the environment, and science concepts. TD Director Mary Ann Lee gave the keynote address at the conference and the Children’s

Dance Theatre performed Elfwyn’s Saga for the hundreds of participants in attendance.

The Summer Professional Development Workshop held June 19-23, 2017 was a week-long, intensive workshop. The outcome of this workshop was that educators received an in-depth and individual experience in arts integration in the classroom. The workshop was devoted to developing practical, technical training of the body; understanding the craft of dance through the elements of space, time, and energy; exploring visual art experiences that demonstrate dance and visual art relationships; and creating teaching tools. Each participant wrote four lesson plans based on the individual springboard children’s books focusing on various academic subjects. Participants also collaborated in teams to create three lesson plans together based on the elements of dance: space, time, and energy. Time was built into the workshop to allow participants to observe a master

teacher instructing several children’s dance classes.

COLLABORATION: Meetings with master art educators, faculty members, guest artists, and emeritus faculty members were held to develop the curriculum for the Infinity Workshop, the Arts Express Workshop, and the Summer Weeklong Professional Development Workshop.

OPERATIONS: Teacher workshops are targeted at pre-service, elementary, and secondary teachers, as well as art specialists/educators. The workshops take place at school, district, regional, or organization sites as determined by the curriculum and participant needs. Lecture demonstration workshops and school matinee workshops taking place prior to a Children’s Dance Theatre performance are generally 45 minutes to one hour in length. Infinity Workshops are generally six hours of instruction accompanied by four hours of in-class implementation and a performance. The Infinity workshop provided a total of six contact hours, the Arts Express workshop provided a total of five contact hours, and the Summer Workshop

totaled 38 contact hours.

PERFORMANCES On October 4, 2016, Children's Dance Theatre presented two school matinee performances of Gwinna in

Ogden at the Val A. Browning Center for the Performing Arts on the Weber State University campus. School matinee performances are designed to help students and teachers alike become fully educated audience members and enable them to understand the relationship between music and dance movement.

Each spring, CDT showcases an original performance. This year they performed Elfwyn’s Saga at the

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 2016-2017

Districts Schools Instructional Hours

Teachers Students Community Services Charter

22 210 61 546 0 0 10 9

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Capitol Theatre March 24 & 25, 2017. Three school matinee performances were held at the Capitol Theatre, which was filled to capacity. Other school matinee performances included a presentation of Elfwyn’s Saga at the Sandy Amphitheater on June 20, 2017.

STUDENT LEARNING: School matinee performances are designed to enhance student learning in observation and appreciation of dance as an art form, and to teach the appropriate social skills needed while attending a live theatre event. Teachers are encouraged to further student learning by using grade-level, dance core curriculum-specific lesson plans developed by CDT dance specialists. The lesson plans enable teachers to provide an in-class experience which allows students to participate in a hands-on dance class in a comfortable environment. Students receive evaluation forms to encourage reflection and discussion following the performance, allowing for teacher and student assessment.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Each live performance is preceded by a core content, grade-specific lesson plan packet produced by CDT faculty members. Teachers are encouraged to use the provided lesson plans as an introduction and follow-up tool to help make the performance more meaningful and impact student learning. This year, priority seating was given to teachers attending the Infinity Workshop that supported this performance. The workshop included an exploration of dance, as well as language arts, visual art, drama, and life skills. Teachers were encouraged to help students understand and prepare themselves to be respectful audience members, as well as educated observers.

When CDT is on tour across the state, teacher workshops are presented in the community prior to live performances. Teachers are given background on the performance, including music and costume samples, as well as lesson plans and movement ideas to complement the performance and enhance student learning in the classroom.

OPERATIONS: School matinee performances take place at organizational sites including large community theatres, allowing targeted grades K-6 to have an authentic dance theatre experience. School matinee performances are generally one hour and fifteen minutes in length.

