Artist Bio and Statement on Teaching Artistry
Photo by Martin O'Connor
Bio:
Amanda Cantrell Roche divides her time between mothering two children, writing, dance, working as an activist and volunteer and working as a Teaching Artist. She has worked as a dance Teaching Artist for Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Education program since 2000, conducting aesthetic education residencies for grades K through 6. Independently and in collaboration with a team of lead teaching artists, she designs and facilitates professional development for teachers and other teaching artists. She was recently selected to become a part of ArtistCorps Tennessee, a select group of Tennessee Arts Commission teaching artists who conduct arts-based service learning residencies in schools. Community and service-centered, Amanda has collaborated as an organizer, choreographer or teaching artist with organizations such as Global Education Center, Nashville CARES and Vanderbilt University. A mother of two, she also birthed and has nurtured Blue Moves Modern Dance Company since 1989, and more recently the human rights group One Human Race 4 Justice. Along with three TPAC lead teaching artists, she formed Hero Journeys Workshops to offer aesthetic education personal growth workshops for the general public. Her alchemy is most powerful when she combines a trilogy of her deepest passions: dance, writing and social justice.
Recommendations:
“Amanda thrives in exercising her many gifts in a variety of directions simultaneously. She knows her limits so that, however many balls she juggles, her demeanor is consistently unruffled and grounded. I cannot say enough about the contributions she has made to ArtSmart, and am confident that she would design and execute compelling new artist residencies with the same zeal, imagination and proficiency.”
–Leigh Jones, ArtSmart Director, TPAC Education
“Amanda has led the Creative Movement segment of MTSU’s summer National Youth Sport Program (NYSP). In this program, she successfully motivated, encouraged and inspired our youths to explore and learn creative movement dance concepts. Her lesson plans were not only well thought out and executed but they also gave the students an opportunity to have a tremendous amount of fun and open their minds and bodies to the art of dance.”
– Angela Armstrong, MTSU Faculty, Director of MTSU Performing Art Company
Teaching Artist Statement:
The arts possess the power to heighten awareness, deepen sensitivity, empower individuals, and enhance everyday living by tapping the innate creativity and aesthetic sense of each person. Authentic experiences with the arts and creative process can open windows of understanding on many levels. Creating, sharing, and reflecting on choreography or any art form engages non-traditional learners, and offers opportunities to hone critical thinking, along with social and creative problem solving skills.
My approach to teaching artistry has been heavily shaped by the practice of aesthetic education through my work for TPAC Education based in Nashville, Tennessee. I believe that the arts can magnificently enhance the understanding of academic curriculum, but also that they should be honored for their unique powers to communicate, to inspire wonder, and to cultivate understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live.
Arts-Based Service Learning, Artist Statement:
The arts have a unique and potent role in our culture, our schools and our communities. It is my duty as an artist and teaching artist to utilize the position and gifts of the arts for positive change. Through social justice choreography and written word, I have been able to increase awareness, generate understanding, and provoke action for human rights causes.
In educational settings through exploration of the artistic process, I engage students in inquiry, creative problem solving skills, and reflection. Combining the communicative forces of the arts with service learning and identifying community needs empowers students to see what they have to offer, and to look beyond their own needs to those of their larger community. These endeavors nurture a sense of self-worth and expand comprehension of community, empathy, and the many ways we can learn and communicate. They also lay the foundation for students to become big picture thinkers and engaged citizens.