Master teaching artist Mara Morris wants to make dance a part of children's schooling.
By ALICE C. STELZER, Middletown Press Correspondent

EAST HAMPTON - Mara Morris was a single mom, in training to be a nurse, and life was a struggle. Being both a student learning a new career and a mother didn't leave any time at all for nurturing herself.
-----It didn't take Morris long to realize she wasn't happy.
-----In irder to help others, Morris realized, she had to be fulfilled. Somthing was missing. The on element that kept her going, she determined, was dancing.
-----No matter how busy she was, from then on, Morris knew she had to find time to make movement a priority.
"From very early on, I really always was dancing" is how the East Hampton resident describes her love of dance. "I had to bring the dancing back into my life and then everything else was easier. I had an easier time getting up in the morning," she relates.
-----Morris is dancing all the time now, after having been accredited as a master teaching artist for international folk dancing from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.
-----The master teaching artist program was instituted by the Commission on the Arts in response to a growing need for trained and talented artists who specialize in curriculum-integrated residencies and instructive development. Every two years, the Commission selects master teaching artists from among a pool of applicants screened by a panel of professional peers and educators.
-----Morris will now be added to the Connecticut Commission on Arts Directory of Performing Artists and Master Teaching Artists, which features over 220 talented artists and ensambles. Arts presentation grants are available to nonprofit organizations that wish to book members of the directory for performances, workshops or residencies.
-----Morris considers being names a master teaching artist a great achievement.
-----"It is an honor that the Commission chose me and international folk danceing. There were only 22 master teaching artists selected for all of the arts this year. To be one is very exciting."
-----After a short training program, Morris is planning on developing an artist-in-residence grant program in Connecticut schools.
"I want to kind of wake everybody up and make the world more exciting than with just pens and papers and numbers," she explains. Morris started dancing in Connecticut at the summer camp of Noyes School of Rhythm in Portland. "It is a wonderful school started by Florence Fleming Noyes about 1920. She had a very specific technique for learning to move," Morris says.
-----Morris is now teaching a class in Noyes Rhythm at Yoga in Middletown on Main Street. She describes Noyes Rhythm as "More a technique for how to move than specific choreography. The music is mostly western classical. It makes you feel part of the nature of whole life."
-----Through the East Hampton Parks and Recreation Department, Morris is also teaching a six-week class on festive folk dance. "In this course, I have more beginners. It is dances from different countries and really fun dances. There are dances that are really just enjoyable and you don't have to learn a million steps. There is always this 'aha!' moment when you see people go from feeling weird and a little uncomfortable, and then see them light up and relax and enjoy."
-----Her love of international folk dancing has taken Morris all over the world. Recently, a business trip to Shanghai, with her husband, John, turned into a week of daily international folk dancing classes.
-----"I have a friend in my folk dance group who is from Shanghai. When I told her I was going there, she thought I should teach folk dancing. She organized the whole thing."
-----The friend arranged for the place and gathered all her family and their friends. "We had about 40 to 60 people there every day for seven days. It was a wonderful experience," said Morris.
-----It was also an eye-opening one. "When you travel to different parts of the world to dance, you begin to see that these people living far away have hopes and dreams much the same as yours," Morris explains.
-----In June, Morris is going back to Paris with John, who publishes an aviation magazine. They will be attending the Paris Air Show.
-----"There is a weekend workshop that we have attended before and it is at the same time. John loves to dance, too, and we have a great time. It is in a castle outside Paris. We do Balkan gypsy and Greek dancing. A wonderful Greek dancing group put on the workshop. When we did it befroe, it included both Greek and Brittany dances," she says.
-----According to Morris's Web site, Balkan Gypsy dance can be fast and furious, or luxuriously slow and sensuous. Morris says it is the ultimate expression of heat, soul and body moving as one with all of nature's rhythms.
-----"It is the most delicious feast of being in your body and giving thanks. You realize the power and fire of the spirit, the sacredness of your body, as you become absorbed in this exacting, spiritually exciting form of dance," she says.

Yoga in Middletown is at 438 Main St. Call 347 9642, for classes.
For the CCA, see www.ctarts.org.

