Ep 10: The Transformative Power of Hope Stone with Jane Weiner

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Welcome to Dance Unscripted.
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I am your host, Amy Elizabeth.
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We're joined in the studio today by one of Texas's leading ladies of dance.
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Jane Wiener holds a degree in deaf elementary education and a minor in dance from Bowling Green State University.
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She spent over a decade in New York City dancing and touring with the Doug Elkins Dance Company before relocating to Houston in 1996.
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Jane founded Hope Stone Incorporated in 1997 with a vision to unlock the innate creativity of children and adults through the arts with two main projects, the modern dance company, Hopestone Dance, and the creative arts education outreach program, The Hope Project.
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In 2023, the organization shifted its focus to become a dedicated arts education nonprofit.
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On this episode, we'll be talking with Jane Weiner about her start, the shift, and her newest role as education director and leader of The Hope Project.
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Jane, thank you so much for joining us today.
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And
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thank you so much for inviting me, Amy.
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It's such a nice way to visit.
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We need to do it in person over coffee next time, though.
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Yes, absolutely.
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I agree.
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So I noticed that you begin your biography with the quote, you matter, we all matter.
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The magical power of the arts reinforces these words inside of us.
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What does this quote mean for you?
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So we've, you know, in the work that we're doing presently, I feel like, you know, it might be Hopestone 4.0.
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At this point, we just keep shifting.
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One of the biggest shifts we've had is in teaching creative emotional intelligence to our students.
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And the main goal, we primarily teach pre-K.
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And this year, we're very excited.
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We'll be adding eighth grade.
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We kind of have a track that we've been doing pre-K through fifth.
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And then we added sixth and seventh.
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seventh last year, and now we'll be doing eighth grade over at Marshall Middle School, which is one of the schools that we work in.
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And one of our main goals is that the children realize that they matter.
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And it was interesting.
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I was listening to, well, a podcast just the other day, and it talked about how we are all even.
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We're all equal.
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We're all even.
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And yet when you go to a conference the woman was saying, the first thing you do is you're like, so what do you do?
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And where are you from?
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And instead of being like, well, you matter, you're here.
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That's all that really matters.
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I mean, of course there's those talking points, but like, if we're all equal, if we're all even, if we all have equity, then we all matter.
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And our resumes and the things that, you know, I think we highlight and, oh, I did this and I did that.
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Like, even when you were reading my resume and when I sent you my bio, like those things don't matter.
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It's really just that you matter.
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You matter.
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You take space.
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You claim your seat, as we like to say.
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You belong here.
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All of us do.
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So why we're talking about our resume, we're talking about our identity, we're talking about these things, these accomplishments that we've had.
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But eighth graders at this point in their life don't have resumes.
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They don't have these touch points to fall back on.
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So why do you think that it's important for us to kind of instill this ideology into such young people?
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The mental health issues in this country are skyrocketing.
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Word just came out that the highest ISD, the highest public school with suicidal ideation and mental health issues is Houston ISD.
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Yeah, it's not good.
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It's not good.
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And we're also seeing the mental health numbers for our children go up.
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Thank you so much.
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And we need young, brilliant minds.
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I say this all the time to my students.
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You know, I am old.
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I can even feel my brain slowing down.
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And what I need is your fast and quick brains, you know, in all honesty, get off the phones, get off the computers and let's dive into some problem solving.
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And part of that is that they're not looking for likes or they're not looking for numbers on their Instagram or their TikToks.
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but that they know that they stand on their own two feet and that they matter.
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And that's true for all of us.
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I mean, I feel like we are losing our kindness and compassion at a rapid rate.
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That and icebergs are melting.
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So you mentioned emotional intelligence.
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So can you define creative emotional intelligence and kind of describe why you find this to be most important?
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Yeah.
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So when we teach our emotional intelligence classes, the first unit that we teach is what is EQ?
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What is emotional intelligence and what is it in response to IQ?
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And I'm going to quote, I kind of got this from Gayla Miller.
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She may have gotten it somewhere else, but Gayla Miller has been my teacher for many, many years, a great theater person and did a lot of backstage stuff.
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And now she's counseling and kind of creating her own work about emotional intelligence.
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And I'm lucky enough to consider her one of my dearest friends.
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And she teaches me as well.
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She's kind of like my guru, although I'm beginning to find many more.
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She's opened my world to like, you know, what do you do on a day off?
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I try to find more EQ podcasts to listen to or webinars because it's just fascinating how the brain works.
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But what we call EQ is the ability to be smart about feelings, our own and other people's.
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It involves being able to notice, to understand and act on emotions in an effective, kind and curious way.
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And with our heads in a phone, with nods, lot of project-based learning happening.
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I really see that in our school.
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There's a lot of kids with their headphones on and these little cardboard things around them, and they're not relating to one another.
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So I don't know if you're sad.
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I don't know if you're relaxed.
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I don't know if you're cheerful.
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All of these things, I'm not reading because I'm focused on something else.
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And therefore, as we say, read the room.
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I I don't think a lot of adults, middle schoolers, high schoolers, children know how to read the room because we are, I think, becoming electronically narcissistic.
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You use the term project-based learning.
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So can you give us an idea of what that looks like in the classroom?
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Yeah.
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So I'm thinking about that.
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So project-based learning, that's the arts, you know, when you really think about it.
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Like we had a fifth grade boys band.
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That's project-based learning.
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We had a fifth grade dance ensemble.
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That's project-based learning.
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We have an Odyssey of the Mind team.
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That's amazing project-based learning.
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We had a Bollywood class, project-based learning.
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Because if I don't know where you are in the room and you don't know where I am in the room, we're going to bump into each other.
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So project-based learning is just, there's so many things like emotional intelligence, project-based learning, like be Being able to have like that mood meter that we bring in for EQ, it's built right in.
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It's so organic.
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The arts basically are EQ mindfulness training for our kids.
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And then of course we meet the awareness part.
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We can't just say, oh, you're dancing, so you know EQ.
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But what we have to do is go back and say, this is why that worked kind of situation.
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We had a situation where we did a very big performance and we had a child have an emotional meltdown.
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She was emotionally, it was very hard.
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And the other dancers looked, they were compassionate in the moment, and then they pulled it together and performed.
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And I was like, they, you know, like they read it.
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They were like, she's not going to be able to perform with us.
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We have to go on the stage right now.
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So we're going to do that.
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And then when they were done, they came back and checked in on her.
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I mean, that just kind of wraps up everything that, you know, We want our kids to be learning, and they need to be learning on a daily basis.
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They really do.
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And so you're talking about being inside of the schools in this project-based learning.
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What are...
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You mentioned some of the programs that you have.
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How long do these programs last?
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So you say a performance.
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Is this a year-long project?
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Is this a semester project?
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Do the students change?
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Is it one select group of students?
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So the way it works is we do work at a preschool, and that's very much creative movement.
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And we try to do a lot of creative movement and movement-based, pretty much dance.
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We do do a eurythmics, which is music and dance together, pre-K through second.
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Because of the body-mind connection that dance brings.
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I remember listening to Anthony Brandt and he said, when a person listens to a piece of music and they put one of those skull caps with all the electronic buds on it, 88% of the brain lights up.
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So what is that number when we're listening to music and dancing?
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Now, Andy Noble may have done this.
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I need to kind of reach out to him because I know he puts electronic on everybody's brain all the time and makes everybody dance.
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But what is that percentage of the brain lighting up?
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If 88% does it with music going on, then what if I'm listening to the music, but I also have to bring my arm out on the eight or fold it on the one?
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So that development, that ability to regulate the body to do something across the floor, and these babies need it, especially our little ones that come from severe poverty, where a lot of times, a lot of the kind of like the basic learnings that, you know, I call it Mother East, sometimes that is missing.
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And so, you know, we'll see our kids sometimes come in having a lot of chunks missing or maybe not evaluated for ADHD or hearing loss or something like that.
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And so their regulation is, you know, non-existent in some cases, you know, running down the hallway, running outdoors, not being able to listen, overstimulated.
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And so bringing them into a dance class and asking them to move from point A to point B helps regulate.
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Can you sit?
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Can you move your arms on one?
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Can you follow directions?
