Anne Flynn Art, Community, Change: Creating Something From Nothing My area of expertise is dance, and I have taught thousands of dance classes to young adults and, more recently, to older adults. Planning a dance class involves consideration of the types of physical experiences you are trying facilitate, as well as thinking about the group as a whole; dancing is both individual and collective at the same time. I would like to suggest that dance can provide us with helpful ideas about community-building and how to start something from nothing—how to figure out the first move, then the second move, then the third move, until the rhythm and pattern is established and there’s continuous motion. Dancing is essentially “action,” it is about “doing,” and so how can we use this ancient and ubiquitous form of human expression to ignite both individuals and communities into action? This session will draw on simple exercises from creative processes used in the dance studio to approach questions about community-building and creating change. No dance experience is necessary for participation in this session. About Anne Flynn Anne Flynn is Professor Emerita (Dance) in the Faculty of Kinesiology, and Member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. She has been part of the Calgary dance community as dancer, artistic director, scholar, administrator and dance education advocate. Her research on Canadian women in dance, multiculturalism and performance, and dance in health promotion and education has been presented and published internationally. She is currently co-investigator on a national SSHRC partnership project on Arts for Social Change, collaborating on research programs on dance for senior citizens, and for people with Parkinson’s disease. Flynn created Calgary’s Dancing Parkinson’s program along with Vicki Adams Willis, Founder in Residence of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks. She is serving as President of the U.S. based Congress on Research in Dance.
