Dance
Claire Wootten
Professor Emeritus
Professor Emerita and Senior Scholar, Department of Dance
EDUCATION
MA (York); Graduate, Teacher Training Program, Canada’s National Ballet SchoolBIOGRAPHY
Following completion of her studies with the Professional Division at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Claire danced professionally with the Alberta Ballet Company. She is a graduate of the Teacher Training Program at Canada’s National Ballet School and has taught and has adjudicated extensively throughout Canada. Claire is an instructor with Dancing with Parkinson’s Canada, which offers movement classes for those living with Parkinson’s Disease. Claire recently certified as an instructor of 3-D WorkoutTM, an integrated fitness program based on the work of Bartenieff and Laban, developed by Dr. Dianne Woodruff. In addition to her teaching, Claire is also an experienced rehearsal director and an avid music student.
Claire’s research interests have evolved from years of studio-based, student-centred work, and include dance feminism, radical dance pedagogies and dance as emancipatory practice. She has taught at York University since 1990, joining the full-time faculty in the Department of Dance in 2004 and holding the role of Department Chair from 2010-14. Claire retired from full-time teaching at York in 2019 and returned to freelance work.
For the past few years, Claire has been a member of the Pulse Ontario Dance Conference Steering Committee, a biannual conference providing high school students and their teachers with a 3-day immersive dance experience. She has served on the boards of Dance Media Group/Groupe Danse Média, which publishes The Dance Current, and CORPS de Ballet International (Council of Organized Researchers for Pedagogical Studies).
Areas of Academic Specialty: Contemporary Ballet Technique, Community Dance, Dance Education
Dance
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