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So we do that with our little ones.
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And then with the older ones, we do a second, third, fourth, and 5th at the schools that we work at, they get electives, video, photography, drumming, theater, singing club, modern dance, Bollywood, African dance, on and on.
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I can't even think of them all.
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No, that's an incredible lineup.
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And the students, they get to choose what they're interested in?
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We, for a third grader, actually third, fourth, and fifth this year, we'll have each have four electives that they'll choose.
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Wow.
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And then we do stay for the year because a Then kind of really trying to cater to our student.
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A lot of these children have abandonment issues.
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So I don't want to show up for, you know, a three week residency or three day residency or one week residency.
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I want to be there from September to May and we would be there.
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I mean, we're actually September to April is our early April.
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We kind of, we kind of bolt as soon as star testing happens.
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But we don't want to bolt this time.
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We want to stay around because we do know that we bring joy.
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We actually did a a whole evaluation and steadily watch the kids say that I matter and their joy go up over the course of the year.
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So we want to bring that because if a child's joyful, they're going to do a hell of a lot better on a test.
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They're going to show up to school.
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Their vagus nerve is going to be tonified and they're just going to be a healthier kid.
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Yeah.
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I mean, that was the first thought whenever you said start testing is I'm curious if there's evidence or data that shows that the students who are involved in this project have increased testing capabilities?
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So we did our own test with Rice University for COVID.
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So I'm also going to say that the pre-COVID and post-COVID child is a different child.
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And we are having to, all of us, I mean, those of us that have been teaching 30 plus years, our lesson plans are being changed.
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But we did have have a situation where it was kind of odd we were at Browning Elementary School and because of finances we could only do half the school which was terrible like some of the teachers were like why wasn't my class picked but we just didn't have enough money and we did it with I think that was there was no pre-k I think it was kinder through fifth and one class got it and one class didn't but for a study it was perfect and we did one we actually did it with Priscilla Rivas whose the principal at HSPDA now, but she was the vice principal there and doing her graduate work.
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So she helped us do this study.
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And we found out that like, first of all, the parents and the teachers saw that the regulation in the classes that Hoagstone was teaching was like something like 18% and 23% higher, 18% by the teachers, 20% by the teachers.
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23% higher by the parents.
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If we keep calling art extracurricular, you know, when it is the complete circle and as the Greeks did it, you know, the sciences and the languages and the math and the arts were all one circle.
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And the minute you pull one out, you have an unbalanced child.
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And I think our children are unbalanced because they're not getting an even level of solid art.
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So I pulled this quote from the Hope Project.
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website.
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It's from one of the fourth grade teachers and they say, we invest our time and resources in these students because we believe this generation of children will help provide the solutions to their community's challenges.
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So can you discuss what these community challenges that the young people are experiencing, like what are they?
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And then kind of how does the art education empower them towards this change?
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Yeah.
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Oh, I go back and forth on that.
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I stay up at night thinking about it.
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So we moved from a Title I school into a very different Title I school, kind of unexpectedly.
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I think we're going into our seventh year at, sixth or seventh year at Clemente, and seventh or eighth year at Marshall.
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And that's all over in the near north side.
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When we talk about poverty, it's below poverty line.
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It's not poverty, it's below poverty line.
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And they did a study in, Clemente Martinez is balanced by two housing projects on either side.
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So 75% of our students come from these two housing projects, and then about 25% come in.
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And when they did one, one is significantly even more lower income than the other.
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And when they did the numbers there, they found that a lot of the numbers in the one project are something like 20 to 120% below poverty line.
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So that's a significant amount.
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So I don't even wanna say that they're one paycheck away from being homeless.
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They're less than one pay.
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Many of these families are less than one paycheck.
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Food scarcity is huge.
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One of the projects doesn't have 240 volt plugins.
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So a lot of times these families don't even have washer and dryer at their disposal.
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And with parents working, both parents working if there's both parents, sometimes it's just a lot of times it's a lot of single moms that live over there and they're working to get the laundry done is a huge fee.
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And then I'm also going to say, I just keep finding out more and more things we take for granted.
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What are some of the most expensive things?
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Laundry detergent.
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Laundry detergent is almost $20 for a big thing of it.
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And that's huge.
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And then if you've got laundry detergent, but you also need the gas to get to work.
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And then you need toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant.
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And so these are the challenges that we're facing.
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And so it goes back to the I matter statement and grit and resilience.
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How do we say to these kids, we know you don't have the bootstraps.
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We're talking about pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
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And as you and I said earlier, there's no bootstraps to pull up.
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What they need to pull up is the you matter part.
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That's where it goes back to you matter and you are allowed to go beyond where you are right now.
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And I worry about that because for two reasons.
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First of all, there's poverty and then there's poverty of experience.
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So if a child doesn't even know there's more beyond and you think, oh, this city is is so big.
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There's so much to see.
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There's so many free things.
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It's not free things.
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I just want to shake people when I say free things means there's parking.
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It means you have to feed five children or three or one.
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It means the gas to get there and back.
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It probably means a lot of long lines.
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And it probably means that the only time you can go on Saturday is Saturday and Sunday.
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And you're exhausted because you've been working a million jobs.
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So like, you know, I keep hearing like, oh, there's so much free stuff.
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Somebody said that to me the other day.
00:20:24.252 --> 00:20:27.275
And I want to be like the amount of effort that goes in.
00:20:27.275 --> 00:20:34.020
I'm carpooling this summer for several kids because they've gotten scholarships for camps here and there.
00:20:34.020 --> 00:20:42.248
And their mothers can't do it because of their work schedule or a broken car or whatever, or they work, you know, like, I mean, all of that.
00:20:42.248 --> 00:20:47.452
And I'm carpooling and I'm thinking this is, you know, this is part of it.
00:20:47.452 --> 00:20:48.733
When you have, when you are...
00:20:48.733 --> 00:20:51.259
just hanging on by a thread.
00:20:51.259 --> 00:20:55.392
So it's hard.
00:20:55.392 --> 00:21:03.058
So going back to the question, it's the challenges of because they are in it and experience it.
00:21:03.058 --> 00:21:19.373
And if we can say you matter and with, I think the intelligence, the emotional intelligence classes and with what art brings, because art brings intuitively and organically, you matter when a child locks onto it.
00:21:19.373 --> 00:21:20.294
And it's hard.
00:21:20.294 --> 00:21:26.519
A lot of kids, everyone's like, Oh, we're giving them these free dance classes or these free music classes.
00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:28.281
Why aren't they more grateful?
00:21:28.281 --> 00:21:29.962
And I'm like, no, they can't be.
00:21:29.962 --> 00:21:31.505
Maybe they didn't eat.
00:21:31.505 --> 00:21:32.726
Maybe they didn't sleep.
00:21:32.726 --> 00:21:34.147
And maybe they got hit.
00:21:34.147 --> 00:21:36.671
Maybe something traumatic happened.
00:21:36.671 --> 00:21:43.278
And so for me to just be like, why aren't they grateful about what I'm offering is so white privilege.
00:21:43.278 --> 00:21:44.659
I mean, it just is.
00:21:44.659 --> 00:21:46.580
It's just privilege.
00:21:46.580 --> 00:21:48.383
I'm not even going to put a color in front of it.
00:21:48.383 --> 00:21:51.807
So the kids are in it.
00:21:51.807 --> 00:21:53.808
So if they can get it beyond.
00:21:53.808 --> 00:21:58.913
If I can look at this young generation and say, you're amazing.
00:21:58.913 --> 00:22:00.556
You're fantastic.
00:22:00.556 --> 00:22:04.000
You've got this over and over.
00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:07.343
So their little hippocampuses hear that over and over.
00:22:07.343 --> 00:22:13.609
And then they perform like when we've done our school performances and the kids come off and they're like, holy
00:22:14.270 --> 00:22:15.612
shit, I just did that.
00:22:15.612 --> 00:22:16.012
They don't
00:22:16.053 --> 00:22:18.134
say that because they would get in trouble.
00:22:18.134 --> 00:22:19.336
I'll say that for them.
00:22:19.336 --> 00:22:22.819
I just, I just jumped in front of a hundred people.
