CityStep Summer Institute
in New York City | June 1–10
The CityStep Summer Institute is a ten-day intensive dance teacher-training program in all things CityStep. Throughout the Institute, college student participants will:
Learn tools to create original dances with children that are expressive and meaningful
Learn ways to use dance to build strong connections between children, reducing conflict, and enhancing social-emotional wellbeing
Work with children from the Harlem community, putting into practice what they learn each day and providing a transformative experience for local youth
Have the opportunity to choreograph and perform their own dances, exercising their own creative muscles.
Gain invaluable leadership skills for a future career in education, nonprofit leadership, arts and social action, civic engagement and more.
The Institute will culminate in a lively public lecture-demonstration performance on June 10th, 2022 for friends, family, CityStep enthusiasts and the community!
The Institute will be led by Founder and Executive Director of CityStep, Sabrina Peck, with support and instruction from a range of guest artists. The 35 children participating in the program will be drawn from our community partners in Harlem.
Why CSSI?
CityStep has continued to expand to more colleges and communities. In addition to Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale, CityStep Columbia is in its pilot year and CityStep Brown is in development! Now more than ever, CityStep teachers need–and are asking for–a grounding in CityStep’s core values and teaching methods, to ensure that they are equipped to give every child the best CityStep experience possible. Even as every CityStep company is independently run by college students, we are all one CityStep family, committed to the same high standards of creativity, connection and joy.
The Institute is part of a multi-pronged approach to teacher-training that includes the annual All-Company Teacher-Training Retreat in NYC, Leadership Summits, on-campus workshops, and more. We have embarked on an ambitious plan to create a suite of tools that can support teachers wherever they are, including training videos and an iPhone app of CityStep exercises and games that will extend the impact of CityStep’s method. The material developed throughout the Institute will be filmed and documented, adding to this important repository of teaching materials and resources.
About CityStep
CityStep is the celebrated program that brings together college students and schoolchildren in a transformative partnership of creativity and connection through dance. Teams of diverse college students teach in local schools a dynamic movement-based curriculum of self-expression, collaboration and mentorship. CityStep’s compendium of exercises and games sit at the intersection of movement and theater, where inner intention and outward expression meet. Rigorous and values-driven, CityStep’s pedagogy supports the social-emotional well-being and cognitive development of each child and powerfully connects children to one another in mutual understanding and shared enterprise. Each teaching year culminates in an original performance that brings children together from across a city, engaging the entire community. Founded at Harvard by director/choreographer Sabrina Peck over 35 years ago, CityStep has since expanded organically to other colleges, each serving its surrounding community: CityStep Harvard in Cambridge; CityStep Penn in Philadelphia; CityStep Princeton in Trenton; CityStep Yale in New Haven; and the newest company, CityStep Columbia in Harlem, now in its pilot year.
Participate in the CityStep Summer Institute
Whether you are an existing CityStep company member or a college student interested in learning more about what a CityStep program at your school might look like, this experience is for you!
Paid Summer Internship positions are also available for those interested in assisting. For more on paid internships, please visit: citystep.org/internships