LECTURE DEMONSTRATIONS The lecture demonstration entitled Visions of Children was presented in four schools this year. Lecture

demonstrations involve an average of 40 CDT dancers, two professional musicians, and several CDT faculty members who present an interactive 45-minute performance. Students and teachers are introduced to the elements of dance, asked to sing along, and answer questions such as: “What kind of music is this?” “Why do dancers warm-up their bodies?” “Who knows the words to this song?” At the end of the presentation, students join the dancers in a silent warm-up movement experience before they return to the classroom. The outcomes of these lecture

PERFORMANCES 2016-2017

Districts Schools Instructional Hours

Teachers Students Community Services Charter

9 36 7.5 211 4,282 230 6 4

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demonstrations are educational experiences targeted at grades K-6. Students not only view dance as an art form, but are prepared for the performance by moving, investigating, creating, and connecting. Teachers and students learn songs that the musicians and dancers perform so that they become part of the performance.

STUDENT LEARNING: Lecture demonstrations are designed to parallel and support the Utah State Core Curriculum in the areas of “developing affective, cognitive, and psychomotor skills in the arts” and sharing “the joy of self-expression and aesthetic awareness.”

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Prior to each lecture demonstration, a member of the TD faculty presents an in-school teacher workshop to prepare teachers with music and movement ideas to share with students as a way to introduce and reinforce the program in the classroom.

OPERATIONS: Lecture demonstrations were held in four elementary schools. All students in each school were invited to participate in the lecture demonstration. Teachers were required to attend a workshop prior to the lec dem to learn the lyrics to the songs, as well as receive movement lesson plans to implement in the classroom.

LEC DEMS 2016-2017

Districts Schools Instructional Hours

Teachers Students Community Services Charter

3 3 5.25 164 3,188 102 7 0

2016-2017 TOTAL SERVICES PROVIDED

Districts Schools Instructional Hours

Teachers Students Community Services Charter

25 240 2947 1472 21,702 6372 232 12

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University of Utah Tanner Dance Program

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Services offered by Tanner Dance:

Side-by-Side Residency Program: In-depth residencies for K-6: TD presented residency programs in 146 classrooms during 2016-2017.

Professional Development: TD presented ten Professional Development Workshops during 2016-2017.

Performances: Performances: K-12: CDT presented six school matinee performances for students during 2016-2017.

Lecture Demonstrations/Workshops: CDT presented Lecture Demonstrations at three public school and one private school and the accompanying Teacher Workshops, as well as a number of school residency showings, and several mas-ter classes and lecture demonstrations to accompany school matinee performances.

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FINANCIAL INFORMATION 2016-2017 SUMMARY

Legislative Appropriation

Funding Leveraged from Other Sources

Total Expenditures on Approved Education

Programs

Legislative Appropriation %

of Total Expenditures

Personnel 184,176 155,571 339,747 54%

Travel 1,730 1,462 3,192 54%

Materials 9,848 8,318 18,166 54%

Other (identify)

43,947 37,122 81,069 54%

TOTAL 239,701 202,473 442,174 54%

Summary of Tanner Dance’s Self-Evaluation

Cost Effectiveness:

The Tanner Dance Program is committed to maintaining high-quality, cost-effective programs. Tanner Dance balances cost-cutting measures with efforts to increase our visibility. The organization continuously strives to incrementally increase programs as funding becomes available through public and private partnerships and looks for ways to collaborate with the other POPS organizations, as well as other arts and cultural organizations. Tanner Dance manages the cost-effectiveness of our programs through the use of strategic analysis and short-term and long-term planning. The organization achieves these goals through ongoing staff collaboration, board participation, the involvement of volunteers with specific backgrounds related to these objectives, and in-kind donations of professional services. Line item funds appropriated to the Tanner Dance Program from the Utah State Legislature cover 42% of the organization’s arts in education programs and services. As required, Tanner Dance matches these funds, as well as leverages the POPS funding to cover the remaining 58% of the overall cost of our arts in education programs and services.

Procedural Efficiency:

Tanner Dance is privileged to receive funding through the Fine Arts Professional Outreach Programs in the Schools (POPS) and is committed to fulfilling the central goals of the POPS program, as well as following the processes and procedures required by the Utah State Legislature and the State Board of Education that govern this program. Tanner Dance strives to meet all of the necessary requirements to participate in the POPS program and receive POPS funding. Tanner Dance regularly attends POPS meetings and activities and participates in collaborative practices and peer review. Tanner Dance demonstrates accountability as a POPS organization by: 1) providing core-related services and instructional and supplemental materials to schools, 2) ensuring that materials arrive at schools at least two weeks in advance of the beginning of services, 3) matching funds provided by POPS, 4) submitting annual reports to the USOE, and 5) maintaining our role in the rotation schedule with the other dance companies. In addition, Tanner Dance maintains statistics and other detailed records of the programs and services delivered to Utah districts, schools, students, and teachers.

