HANNAH BEACH

CHOREOGRAPHER
(Canada)
 

Hannah Beach is the founding director of the Dandelion Dance Company, an inclusive dance company for young women that explores social issues through movement. She also founded and directs Tournesol Dance, a school of interpretive movement for children. Ms. Beach has combined her classical dance training with her background in social work and children‘s rights, choosing to facilitate dance in a manner that embraces all body types and abilities, and encourages children and youth to explore their feelings, reflections and experiences through movement.

“My goal is to embrace the vision of children and youth and to support them in choreographing their own work.”

“I believe that youth have important and valid ideas to share and that it is important that they do so, not as a retrospective when they are older, but now, while their ideas are important to them.”

 Hanna's I CAN DANCE SERIES explores inclusive, interpretive dance in six imaginative and engaging titles and photographs of children with both intellectual and physical disabilities, as well as able-bodied participants, dancing.

 

Not only is Hannah’s creative approach to dance important—she also made sure that each book would include a CD with specifically chosen mood-based music by DramaSound, along with recorded sections of her own voice guiding the work, so that teachers and students would have all the resources needed at their fingertips.  

 

To do this, Hannah provided the recorded voice sections, while we sent DramaSound music through MP3 format to her for final selections.  We all wanted to make sure that the music would provide clear, mood-based content while allowing enough “space” for students to relate to it, to the theme presented, and to be able to respond and reflect with and through the it.  We think the results will be of interest to anyone exploring creativity and self expression.  

visit Hannah's web site

I CAN DANCE (Excerpts) :