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Keynote Address: Practical Steps in Communication and Collaboration Among Dancers, Educators, Researchers and Health Professionals
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Donna Krasnow |
Donna Krasnow is Professor Emerita and Senior Scholar in the Department of Dance at York University in Toronto where she taught modern dance based in Limón technique, composition and choreography, conditioning for dancers, dance kinesiology, prevention of dance injuries, motor learning for dance, and repertory. She has a distinguished career as a choreographer, performer, teacher, and researcher. In 1988, she founded the York Dance Ensemble, York University’s pre-professional repertory touring company, and has toured several times with this young company. In June 2002 she received the University-wide York University Excellence in Teaching Award. After retiring from York and moving to California, she taught in the Kinesiology Department at California State University Northridge and in the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at California Institute of the Arts.
Donna founded Dance Source in 1976, a professional training school in San Francisco, and was the artistic director for its resident company Möbius. In addition to performing as a company member or guest artist with such companies as Footloose, Northern Lights, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, she performed with the Daniel Lewis Repertory Dance Company in New York, and assisted Mr. Lewis in staging José Limón's classic works There Is A Time and A Choreographic Offering. She also toured and performed internationally as a solo artist. Donna has taught extensively in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan, including the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Calgary, Alberta, Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Canada, Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia, and Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences in Japan. She was head of the modern dance division at the Canadian Children's Dance Theatre (now Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre) in Toronto, Canada, and served as company rehearsal director for the CCDT company from 1988 to 2007. Donna specializes in dance science research, concentrating on dance injury prevention, conditioning and imagery for dancers, the adolescent dancer, psychological issues surrounding injury and dance training, and motor learning and motor control. She received her M.S. degree in dance science in 1994 from the University of Oregon, where she was the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Research Award. She received her Ph.D. in dance science in 2012 from the University of Wolverhampton in Birmingham, England. Her articles have been published in Medical Problems of Performing Artists; Journal of Dance Medicine & Science; Impulse: The International Journal of Dance Science, Medicine, and Education; Journal of Dance Education; Bulletin of Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences; Medecine des Arts; and Dance Research Journal. In 2007 she was guest editor for a special issue of the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science about motor learning issues in dance. From 2014 – 2016, Donna was the Associate Editor for Dance for Medical Problems of Performing Artists, the official journal of the Performing Arts Medicine Association. Donna also provides teacher training workshops in a wide variety of topics including dance conditioning and imagery work, injury prevention, alignment work, motor learning, and modern dance pedagogy. She has done residencies for faculty members at Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia, Cecchetti Ballet Australia, the Royal Academy of Ballet, the Society for Russian Ballet, Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Canada, and faculty seminars at York University. She was the conference director for the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) from 2004 to 2008, and has served on the Board of Directors for IADMS and for the Performing Arts Medicine Association. She has served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, the Journal of Dance Education, and Medical Problems of Performing Artists. Donna developed a specialized conditioning with imagery system for dancers called C-I Training™ that develops strength and flexibility for dancers and incorporates imagery and visualization work for alignment work and neuro-motor re-education. C-I Training is now taught internationally in schools and dance studios, and for the past ten years, she has offered certification courses for teachers in C-I Training at two levels, in addition to offering a three-set DVD series in the work. Information about Donna’s books, articles, DVD’s, and workshops can be found at www.citraining.com. Donna has published four books as author or editor. In 2010 she authored Conditioning with Imagery for Dancers, co-authored with Jordana Deveau, published by Thompson Educational Publishing in Toronto. She authored her PhD dissertation An Investigation of Grand Battement Devant at Barre, Centre and in Motion Using Kinematics and Electromyography, published by Lambert Academic Publishing. Donna authored the book Motor Learning and Control for Dance: Principles and Practices for Performers and Teachers, with co-author Dr. Virginia ("Ginny") Wilmerding, published by Human Kinetics in 2015. They also co-edited the book Dancer Wellness, a collaborative project with IADMS and two dozen authors, published by Human Kinetics in 2016, writing two chapters together in the book. Dr. Wilmerding is Donna’s long-time collaborator in research and writing, publishing 10 articles for various journals and organizations. She has also worked often with Dr. Lynda Mainwaring from the University of Toronto, on psychological issues and dancers. Donna is one of Healthy Dancer Canada's 10 founding members. |