00:22:22.819 --> 00:22:25.602
you know, or, you know, whatever it is.
00:22:25.602 --> 00:22:26.823
We're Odyssey.
00:22:26.823 --> 00:22:31.847
Our Odyssey team has gone to States for four years, four years, like that.
00:22:31.847 --> 00:22:35.911
They come off the stage doing whatever they've done and they've completed it.
00:22:35.911 --> 00:22:38.413
That I matter is huge.
00:22:38.413 --> 00:22:39.674
And we need more of that.
00:22:39.674 --> 00:22:43.278
I need to pour more and more and more of that into the kids.
00:22:43.278 --> 00:22:51.964
And then they're going to be the ones that said, well, I lived there and I don't, I don't want little ones to live there anymore.
00:22:51.964 --> 00:22:54.296
That's what I hope.
00:22:54.296 --> 00:23:00.003
And their brains are so, I mean, the young brain is like, holy cow.
00:23:00.003 --> 00:23:02.909
It's just so malleable.
00:23:02.909 --> 00:23:05.573
Neuroplasticity is right there.
00:23:05.573 --> 00:23:11.001
So over and over, like we really want those pre-K kinders, we want them to know that they matter.
00:23:11.001 --> 00:23:12.604
First grade, you matter.
00:23:12.604 --> 00:23:15.188
By second grade, we are actually teaching kindness.
00:23:15.188 --> 00:23:16.971
It's too late in our school.
00:23:16.971 --> 00:23:18.874
We are teaching kindness to the kids.
00:23:19.974 --> 00:23:20.056
Yeah.
00:23:20.056 --> 00:23:21.597
Yeah.
00:23:21.597 --> 00:23:29.660
You know, there's a, I keep thinking of the devil's advocate here and this idea of you're saying that they may not have a toothbrush.
00:23:29.660 --> 00:23:31.262
They may not have laundry detergent.
00:23:31.262 --> 00:23:36.128
These are, you know, survival food, clothing, shelter.
00:23:36.128 --> 00:23:37.631
They may not have these things.
00:23:37.631 --> 00:23:42.436
So why are we focusing on, right?
00:23:42.436 --> 00:23:43.919
And again, playing devil's advocate here.
00:23:43.919 --> 00:23:49.426
Why would we focus on arts education over how to get them food, clothing, shelter?
00:23:50.929 --> 00:23:51.189
Yeah.
00:23:51.189 --> 00:23:51.869
Yeah.
00:23:51.869 --> 00:23:53.398
I ask myself that all the time.
00:23:53.398 --> 00:23:55.861
That's a really good question.
00:23:55.861 --> 00:24:09.532
But I feel like built right in is the organic kindness, compassion, curiosity, problem solving, critical thinking.
00:24:09.532 --> 00:24:21.063
And as their brains develop, and that's also why one, we're there all year, and two, we come back year after year.
00:24:21.063 --> 00:24:28.490
I'm not looking to expand the work that I'm doing.
00:24:28.490 --> 00:24:30.873
I'm actually trying to go deeper and wider.
00:24:30.873 --> 00:24:34.416
I'm trying to create a template that others might follow.
00:24:34.416 --> 00:24:47.550
You know, I always think of that, you know, I'm driving, you know, whenever I used to take long trips and I would see those like adopt a highway, you know, I want to kind of say to people, adopt a school, adopt a school, get in there.
00:24:47.550 --> 00:24:59.723
And we, I have been doing a lot, you We have volunteer librarians that show up two times a week to help the kids read, take out books, do sight words.
00:24:59.723 --> 00:25:02.887
There's so many things that these schools need.
00:25:02.887 --> 00:25:12.978
And I know we're up against some hard times because it is difficult with the current administration right now to volunteer the way it used to be.
00:25:12.978 --> 00:25:17.482
But I just keep saying, get involved in our young people.
00:25:17.482 --> 00:25:20.626
That to me is, that's like the acorn.
00:25:20.626 --> 00:25:23.491
You know, one When's the best time to plant a tree?
00:25:23.491 --> 00:25:24.413
20 years ago.
00:25:24.413 --> 00:25:25.656
When's the second best time?
00:25:25.656 --> 00:25:26.439
Today.
00:25:26.439 --> 00:25:28.061
And I feel that way about our kids.
00:25:28.061 --> 00:25:33.335
They're the most important natural resource we have.
00:25:33.335 --> 00:25:41.361
And they, when they're 20 years from now, they're going to be dealing with the crap we have created.
00:25:41.361 --> 00:25:45.468
And we have better have creative critical thinkers.
00:25:45.468 --> 00:25:48.333
So yes, I know they come from all of that.
00:25:48.333 --> 00:25:50.115
And it's two-tiered.
00:25:50.115 --> 00:25:55.064
What I walked in, I walked in the first day at that school and I was like, here we are.
00:25:55.064 --> 00:25:55.945
We're the artists.
00:25:55.945 --> 00:25:56.988
We're here.
00:25:56.988 --> 00:25:57.808
We're going.
00:25:57.808 --> 00:25:59.315
Damn.
00:25:59.315 --> 00:26:01.657
And so it's two-tiered.
00:26:01.657 --> 00:26:03.039
It's very two-tiered.
00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:09.488
I mean, the story we tell, Hilary Schaaf was teaching a dance class and the kids were so hungry.
00:26:09.488 --> 00:26:15.016
So God bless my dear board member, Matt Harris, he brought cereal bars.
00:26:15.016 --> 00:26:18.921
So those cereal bars are like 120 calories a bar.
00:26:18.921 --> 00:26:24.607
So Hilary sat the kids down and she said, oh, and I have a surprise.
00:26:24.607 --> 00:26:27.372
Afterwards, we're going to get a cereal bar.
00:26:27.372 --> 00:26:29.974
And he said, I'm so excited.
00:26:29.974 --> 00:26:31.017
I'm so excited.
00:26:31.017 --> 00:26:33.058
And she said, well, you can eat it now.
00:26:33.058 --> 00:26:34.121
He said, oh, no, no, no, no.
00:26:34.121 --> 00:26:37.786
I'm going to split it in half and give it to my little sister when I go home.
00:26:37.786 --> 00:26:41.170
You know, this 120 calorie bar.
00:26:41.170 --> 00:26:43.933
And she said, don't you have anything to eat?
00:26:43.933 --> 00:26:46.257
He said, oh, no, we had crackers for dinner last night.
00:26:46.257 --> 00:26:48.058
So this is what we're dealing with.
00:26:48.058 --> 00:26:52.464
And so, yes, he was in that dance class and he got that love.
00:26:52.464 --> 00:26:58.733
And we also figured that out because we also know that the arts open us up and the kids begin to tell us.
00:26:58.733 --> 00:27:00.078
what their needs are.
00:27:00.078 --> 00:27:03.801
So it's, yes, you are a devil's advocate.
00:27:03.801 --> 00:27:04.603
We got to feed them.
00:27:04.603 --> 00:27:05.363
We got to bathe them.
00:27:05.363 --> 00:27:09.787
Sometimes the kids just cannot be in class and we can't force them.
00:27:09.787 --> 00:27:11.248
Don't you understand?
00:27:11.248 --> 00:27:13.009
My dance class is so important.
00:27:13.009 --> 00:27:18.555
No, this kid actually needs to throw themselves on the ground and roll and we're going to let you.
00:27:18.555 --> 00:27:22.837
And so we also have a lot of tactics for those babies.
00:27:23.959 --> 00:27:30.444
Well, it's also this idea of investment in the person and I can't remember.
00:27:30.444 --> 00:27:32.247
It was a podcast that I was listening to.
00:27:32.247 --> 00:27:37.532
And this idea, they were debating this idea of giving, for lack of better words, charity.
00:27:37.532 --> 00:27:41.757
And it was, well, you go and you give them the food, they're just going to ask for more.
00:27:41.757 --> 00:27:48.223
But if you teach them how to garden, then they will develop their own food and they will find their way out of this.
00:27:48.223 --> 00:27:53.048
And so it's this idea of teaching the skills to move forward and to move beyond.
00:27:53.048 --> 00:28:00.176
And that just kind of resonates a little bit with them being as young as they are and plant it.
