Jo Parkes
Dance artist
Teaching
Jo is an experienced teacher and trainer and has led workshops for teachers and artists internationally for many years.
Jo is head of dance in schools for TanzZeit, where she works with over 50 school classes each year and pool of 40 artists.
"The teaching was high calibre. I appreciated the level of skill…genuine warmth, enthusiasm, compassion, clarity and attention to individuals."
Participant, London, England
"I have nothing to compare this course to. Am leaving with a sense of wonder and possibility."
Participant, Vancouver, Canada
"It's always a delight to commission Jo to run a project with my students. Her expertise in the fields of choreography & dance education enables her to inspire the students with new & exciting approaches to creating dance, as well as challenging them to develop high quality work - many students that have worked with Jo are amazed by what they have achieved during a project. As a teacher, I also value the opportunity to work with Jo. It's great to work with such a supportive and generous artist who doesn't hesitate to share her ideas. "
Laura Davies, Teacher of Dance, England
SCHOOL/PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
Jo has worked with school development and project development with countless schools and many arts organisations including, TanzZeit, DanceXchange, Dance East, East London Dance and Kulturprojekte, Berlin. In this work she combines her experience as a choreographer with her experience in teaching in schools as well as directing programmes working in schools.
Jo has developed region-wide programmes working with dance artists in schools as well as working closely wih individual schools to develop the curriculum through bespoke projects. These might include approaches to delivering the school curriculum through dance, for example.
TEACHER TRAINING
Jo works regularly with teachers, supporting them in integrating movement and dance into their teaching practise.
She taught at Newham Sixth Form College, in east London for five years, where she taught on programmes from entry to university level. She collaborated on the writing of the HND Performing Arts in the Community at the University of east London. She was part of the research team on a NESTA funded research project to investigate the team’s creative approaches to teaching and learning. Her research is published in the book The Creative College: Building a Successful Learning Culture in the Arts, edited by Graham Jeffery and published by Trentham Books.
ARTIST TRAINING
Jo has taught artists around the world for many years.
Topics include:
Dance in public spaces
Working with intergenerational groups
Dance in schools/dance with young people
Choreographic practise in community settings
INTEGRATED DANCE
Integrated dance brings disabled and non-disabled dancers together. Jo has worked in this field for 15 years and wrote 'People Moving', a one day course for artists wishing to work in integrated dance, created with Clare Connor and commissioned/developed by East London Dance.
Jo creates and delivers custom designed projects for dance companies, schools and colleges and trains professional artists and teachers in adapting their practise to inclusive settings.