Collaborative Practices:

Tanner Dance works collaboratively and cooperatively with the Utah State Office of Education, the professional arts organizations in the POPS program, and Utah’s districts, schools, and educators to provide critical and meaningful arts learning experiences to Utah’s students and teachers.

Tanner Dance is very grateful for the collaboration that takes place between the POPS organizations. Regular and ongoing peer review provides crucial feedback and generates new ideas to improve the arts learning and arts in education programs and services provided by Tanner Dance. Collaboration amongst the POPS organizations has also been helpful in providing a forum for sharing ideas and best practices within our group, as well as allowing Tanner Dance to participate in joint advocacy efforts that have allowed all of the POPS organizations to improve and strengthen arts in education efforts throughout Utah.

In addition to working with all of our partners in the POPS program, close collaboration exists between Tanner Dance and the other professional dance companies to ensure that all children and teachers in Utah receive dance related experiences, services, and programs.

Educational Soundness:

Tanner Dance programs and services are designed to support the Utah State Fine Arts Curriculum and National

Standards in Dance. As Utah’s second oldest arts organization, Tanner Dance incorporates dance and movement using high-quality, innovative, and sequential arts instruction. The organization is committed to integrating dance training and arts education as an essential part of every Utah child’s experience, along with pre-service and in-service experiences for teachers.

Professional Excellence:

Tanner Dance, established in 1937, is recognized as a state, national, and international leader in youth arts education and teacher training and strives to ensure excellence in its programs and services. To demonstrate and promote the essential role of the arts in the learning and development of every child, Virginia Tanner established one of Utah’s first Arts in Education (AIE) programs in the 1960s. The Tanner Dance AIE program incorporates dance and movement into academic curriculum using high-quality, innovative, and sequential arts instruction. Arts in education remains a central focus of the overall vision and mission of the Tanner Dance Program.

Faculty who work in the various programs are skilled dance artists who not only choreograph and perform, but are trained to bring the art form of dance into the classroom and help students express their own voices through dance. Faculty are trained in many forms of dance, including ethnic genres, and understand dance in the context of the world.

Tanner Dance works closely with the USOE, other POPS organizations, and school leaders to design and deliver programs and materials with dynamic and powerful connections to the core curricula. Tanner Dance programs and services are designed to teach the art form creatively and effectively and to help students achieve specific fine arts core objectives and life skills. Learning activities include hands-on, engaged experiences inherent to the art form and provide opportunities for students to interact with dance artists. Professional development activities for educators include strategies for helping teachers develop and expand skills in teaching the state and national standards in dance.

The resultant goals, plans, or both for continued evaluation and improvement:

Tanner Dance strives to ensure excellence in its programs and services by regularly reviewing program quality and effectiveness and through continued evaluation of ways to improve programs and services. The organization measures the success of our programs, both individually and programmatically, by analyzing the utilization of our programs and services through enrollment, requests for services, feedback from the community, participant evaluations, and attendance at events. Individual successes are measured anecdotally through observation and information. Ongoing assessment includes bi-annual professional development workshops for the faculty who work in the various Tanner Dance programs. In these regular workshops, faculty receive ongoing training, share new teaching materials, lesson plans, and other curriculum resources, conduct peer evaluation, and share feedback and best practices with one another.

An important component of ensuring excellence in our programs and services is an annual review of our overall organization. Tanner Dance carefully analyzes programming at the end of each fiscal year by the full-time staff with input and feedback from faculty, as well as from the constituents served by Tanner Dance. Changes are made accordingly for the upcoming year. In addition to self-evaluation and assessment, the Tanner Dance Program benefits from the peer review process through the POPS program. Tanner Dance is pleased with the results, outcomes, and impact of our services and programs on students and teachers. Students continue to show an increased desire to develop and improve their skills, a renewed belief in themselves, deeper awareness and appreciation for dance and the

arts, and demonstrate an overall excitement for learning. Teachers show added self‐assurance in teaching the arts and

appreciate access to Tanner Dance performances, presentations, professional development opportunities, and materials, such as lesson plans.

Summary of Tanner Dance’s Self-Evaluation Continued