00:28:00.176 --> 00:28:03.140
Like you said, plant that seed now, 20 years from now.
00:28:03.140 --> 00:28:04.642
What is that tree going to look like?
00:28:04.642 --> 00:28:06.123
What's the fruit coming from that tree?
00:28:06.123 --> 00:28:09.146
And what is the fruit from that tree going to feed others?
00:28:09.146 --> 00:28:25.564
And I think that's also important as the community is that by pouring into these young people, it gives them, encourages them that as they move through this, like that brother, he's going to take what he's given and he's going to pour it into his little sister.
00:28:25.604 --> 00:28:27.046
Yes.
00:28:27.046 --> 00:28:28.606
And that is the hope.
00:28:28.606 --> 00:29:00.020
And the other thing thing is and Gayla Miller helps me with this all the time we may not see the tree we may just see the acorn go in the ground and that is hard because you know like I was sharing that story before we started like you know there's so many kids that I work with and I see so you know like three steps forward seven steps back two steps forward nine steps back eleven steps forward four steps back I I mean, it is like that.
00:29:00.020 --> 00:29:06.886
And I know that it's that way with all people, but it's really, really hard because they have so much up against them.
00:29:06.886 --> 00:29:12.711
And I will sometimes say to myself today, if I love and connect, that's all that matters.
00:29:12.711 --> 00:29:25.603
If my lesson plan falls, if the kids are running around, if I love and connect, I've had a successful day because then they know they matter to me.
00:29:25.603 --> 00:29:28.705
Because sometimes...
00:29:28.705 --> 00:29:32.888
There was a point in my life where I didn't know I mattered.
00:29:32.888 --> 00:29:34.730
And people kept saying, I love you, Jane.
00:29:34.730 --> 00:29:37.992
I love you, Jane, till I could say, I love you, Jane.
00:29:37.992 --> 00:29:39.555
And that's where we are.
00:29:39.555 --> 00:29:40.494
Yeah.
00:29:41.596 --> 00:29:48.903
I mean, I'm 41 years old and having this, and I did not have the hardships that these young people had.
00:29:48.903 --> 00:29:55.989
I grew up a very privileged life, but even I hit 40 and this shift happened in my brain.
00:29:55.989 --> 00:30:02.343
And I just said, I mean, I don't know, this is like going on micro scale, but I looked at my partner last week and I said, I'm going to say something very arrogant.
00:30:02.343 --> 00:30:03.287
And he said, what's that?
00:30:03.287 --> 00:30:04.330
I said, I am cute.
00:30:04.330 --> 00:30:17.291
Thank you so much.
00:30:17.291 --> 00:30:36.770
place.
00:30:36.770 --> 00:30:37.919
So I can't imagine.
00:30:37.919 --> 00:30:46.182
how someone outside of my scope would feel.
00:30:46.182 --> 00:30:51.327
And I didn't ask for permission for this, but I'm going to do it anyway.
00:30:51.327 --> 00:30:55.053
My dad actually comes from hardship.
00:30:55.053 --> 00:31:09.633
And I was in my 30s before he actually started to talk about what his hardship was and about the people who cared for him and the cafeteria lady that would meet him at the end of the day at the back door and hand him food so that he would have food.
00:31:10.213 --> 00:31:10.493
Yeah.
00:31:10.690 --> 00:31:22.925
that evening and sitting in my home, having never gone without a meal in my life, staring at my dad in disbelief, like this could not have been the way for you.
00:31:22.925 --> 00:31:24.327
This could not have been your path.
00:31:24.327 --> 00:31:25.288
I don't understand this.
00:31:25.288 --> 00:31:26.570
How did you become this person?
00:31:26.570 --> 00:31:29.315
And I do believe that part of it is who he is.
00:31:29.315 --> 00:31:32.659
I think another part of it is his faith.
00:31:32.659 --> 00:31:45.722
And then I think it is the people who poured into him, the cafeteria lady, his foster parents, his That is what helped him get to that place.
00:31:45.722 --> 00:31:47.810
But sometimes it's unfathomable for me.
00:31:49.538 --> 00:31:54.301
Yeah, and I see that with our kids and I just keep thinking, I just wanna uplift you.
00:31:54.301 --> 00:31:55.542
I just wanna bring you in.
00:31:55.542 --> 00:32:01.969
I wanna tell you that you matter over and over and over again, that you're important to me.
00:32:01.969 --> 00:32:02.890
That's all I can do.
00:32:02.890 --> 00:32:08.213
I don't wanna be like, oh, you're important to the world because little kids can read through that.
00:32:08.213 --> 00:32:11.277
Even though we know they are, they don't feel that.
00:32:11.277 --> 00:32:14.640
It's more like it's got to be in their scope.
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:17.162
Like you are important to me.
00:32:17.162 --> 00:32:19.223
You matter so much to me.
00:32:19.223 --> 00:32:23.607
And saying that over, yeah, it's been eye-opening.
00:32:23.607 --> 00:32:29.273
I like to say, you know, I saw some of your questions about, you know, like the dance company and all of that.
00:32:29.273 --> 00:32:31.135
And I loved choreographing.
00:32:31.135 --> 00:32:33.038
I love being creative like that.
00:32:33.038 --> 00:32:37.643
But this is the biggest dance I have ever choreographed in my life.
00:32:37.643 --> 00:32:44.651
To me, being in this community and we have kind of like, we're very local.
00:32:44.651 --> 00:32:47.513
We're in two elementary schools and one middle school.
00:32:47.513 --> 00:32:52.799
I mean, the ultimate dream would be to be in the four elementary schools and the middle school.
00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:55.162
We're not as interested in being in the high school.
00:32:55.162 --> 00:32:57.084
We would like to, but that's a lot.
00:32:57.084 --> 00:33:14.221
But if we could be in the four schools with an art and EQ program and then move into the middle school so that these kids have nine years of arts and emotional intelligence training, I feel like we could shift a community.
00:33:14.221 --> 00:33:18.807
And we could, then going back to your question, these kids have lived it.
00:33:18.807 --> 00:33:20.568
They know how to solve it.
00:33:20.568 --> 00:33:28.978
They're going to be like, it's kind of like if you've had a problem and you solve it on your own, if you've been there, it's like that experience, strength and hope.
00:33:28.978 --> 00:33:29.798
They've been there.
00:33:29.798 --> 00:33:31.840
They've had that experience.
00:33:31.840 --> 00:33:33.083
They got out of it.
00:33:33.083 --> 00:33:34.183
And this is what worked.
00:33:34.183 --> 00:33:36.125
Because there's times where I'm similar.
00:33:36.125 --> 00:33:38.428
My father, very similar story.
00:33:38.428 --> 00:33:41.371
And I never had a want.
00:33:41.371 --> 00:33:48.699
He took care of me because he pulled himself up by the non-existent bootstraps and got himself through.
00:33:48.699 --> 00:33:53.463
And really came from, you know, a lot of hardship like your father.
00:33:53.463 --> 00:33:59.471
And so I can't say to the kids, you know, we can do this because I didn't have to.
00:33:59.471 --> 00:34:00.271
Right.
00:34:00.271 --> 00:34:01.573
I see how they live.
00:34:01.573 --> 00:34:03.355
I pick these kids up.
00:34:03.355 --> 00:34:06.959
I see what they have and what they don't have.
00:34:06.959 --> 00:34:09.360
You know, all of that.
00:34:09.360 --> 00:34:12.724
And there's a part of me that's like, I don't know if I could.
00:34:12.724 --> 00:34:15.487
I don't know if I could pull myself through that.
00:34:15.487 --> 00:34:20.333
So what I need to just say is like, let me just Keep giving you the tools.
00:34:20.333 --> 00:34:21.715
Okay, here's the tool.
00:34:21.715 --> 00:34:22.536
Here's the pencil.
00:34:22.536 --> 00:34:23.398
Oh, you might throw it down.
00:34:23.398 --> 00:34:24.398
Here it is again.
00:34:24.398 --> 00:34:25.400
Oh, you might throw it down.
00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:41.268
And then trying not to judge or condemn them, their parents, their parents' parents, because that is the history books of that is not being written and is being taken out.
