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Moving Studios made its reputation as experts in creative dance. After years of teaching in a variety of preschools we have designed a creative dance curriculum that can be used to insert movement throughout the preschool day. Check out the Lesson Plan section to get ideas!
Moving Studios made its reputation as experts in creative dance. After years of teaching in a variety of preschools we have designed a creative dance curriculum that can be used to insert movement throughout the preschool day. Check out the Lesson Plan section to get ideas!
Fit2Learn was created by Luff as the result of a mini-grant from the Haverford Educaiton Foundation. Fit to Learn combines Luff’s experience and research into a pilot program designed to insert more movement in the elementary school day. The ultimate goal is for each participant to experience a mind and body more at ease and ready to work to its fullest potential.
But this is not just kid stuff. For over 20 years Luff has taught adult fitness and is certified in group fitness, adult exercise, Zumba Gold and yoga. Fit2Move classes are filled with friendly folks who like to move and stay healthy. Not training for marathons or bikini modeling, they are active adults. They commit to regular exercise because it feels good. They work to maintain their fitness so that they are fit to:
Play with kids and grand kids…
Walk the Great Wall of China…
Minimize the effects of accidents/injuries/aging
Enjoy their lives because they are Fit2Move !
Fit2Learn is a series of movements designed to aid learning through a better integration of the mind and body. It will be an innovative tool for teachers and inspiring for students. Fit2Learn incorporates martial arts, yoga, dance and educational kinesiology. The movements have been researched and choreographed by movement specialist Elizabeth Luff.
Luff has been a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher, and administrator. As managing director of ZeroMoving Dance Company, she produced the company's first New York season. Working with Carunchio & Associates, Ms. Luff researched arts education programs in the 5-county area and helped raise over a $1 million dollars for college access programs for Philadelphia Schools Collaborative. Currently, Ms. Luff operates Moving Studios, which teaches creative dance on-site at preschools, after-school programs and in the community. She is a certified trainer for the Department of Public Welfare early childhood programs and is presently developing written materials for parents and teachers to infuse more movement into children's studies.
During the Fit2Learn project, Luff will train 5 groups of classroom teachers and students at Coopertown Elementary School in the Fit2Learn series of movements (a 15 minute routine which can be shortened or lengthened as needed). The physical education instructor and the Itinerant Learning Support teacher instructor will also be trained in order to reinforce the movements during their classes.
I. How Fit 2 Learn Came to Life
Elizabeth Luff has taught fitness to adults and dance to children for over 20 years. Her approach with both groups has always been eclectic.
Her children’s dance classes improve gross motor skills grace, balance and grace; and increase strength, agility and body and space awareness. The curriculum also examines concepts like shape, energy, and rhythm as well as a variety of themes and stories. Luff’s classes are often acclaimed for their creativity and because they allow for children to play imaginatively and expand their social skills and adaptability.
Luff’s fitness classes are part yoga, part Pilates, part dance, part general fitness and more. Participants are not training for marathons. They are people who like to move. They may or may not be involved in sports or dance. They are interested in maintaining fitness in order to function: to garden, to play with grandchildren, walk the great Wall of China, maintain strength and agility, prevent disease and keep the brain active.
Something must be working because many of Luff’s adult clients have taken class with her for over 15 years!
Through all her movement work Luff became fascinated by the universality of certain movements. In the practice of the martial art Chi Kung there is a basic stance in which the upper body is precisely in the same as a ballet dancer’s first position. The basic dance move step-ball-change shows up in samba, tap, hip hop, folk dance, ballet, African dance and more. There must be a reason. The connections happen over and over.
Certain moves feel pleasant. It turns out those moves are often good for our minds and bodies as well.
When Luff started reading and attending more workshops she found more connections. She also discovered new research about the value of exercise in the learning process. While many people and ideas inspired confirmed her own ideas, three specific influences helped her formulate Fit to Learn:
> Anne Green Gilbert- after reading about this dancer/instructor’s
creative dance classes Luff felt she had found a kindred spirit.
Now Gilbert has created a Brain Dance. According to her website
Dance} is comprised of eight fundamental movement patterns that we move
through in the first year of life. Research has shown that these patterns are
crucial to the wiring of our central nervous system.”
> Spark: the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by John J.
Ratey, MD. “… physical activity sparks biological changes that encourage
brain cells to bind to one another. For the brain to learn, these connections
must be made; they reflect the brain’s fundamental ability to adapt to
challenges. The more neuroscientists discover about this process, the
clearer it becomes that exercise provides an unparalleled stimulus, creating
an environment in which the brain is ready, willing and able to learn. “
> Eight Movements to Total Mind Body Balance as taught by John DeMinico
renowned instructor of Hatha Yoga this 8-step routine was developed by
ancient sages and power warriors and, if committed to for 100 days, will
create “a shift” toward a healthier body.