Cultivating developmentally appropriate dance skills through the planning and teaching of movement lessons requires that teachers be familiar with the movement vocabulary appropriate for children ages 3-5. They must also be able to ask questions that facilitate children's discovery of the full range of ways their bodies can move.

The purpose of stART smART Dance program is to support and enable each child to achieve movement capabilities appropriate to her/his own age and developmental level, and to enable teachers to plan and provide learning opportunities for children that accomplish this. The learning objectives that are the guidelines for planning and evaluating children's progress in this program are based on the standards for dance in early childhood as published by the National Dance Education Organization . The objectives are organized in the following four categories.

Pilot Location
Delta Region, including:

• West Memphis, Arkansas
• Memphis, Tennessee
• DeSoto County, Mississippi

by Tony Mitton

by Jamie Lee Curtis

by Teresa Benzwie

by Byrd Baylor

Participants
Lead Dance Specialist
Pamela Van Gilder

Teaching Artists
Anne Delautre
Linda Hamilton
Erin D. Healy
Holly Lau
Anne Wike

Teachers
Andrea Crum South Park Elementary ( Memphis , TN )
Penny Dauksch Bragg Elementary ( West Memphis , AR)
Terry Parrish Faulk Elementary ( West Memphis , AR )
Terri Ramsey Richland Elementary ( West Memphis , AR )
Ann Roscopf Bragg Elementary ( West Memphis , AR)
Diane Walker Richland Elementary ( West Memphis , AR )
Debbie Williams Bragg Elementary ( West Memphis , AR)
Raquel Woodard South Park Elementary ( Memphis , TN )
Tamika Jordan Avondale Elementary School West Memphis , AR

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