00:34:41.268 --> 00:34:53.938
I know that they don't want us to know about systemic poverty and why certain races are struggling because of what we did many, many years ago.
00:34:53.938 --> 00:34:59.503
I mean, it really, we have to look at that and I'm seeing it firsthand in the work.
00:34:59.503 --> 00:35:09.092
And so I have to teach these kids creativity because I want them to be creative because I think, again, going back to, we're not our resume, we're all equal.
00:35:09.092 --> 00:35:10.353
We're all even.
00:35:10.353 --> 00:35:11.835
We need equity.
00:35:11.835 --> 00:35:12.735
We need equity.
00:35:12.735 --> 00:35:14.438
And these kids, I love them so much.
00:35:14.438 --> 00:35:19.282
And I want them to have an equitable life, but they have to do it.
00:35:19.282 --> 00:35:23.568
I can give them the tools if I even have them, but it's up to them.
00:35:23.568 --> 00:35:23.628
It
00:35:25.190 --> 00:35:25.449
is.
00:35:25.449 --> 00:35:37.742
So in the season one, we are talking, and we mentioned this word earlier, we are really focusing on the idea of resilience and how dance education, arts education can help to empower resilience.
00:35:37.742 --> 00:35:44.990
So So my questions are, how have you witnessed resilience in this community that you're building?
00:35:44.990 --> 00:35:51.697
And what have you witnessed in the young people you work with and their ability to endure, to persevere?
00:35:51.697 --> 00:35:51.737
I
00:35:54.179 --> 00:36:03.510
had to really think on that because am I witnessing it?
00:36:06.893 --> 00:36:06.974
Yeah.
00:36:07.938 --> 00:36:14.117
I think The importance of art and social emotional learning is critical.
00:36:14.117 --> 00:36:25.286
So in the knowledge that in the emotional intelligence units that we do, we have one that's called parts of the brain and we teach parts of the emotional brain.
00:36:25.286 --> 00:36:27.909
That is what we are teaching.
00:36:27.909 --> 00:36:34.255
And I mean, basic rundown of prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus.
00:36:34.255 --> 00:36:49.407
We do a little bit about the corpus callosum and we do do a lot about the vagus nerve because I'm doing a ton of reading about low vagal nerve tonification, especially in children of poverty.
00:36:49.407 --> 00:36:50.188
Huge.
00:36:50.188 --> 00:36:52.231
Their tonification is awful.
00:36:52.231 --> 00:36:53.030
They don't sleep well.
00:36:53.030 --> 00:36:53.911
They don't eat well.
00:36:53.911 --> 00:36:55.373
There's not a lot of joy.
00:36:55.373 --> 00:37:01.498
And so the mind-body connection can be really harsh.
00:37:01.498 --> 00:37:04.802
So we're kind of looking at that and maybe sometimes non-existent.
00:37:04.802 --> 00:37:09.706
But what we teach to our kids over and over is really basic.
00:37:09.706 --> 00:37:11.880
Prefrontal cortex, I have a plan.
00:37:11.880 --> 00:37:13.800
Hippocampus, I remember that.
00:37:13.800 --> 00:37:16.302
Amygdala or watch out.
00:37:16.302 --> 00:37:21.447
And we teach them over and over that the amygdala likes to steal oxygen.
00:37:21.447 --> 00:37:23.690
It really likes to take that in.
00:37:23.690 --> 00:37:30.755
So what we're trying to do, again, in going to that I matter, is also I can regulate myself.
00:37:30.755 --> 00:37:32.577
That's one of the questions we ask them.
00:37:32.577 --> 00:37:35.539
One of them in our survey, we say, do you matter?
00:37:35.539 --> 00:37:38.382
Do all emotions, are all emotions equal?
00:37:38.382 --> 00:37:42.166
Which is yes, we want them to say yes, because it's okay to be mad.
00:37:42.166 --> 00:37:43.847
I just can't take it out on you.
00:37:43.847 --> 00:37:47.632
And also, can you regulate yourself?
00:37:47.632 --> 00:37:50.835
And the kids do this, this, or this.
00:37:50.835 --> 00:37:52.336
It's a very simple survey.
00:37:52.336 --> 00:38:17.443
And so what we are trying to teach them, again, in our incentives or in our evidence, our evidence-based, is if we can be in these schools, like imagine 10 years from now, we're in these four schools teaching the arts, which organically bring in SEL and all the things we talked about, and emotional intelligence, which brings out the knowledge that they're learning in classes in a very frontal way.
00:38:17.443 --> 00:38:23.951
The idea is our amygdala, when set off, steals all the oxygen.
00:38:23.951 --> 00:38:27.213
Well, our prefrontal cortex needs our oxygen.
00:38:27.213 --> 00:38:28.655
It's that basic.
00:38:28.655 --> 00:38:34.362
Like you can see it in the brain that if I get scared, I do this and it all goes to the amygdala.
00:38:34.362 --> 00:38:37.865
And the last thing I'm going to do is plan accordingly.
00:38:37.865 --> 00:38:41.469
You know, oh my God, there's a fire I don't know what to do kind of thing.
00:38:41.469 --> 00:38:48.117
So what we're trying to teach them is how to, okay, wait, let me just breathe here.
00:38:48.117 --> 00:38:50.498
What can I do to get back to here?
00:38:50.498 --> 00:38:56.846
So that's all true if it is a fire or I see a snake or something like that.
00:38:56.846 --> 00:39:09.699
But if it's an emotional reaction, that email that comes in, that TikTok that they see, that Instagram post, something along those lines, because that's what these kids are dealing with right now.
00:39:09.699 --> 00:39:16.793
that comes in and she said, she said something about me and the whole class knows about it.
00:39:16.793 --> 00:39:19.978
This is going to happen.
00:39:19.978 --> 00:39:22.541
Or I might have that memory.
00:39:22.541 --> 00:39:29.067
You know, I'm also learning that trauma in the hippocampus functions very differently.
00:39:29.067 --> 00:39:33.349
So say very, you know, kind of very hypothetical situation.
00:39:33.349 --> 00:39:36.452
When I was, you know, 16, I was jumped.
00:39:36.452 --> 00:39:44.519
And the way that holds in my brain is if somebody comes up behind me, it's not just like, I was joking around.
00:39:44.519 --> 00:39:45.860
I go into that.
00:39:45.860 --> 00:39:47.282
The trauma holds onto it.
00:39:47.282 --> 00:39:48.943
It goes into my amygdala.
00:39:48.943 --> 00:39:51.449
And then the first thing I want to do is run or...
00:39:51.449 --> 00:39:55.565
flight, fight, or whatever.
00:39:55.565 --> 00:39:55.965
Yeah.
00:39:55.965 --> 00:39:57.286
Freeze.
00:39:57.286 --> 00:39:58.646
Yeah.
00:39:58.646 --> 00:39:59.288
So freeze.
00:39:59.288 --> 00:39:59.507
Yeah.
00:39:59.507 --> 00:40:00.768
I was like, what's the third one?
00:40:00.768 --> 00:40:08.695
So we're trying to teach our kids how to utilize their brain in a art.
00:40:08.695 --> 00:40:10.978
I mean, we don't utilize our brains that way, Amy.
00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:19.965
I'm sitting here thinking about my own reactions because I tend to be quite reactive.
00:40:19.965 --> 00:40:21.206
I live in my emotions.
00:40:21.206 --> 00:40:59.427
I allow my emotions to flow through me and I become reactive to the point where it will take over my entire thought process and I will shut down and I will go inward and it can be quite disruptive and so I'm actually working now of how do I not allow that in and again I'm sitting here thinking mind blown I'm a grown person I'm in my 40s and I'm struggling with this and I can't imagine what that young person is trying to, to wrap their minds around.
00:40:59.427 --> 00:41:08.757
But then again, thinking if I would have had these tools at a young age, would I be grappling with this now?
00:41:08.797 --> 00:41:25.594
And that's what I said when Gayla kind of, you know, was teaching us this, I had the same kind of like aha experience of like, this needs to be, I mean, so there's a school that I do follow and the first five weeks of their school, this is all they teach.
00:41:25.594 --> 00:41:34.465
They do a five-week starter program on social emotional learning, emotional intelligence.