From the "River East News Bulletin", January 17th 2003
Folk Dance Instructor Named
'Master Teaching Artist'

East Hampton resident and international folk dance instructor Mara Morris recently won state accreditation as a Master Teaching Artist from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.
-----This recognition will enable Morris to teach dancing from around the world in Connecticut schools with matching grants from the state's art promotion agency.
-----Adults, too, can experience Morris's teaching at a six week course on Wednesday evenings beginning Feb. 5 in East Hampton (Festive Folk Dance, details are available from East Hampton Parks & Recreation).
-----"I am really excited about being named a Master Teaching Artist," said Morris. "There were only 22 selected for all the arts this year and it is an honor for the commission to hold international folk dance in such high regard."
-----Morris noted that the dances have an importance that might not be obvious at first sight. "These dances bring a unique cross-cultural experience as they reflect life and aspirations in traditional communities from around the world," she said. "They underscore that our need for community is no different today, and that while languages and customs may be difference, dance is a common ground across all cultures."
-----Morris, who has studied dance all her life, has a repertoire of several hundred dances. Those she selects for teaching are suitable for the inexperienced, and are usually danced in a circle with the need for a partner.
-----"The steps may be easy, but these dances all need some teamwork - for example, to make sure we all move in the same direction. Learning the dances and understanding and enjoying the often non-Western music brings a great sense of achievement, as well as the feeling that 'we did this together!'" said Morris.
-----She recently returned from Shanghai, China, where she taught international folk dance to classes of 40 to 60 Chinese students over a seven day period.
-----"That was a wonderful experience," Morris said, "and I am already planning to return to develop that cultural exchange."
-----A highlight was that the Chinese so enjoyed Gypsy, Greek and Balkan dances that they decided to research their own Chinese village dances that were largely suppressed by the Cultural Revolution.
-----"This is what international folk dance is all about," Morris said. " Experiencing these completely different cultures has prompted my Chinese students to re-explore their own."

Teaching international folk dance in Shanghai in November was great fun. We had 60 students, and we danced 2 hours/day for 7 days. They were all completely new to international folk dance, but very interested and enthusiastic. My friend YouQin, who lives now in Connecticut, is from Shanghai, and she arranged everything, and translated for me, and also helped to demonstrate some of the dances. They learned and danced very well, and enjoyed challenges; they complained most if I did something that was too easy!

(Click on the pictures to see larger versions)

I made some attempt to learn some Chinese dances. One dance teacher spent a few hours with us. She showed us some exercises, and we kept trying to head her towards something traditional. She began to piece together a Tibetan dance. She didn't like the music she had, and then YouQin began to sing, which was lovely. She and another teacher attended my classes, and were interested in the dances and people's enthusiasm. By the end, they said they will be able to dig through their records to find some Chinese dances they used to know, but had since forgotten. They were hopeful that they could teach me something next year.

Enough was so successful that we do have a plan to return next winter, looks like probably January. We are happy to plan on this, for some good energetic teaching and dancing, the warm enthusiastic people, and the fascinating city of Shanghai. Not to mention the amazing food...

update: 11th December 2002

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Another best summer ever! 7 weeks at the Noyes Camp, learning and teaching. After 10 years, still so much to learn. Feeling more confident about teaching, with guidance from our master teachers.

John and I love our dance parties at home, with Orta ( Melinda Fields and Carrie Crompton) playing wonderful folk dance music. The last 2 were outside in warm weather season. Torchlight and moonlight combined with great people and spirited music for something out of fairyland. Experienced and new dancers, a bit of teaching, and off we whirled! Bonfire always burning for the fireside chat and quieter inspiration.

(Click on the pictures to see larger versions)

Ferry Beach was very nice, once again, my 10th year. Erna, my Paneurhythmy teacher and good friend ( she was also my 1st laughing teacher) came with me and inspired us all with the depth of her 65 years of dancing and her experience of the Master. We had a smaller number of people than usual, some returning and some new; I found it easier to get to know everyone than with a bigger group. I choreographed a fun medley of some of the folk dances which we worked on and performed very proudly at the talent show. We even had low tide for Paneurhythmy early mornings, which made dancing in the sand much easier, more packed down and solid where the sea has been. And we were blessed by the magnificent sunrise coming across the ocean there at one of Maine's prettiest beaches.

Off to China after Temenos, the end of October. I am working with YouQin, who is from Shanghai and is arranging my teaching there. We know each other from the West Hartford folk dance group. She likes my teaching, and is working with me to choose dances that will interest people in Shanghai. It will be a new adventure for me to teach there, and for them to try international folk dancing. She is sure from people she knows and is talking with there that the time is right.

update: 30th September 2002