00:41:34.465 --> 00:41:37.047
And the basic is they have a mood meter.
00:41:37.047 --> 00:41:40.150
Here's red, blue, green, and yellow.
00:41:40.150 --> 00:41:48.980
And as simple as it is, if I know where I'm in, if I am yellow, but I'm yellow jittery, I'm not going to get anything done.
00:41:48.980 --> 00:41:51.001
So everyone's like, oh, you're so up, Jane.
00:41:51.001 --> 00:42:03.695
And I'm like, no, I'm actually I'm actually borderline anxiety, you know, or if I'm in that, you know, furious zone, am I going to take it out on, you know, God bless my dear husband, you know, is he going to get it?
00:42:03.695 --> 00:42:09.202
And so it's that, it's that ownership of like, all these emotions are important.
00:42:09.202 --> 00:42:10.302
I need to have that.
00:42:10.302 --> 00:42:12.184
But how do I manage them?
00:42:12.184 --> 00:42:18.652
And then the man, I mean, like at school, we have this superhero that lives inside of all of us called Captain Breath.
00:42:18.652 --> 00:42:41.737
And Captain Breath lives inside of us and tells us that 10 breaths or less will calm me down, move me from my amygdala or my trigger from the hippocampus that goes into my amygdala and makes it so that the next thing I'm going to do is hit Johnny next to me because I'm triggered or he took my pencil and you don't take my pencil kind of thing.
00:42:41.737 --> 00:42:43.858
Cause my dad told me I need to stick up for myself.
00:42:43.858 --> 00:42:46.280
No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, you know?
00:42:46.280 --> 00:42:49.885
And then, so there's like all this language that we're using.
00:42:49.885 --> 00:42:55.210
Um, and it's, you know, and I, I would say to myself, where was I when I was in
00:42:59.355 --> 00:43:13.230
fifth grade?
00:43:13.230 --> 00:43:50.110
to be able to say what are my options now I can think clearly now I can have forward motion I can get through this and then with with the the power of the matter of I matter and that I'm important and I'm of value the encouragement that I am understanding that comes through that is then the young person is empowered to make a choice
00:43:51.090 --> 00:43:51.291
right
00:43:51.650 --> 00:43:56.119
that's going to help them to move forward in that space.
00:43:56.119 --> 00:43:56.764
It just...
00:43:56.764 --> 00:43:59.523
That's incredible.
00:43:59.523 --> 00:43:59.963
I'm learning so much.
00:43:59.963 --> 00:44:00.364
Yes.
00:44:01.105 --> 00:44:02.206
That's a brain dance.
00:44:02.206 --> 00:44:04.286
Like it has to kind of learn to go around.
00:44:04.286 --> 00:44:10.532
And then it goes from that me, we, them idea that we're trying to get the kids to do.
00:44:10.532 --> 00:44:21.262
So like we, you know, what we're trying to do is kind of over and over keep saying these same phrases, especially when they're young, because then it becomes like a jingle.
00:44:21.262 --> 00:44:24.244
Like we have a song like, who's in charge of my brain?
00:44:24.244 --> 00:44:26.427
I'm in charge of my brain.
00:44:26.427 --> 00:44:28.047
Like, so the kids, like I have kids.
00:44:28.047 --> 00:45:01.949
gardens they see me and i'm pavlov's dog and as soon as they see me they start to sing it or i have little ones that just start rubbing their hands together because that's the beginning of of dolphin bread so if they're thinking that way yay that's exactly what we want and it's it is you know i mean think about how we learn dance movement so it's that same kind of like chunking it together like it's the phrase of emotional intelligence that we're trying to do you
00:45:02.753 --> 00:45:03.994
This is a lot for me to take in.
00:45:03.994 --> 00:45:05.916
I'm going to be very honest.
00:45:05.916 --> 00:45:15.505
Like I'm learning so much about this and it's just, there's a certain aspect of it that's a little overwhelming, a little overwhelming because you don't know what you don't know.
00:45:15.505 --> 00:45:22.831
And so learning this information, learning where these students are coming from and kind of the differences.
00:45:22.831 --> 00:45:25.594
I work primarily in higher education now.
00:45:25.594 --> 00:45:32.719
I, when I was, when I was a young person in my, in my early twenties, I don't know.
00:45:32.719 --> 00:45:59.268
That's why I say that laughing.
00:45:59.268 --> 00:46:13.784
just looking at classroom management as a young 20-something year old and not even thinking about these young students as humans.
00:46:13.784 --> 00:46:19.469
And a lot of times we dismiss the young people, you know, well, they don't know yet.
00:46:19.469 --> 00:46:20.391
They don't know yet.
00:46:20.391 --> 00:46:23.333
And there's like almost a dismissal of them.
00:46:23.333 --> 00:46:57.927
And what I find really fascinating is incorporating these concepts at such a young age so that they will learn them and have them for lack of better words embedded in them by the time they get to the to the full brain capacity of being able to make these big life decisions exactly that impacts them and it just it makes me wish that i had this information sooner earlier But I can't go back.
00:46:57.927 --> 00:46:59.068
I can only go forward.
00:46:59.068 --> 00:47:07.195
So if I'm going to be working with young people moving forward, I think it's important that we start to acknowledge that they're not just tiny humans.
00:47:07.195 --> 00:47:08.615
They are a design of their own.
00:47:08.615 --> 00:47:11.318
Their brains work differently.
00:47:11.318 --> 00:47:13.380
Their bodies work differently.
00:47:13.380 --> 00:47:15.322
The way they see the world is different.
00:47:15.322 --> 00:47:18.105
And it's not because they don't know.
00:47:18.105 --> 00:47:20.286
They're going to know as they experience that.
00:47:20.286 --> 00:47:26.972
But there are things that we can start to, again, that we're in a bed.
00:47:26.972 --> 00:47:28.134
It's like programming.
00:47:29.034 --> 00:47:29.875
Yeah.
00:47:29.875 --> 00:47:31.016
And it is interesting.
00:47:31.016 --> 00:47:33.659
To me, it's like a commercial jingle.
00:47:33.659 --> 00:47:41.347
I think of jingles that I knew from years ago, double your pleasure, double your fun, with double mint, double mint, double mint gum.
00:47:41.347 --> 00:47:46.612
But it's that same idea that sometimes it's not even the concepts that they're learning.
00:47:46.612 --> 00:47:49.416
It's just the rote information that goes in.
00:47:49.416 --> 00:47:58.346
And then as the brain develops, because of course our prefrontal cortex doesn't fully develop till 25 for girls, 27 for boys.
00:47:58.346 --> 00:48:11.539
So with that going on, I do look back because now somebody who I'm 62 going back, because I'll look at the kids and go, will this matter?
00:48:11.539 --> 00:48:15.143
And then I think of all of the input that my parents did.
00:48:15.143 --> 00:48:17.565
And yes, it will.
00:48:17.565 --> 00:48:20.048
I know it will at different times.
00:48:20.048 --> 00:48:24.753
In all honesty, I hope that they live because some of them live in very harsh neighborhoods.
00:48:24.753 --> 00:48:26.115
I just want them to get out.
00:48:26.115 --> 00:48:31.641
But But again, to me, it's like, I'm fighting poverty of experience.
00:48:31.641 --> 00:48:34.905
I'm like, I can't fight poverty.
00:48:34.905 --> 00:48:35.726
I don't have any money.
00:48:35.726 --> 00:48:38.268
I can't give you all a million dollars and say, here's a house.
00:48:38.268 --> 00:48:41.311
But what I want to fight is poverty of experience.
00:48:41.311 --> 00:48:42.652
And that is by education.
00:48:42.652 --> 00:48:43.853
It is about knowing.
00:48:43.853 --> 00:48:45.797
It is about putting desire into kids.
00:48:45.797 --> 00:48:48.398
It is about letting them know that they matter.
00:48:48.398 --> 00:48:49.440
And then you're right.
00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:50.922
It's forward momentum.
00:48:50.922 --> 00:48:52.302
I can't look back right now.
00:48:52.302 --> 00:48:55.126
I've got to push you forward, forward, forward.
00:48:55.126 --> 00:49:00.996
It is like, and the other thing we know is every time we leap, we don't just sleep, we go and then we leap.
00:49:00.996 --> 00:49:02.858
So we have to take that breath.
00:49:02.858 --> 00:49:05.182
Captain
00:49:05.222 --> 00:49:05.483
breath.
00:49:05.483 --> 00:49:06.644
Captain breath.
00:49:06.644 --> 00:49:07.827
I'm going to take
00:49:07.867 --> 00:49:08.027
that.
00:49:08.027 --> 00:49:12.755
I have a gold cape and then I have this hat that next time I'm on, I'll bring it for you.
00:49:12.755 --> 00:49:14.679
I'll send a picture of a kid in it.
00:49:14.679 --> 00:49:16.302
Yes, please do.
00:49:16.302 --> 00:49:19.686
And the things go, if you squeeze, the ears go...
00:49:19.686 --> 00:49:22.603
So the kids love it.
00:49:22.603 --> 00:49:25.465
They do 10 breaths, you know, giggling the whole time.
00:49:25.465 --> 00:49:25.885
It's not the
00:49:25.925 --> 00:49:26.405
best breathing.
00:49:26.405 --> 00:49:32.070
But does it, laughter does, it forces us to inhale.
00:49:32.070 --> 00:49:33.592
It does, it forces us to breathe.
00:49:33.592 --> 00:49:34.954
Part of the
00:49:35.353 --> 00:49:39.478
nerve tonification is laughter and singing out loud, sing out loud every day.
00:49:39.518 --> 00:49:40.998
Okay.
00:49:40.998 --> 00:49:41.659
I got that one.
00:49:41.659 --> 00:49:42.400
Yeah.
00:49:42.400 --> 00:49:43.101
Sorry.
00:49:43.101 --> 00:49:53.570
So Jane, what would you like for our audience to know and understand about art at and emotional education.
00:49:53.570 --> 00:49:59.115
Like how can parents and educators incorporate more of this into their practices and their daily routines?
00:50:00.557 --> 00:50:08.847
Yeah, I really think in looking at, and this might be really bold statement, and I was a performance artist and COVID really changed me.
00:50:08.847 --> 00:50:10.789
COVID really changed.
00:50:10.789 --> 00:50:19.898
And I, you know, I came to the decision, it was time for me to close the company and I loved performing and I loved choreography, but it really changed me.
00:50:19.898 --> 00:50:26.264
I think sometimes people see that performative is here and the education of the performance is below.
00:50:26.264 --> 00:50:28.067
That it's a below thing.
00:50:28.067 --> 00:50:36.396
And in being in the schools and watching our frontline teachers work, I feel like performance is beautiful.
00:50:36.396 --> 00:50:37.617
It's amazing.
00:50:37.617 --> 00:50:39.860
I love to go to great symphonies.
00:50:39.860 --> 00:50:43.864
I love to go see great dance companies and plays and all of that.
00:50:43.864 --> 00:50:45.746
Performance and art is all around.
00:50:45.746 --> 00:50:50.550
But the highest part of our form is the teaching of it.
00:50:50.550 --> 00:50:54.175
It is bringing it to our next generation.
00:50:54.175 --> 00:51:00.782
And of course, as we're up against all this NEA cuts and everything like that, we are the storytellers.
00:51:00.782 --> 00:51:04.286
And it's not just telling it on stage.
00:51:04.286 --> 00:51:07.528
Sometimes it may be to three children.
00:51:07.528 --> 00:51:11.793
It might be to a class of 12 kindergartners.
00:51:11.793 --> 00:51:19.302
And that is as important as these high, high, high level performances.
00:51:19.302 --> 00:51:22.605
And as somebody that I I lived to win a Bessie.
00:51:22.605 --> 00:51:24.947
I lived to be a performer.
00:51:24.947 --> 00:51:26.469
I lived for all of that.
00:51:26.469 --> 00:51:28.231
And that has shifted in me.
00:51:28.231 --> 00:51:31.574
Now, maybe it's because I can't do it anymore, but really it is.
00:51:31.574 --> 00:51:38.943
I feel like it is such a higher calling to go in and to boost.
00:51:38.943 --> 00:51:42.907
I mean, the power of arts education is extreme.
00:51:42.907 --> 00:51:44.869
It is like this golden ball.
00:51:44.869 --> 00:51:45.969
That's like this.
00:51:45.969 --> 00:51:49.253
I always think of that kidditch or whatever in Harry Potter.
00:51:49.253 --> 00:51:51.215
It's like that thing that goes like that.
00:51:51.215 --> 00:51:53.699
It can go all over and it just lights up.
00:51:53.699 --> 00:51:58.344
And when a child, and a lot of times kids think art is easy.
00:51:58.344 --> 00:52:00.905
Art should be fun, but art is not easy.
00:52:00.905 --> 00:52:11.757
And when that kid all of a sudden understands it, like swallows it and that gold comes out of them, I don't think there's any way that they can turn themselves off.
00:52:11.757 --> 00:52:14.000
I feel like they can just go and go and go.
00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:16.262
Of course, we need to support them with it.
00:52:16.262 --> 00:52:25.271
So I think what I want our audiences to know is, how important social emotional learning is.
00:52:25.271 --> 00:52:26.353
It is key.
00:52:26.353 --> 00:52:29.416
I feel like it trumps math and reading.
00:52:29.416 --> 00:52:32.599
Well, maybe not reading, but it's equal.
00:52:32.599 --> 00:52:34.081
It's equal to all of them.
00:52:34.081 --> 00:52:36.644
It cannot be displaced, nor can the arts.
00:52:36.644 --> 00:52:40.369
They have to be in our school if we are going to have whole children.
00:52:41.829 --> 00:52:42.451
Yeah.
00:52:42.451 --> 00:52:45.474
We've been talking about the whole person paradigm.
00:52:46.275 --> 00:52:46.454
Right.
00:52:46.454 --> 00:52:48.496
And if you can't teach, support it.
00:52:48.496 --> 00:52:49.617
Yes.
00:52:49.617 --> 00:52:59.588
Because not everybody's a teacher, but make sure our teachers are being supported, vote for people who give teachers raises, and vote for people who put arts with our kids.
00:53:00.369 --> 00:53:00.849
Absolutely.
00:53:00.849 --> 00:53:08.559
Jane, thank you so much for bringing your mission and vision for youth education and the importance of art education to our audience.
00:53:08.559 --> 00:53:12.463
I have a feeling that they will be shifted and changed because I know that I am.
00:53:12.463 --> 00:53:15.626
And like I said, I've learned so much from this conversation.
00:53:15.626 --> 00:53:18.309
And now I'm just thinking of what can I do?
00:53:18.309 --> 00:53:19.831
What's my forward motion now?
00:53:19.831 --> 00:53:21.512
Because when you know better, you do better.
00:53:21.512 --> 00:53:24.755
So now that I have this information, what is my forward motion?
00:53:24.755 --> 00:53:27.878
What are the choices that I can make now?
00:53:27.878 --> 00:53:30.402
What are the possibilities now that I have this information?
00:53:30.402 --> 00:53:33.045
So thank you so much for bringing it to us.
00:53:33.045 --> 00:53:38.110
And we do end each one of our episodes with our rapid round.
00:53:38.110 --> 00:53:41.793
And this is kind of our thread line for season one.
00:53:41.793 --> 00:53:48.300
So I'm going to ask that as quickly as you can, but no rush, you can finish these two sentences.
00:53:48.300 --> 00:53:50.884
Number one is resilience is.
00:53:50.884 --> 00:53:53.286
Important,
00:53:54.186 --> 00:53:58.791
amazing, and sometimes we have to dig very deep to find it.
00:54:02.376 --> 00:54:02.456
Yeah.
00:54:02.456 --> 00:54:03.637
And dance has taught me.
00:54:06.661 --> 00:54:17.251
Dance has taught me the power and the equity for all that we all have.
00:54:17.251 --> 00:54:20.295
The power of it and that it makes us all equal.
00:54:20.295 --> 00:54:25.661
And we should all, all, all, all be dancing on a regular basis.
00:54:25.661 --> 00:54:30.146
And myself included, I'm trying to get back to flamenco.
00:54:31.246 --> 00:54:32.208
And what that means.
00:54:32.208 --> 00:54:40.135
And I think not to start going off on another tangent, but this idea of one of our missions here is to help people define what dance is for them.
00:54:40.135 --> 00:54:43.420
Because for some of us, it means a professional career.
00:54:43.420 --> 00:54:44.820
For some of us, it does not.
00:54:44.820 --> 00:54:50.927
But in order for art to be for all of us, we have to erase some of those ideas.
00:54:50.927 --> 00:54:58.137
ideologies of what dance is and this idea of two left feet or whatever excuse that we give ourselves.
00:54:58.137 --> 00:55:02.302
And I like to say that if you're a moving, breathing being, you are a dancer.
00:55:02.302 --> 00:55:04.405
Yep.
00:55:04.405 --> 00:55:04.847
Yep.
00:55:04.907 --> 00:55:16.695
And also the knowledge that 72% less chance of Alzheimer's dementia if you dance on a Dance heels.
00:55:16.974 --> 00:55:17.155
Yeah.
00:55:17.155 --> 00:55:17.735
Dance heels.
00:55:17.735 --> 00:55:18.577
It's empowering.
00:55:19.119 --> 00:55:19.318
Yeah.
00:55:20.460 --> 00:55:25.027
Jane, thank you again for bringing all this knowledge and information to us.
00:55:25.027 --> 00:55:28.413
Saying thank you is not enough for me in this moment, but thank you.
00:55:29.655 --> 00:55:30.737
Well, thanks for having me.
00:55:30.737 --> 00:55:32.800
And we need that real cup of coffee soon.
00:55:32.800 --> 00:55:33.221
Okay.
00:55:33.581 --> 00:55:34.722
Yes, absolutely.
00:55:34.722 --> 00:55:43.340
Okay, I believe...
00:55:43.340 --> 00:55:46.284
Yep.
00:55:46.284 --> 00:55:48.666
I believe that we are...
00:55:48.666 --> 00:55:50.690
Nope, it's still saying it's recording.
00:55:51.050 --> 00:55:52.253
Yeah, it looks like it's still recording.
00:55:53.815 --> 00:55:54.775
Something went wrong.
00:55:54.775 --> 00:55:59.302
I'm not refreshing the page because it told me to do that before and I didn't do it.
00:55:59.302 --> 00:55:59.844
Okay.
00:56:02.467 --> 00:56:04.309
It looks like it's uploading, though, for you.
00:56:04.931 --> 00:56:05.251
Yeah.
00:56:05.251 --> 00:56:09.597
Everyone...
00:56:09.889 --> 00:56:15.068
We can say goodbye and record it and we can like cry and be really dramatic at the end.
00:56:15.108 --> 00:56:18.340
Well, actually, I'm being serious.
00:56:18.340 --> 00:56:25.143
I like cry because I, yeah, yes.
00:56:25.143 --> 00:56:29.465
I mean, it's just, I'm feeling quite emotional right now.
00:56:29.465 --> 00:56:30.387
It's,
00:56:30.447 --> 00:56:32.007
it's, it's big work.
00:56:32.007 --> 00:56:37.813
And you know, like when I, I mean, I keep saying that over and over, but it's the biggest thing I've ever done in my life.
00:56:37.813 --> 00:56:44.199
And I went out to coffee with a friend yesterday and, you know, it has gone further than Hopestone.
00:56:44.199 --> 00:56:52.134
I mean, we do our arts education classes and we do the emotional intelligence, but you know, I help with the library.
00:56:52.134 --> 00:56:55.166
We have a resource room because wraparound was canceled.
00:56:55.166 --> 00:56:58.668
We I helped with the fifth grade dinner dance.
00:56:58.668 --> 00:56:59.547
That was really fun.
00:56:59.547 --> 00:57:01.090
We do literacy night.
00:57:01.090 --> 00:57:02.010
They're helping.
00:57:02.010 --> 00:57:03.851
They're asking, you know, we have a garden now.
00:57:03.851 --> 00:57:06.454
We have a soccer team, like all of the things.
00:57:06.454 --> 00:57:17.164
And I just realized, you know, at this point in my life and I have no children and I have no grandchildren, although I have kind of like pseudo adopted a family, this really is my calling.
00:57:17.164 --> 00:57:23.688
And I'm so happy to be able to give because, you know, my friend Emily said, do you think you're spreading yourself too thin?
00:57:23.688 --> 00:57:24.789
And I said, yep.
00:57:24.789 --> 00:57:26.152
And I'm very aware of that.
00:57:26.152 --> 00:57:27.753
And It's what I want to do.
00:57:27.753 --> 00:57:29.577
It's actually my choice to do it.
00:57:29.777 --> 00:57:29.938
Yeah.
00:57:31.039 --> 00:57:31.239
So,
00:57:31.780 --> 00:57:32.101
you know.
00:57:32.101 --> 00:57:32.922
It's really incredible.
00:57:32.922 --> 00:57:34.105
I'll get you to come to the
00:57:34.425 --> 00:57:34.666
school.
00:57:34.666 --> 00:57:36.188
I'll get you to come to the school one day.
00:57:36.188 --> 00:57:39.775
I think, you know, you would really love meeting the kids.
00:57:39.775 --> 00:57:41.798
They're unbelievably special.
00:57:41.798 --> 00:57:51.213
Everybody that walks in that school goes, wow, you know, this is a hard school and there's something about being here.
00:57:51.213 --> 00:57:58.027
And that's just one of, you know, we were in several, but that's the one that really is like our flagship.
00:57:58.027 --> 00:58:00.893
So anyway, yeah.
00:58:01.121 --> 00:58:01.503
Okay.
00:58:01.503 --> 00:58:02.463
Thank you.
00:58:02.463 --> 00:58:08.831
I'm going to need to process all of this now, but thank you so much for giving me your time twice.
00:58:08.831 --> 00:58:09.713
Oh, that's okay.
00:58:09.713 --> 00:58:11.275
And making this happen.
00:58:11.275 --> 00:58:11.356
I'm
00:58:11.496 --> 00:58:15.862
glad we got this one to work because I think it's just so much easier for you too.
00:58:16.922 --> 00:58:17.463
It is.
00:58:17.463 --> 00:58:26.155
And I mean, I am perfectly okay that we did not talk about your choreographic career, even though I'm still inspired by it.
00:58:26.155 --> 00:58:27.197
We're going to bring it back.
00:58:27.197 --> 00:58:28.117
We're going to wrap around.
00:58:28.117 --> 00:58:29.739
We'll do it again soon, but.
00:58:29.739 --> 00:58:33.106
Yeah, this was important.
00:58:33.106 --> 00:58:34.773
This is exactly what it needed to be.
00:58:34.773 --> 00:58:35.918
So thank you very much.
00:58:35.918 --> 00:58:37.001
You got it.
00:58:37.001 --> 00:58:37.704
Okay.
00:58:37.704 --> 00:58:38.688
Have a blessed evening.
00:58:38.688 --> 00:58:39.552
Okay.
00:58:39.552 --> 00:58:39.893
You too.
00:58:39.893 --> 00:58:40.396
All right.
00:58:40.396 --> 00:58:40.918
Take care.
00:58:42.864 --> 00:58:43.005
Bye-bye.
00:58:43.425 --> 00:58:47.670
Thank you for joining us for this emotionally inspiring conversation.
00:58:47.670 --> 00:59:00.445
It took an unexpected turn as we bypass Jane's incredible performance and choreographic career and dive deep into her vision to unlock the innate creativity of children through arts education.
00:59:00.445 --> 00:59:10.036
You can find Jane and information about the Hope Project at hopestoneinc.org and direct links can be found in the show notes.
00:59:10.036 --> 00:59:18.871
Be sure to click subscribe and share with a friend or colleague and leave us a review on Spotify for a chance to win Dance Unscripted merch.
00:59:18.871 --> 00:59:25.742
We know you could have chosen any platform and you chose us and you chose dance.
00:59:25.742 --> 00:59:28.367
And for that, we are incredibly grateful.
00:59:28.367 --> 00:59:36.099
A special thank you to the Lamar University Center for Resiliency for making this season possible.