Teaching Artists in Dance & Creativiy at Mark DeGarmo Dance

Mark DeGarmo Dance is a leading and innovative New York City nonprofit organization. Its evidence-based “Partnerships in Literacy through Dance & Creativity” program was deemed “a national model” by The National Endowment for the Arts. President Barack Obama commended Mark DeGarmo and Mark DeGarmo Dance for “your service to your community and the nation.” Miss America 2019 Nia Imani Franklin endorsed the program and the Manhattan Borough President declared November 17, “Mark DeGarmo Dance Day in Manhattan.”

MDD’s mission includes educate NYC communities, especially children; create, perform and disseminate original dances, artistic and scholarly work; and build intercultural community through dance. DeGarmo has created, and MDD has produced, over 100 dances and international tours in cultural diplomacy and exchange with 12 countries.

MDD’s evidence-based and scientifically researched education programs benefit under-resourced and disenfranchised Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Latinx, and other New York City prekindergarten to grade Title I public school students and communities without equal access to dance education. The organization annually serves up to 12 Title I public elementary schools, 1,000 students, and 100 teachers total across NYC’s 5 boroughs.

We seek outstanding results-oriented dance teaching artists experienced working in New York City’s Title I PreK-5 NYC public schools across Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The position is an excellent opportunity for passionate, skilled, and highly effective teaching artists to grow their professional teaching work over the longer term. Continual improvement of practice is an organization-wide goal and expectation. Teaching Artists in Dance & Creativity will report to the Executive & Artistic Director, Dr. Mark DeGarmo with support from MDD’s administrative and teaching artist team.

Responsibilities:

• Support Mark DeGarmo Dance’s vision, mission, core values, and programs.
• Be an ambassador for MDD and our programs in the field with our public elementary school communities.
• Participate in Mark DeGarmo Dance’s annual, paid Professional Learning Program.
• Design and organize age-appropriate skills-based and interdisciplinary programs of study (16 lessons) grounded in dance and the elementary curricula. 
• Write projected and actual lesson plans, meeting notes, assessments and evaluations.
• Implement MDD’s PreK-5 curricula.
• Facilitate collaborative team teaching with classroom teachers. 
• Create a safe and inclusive learning environment.
• Engage all PreK-5 students, including Multilingual Learners and Students with Disabilities.
• Guide students and teachers expertly through a dance learning process leading to outstanding final sharings and performances grounded in NYC DOE Blueprint for Dance (to which DeGarmo and MDD contributed).

Key Attributes:

Experienced

• Experienced in developing and channeling group dynamics for positive learning outcomes.
• Experienced and conversant in relational and restorative justice classroom management approaches to benefit our AAPI, BIPOC and Latinx students, families and communities.
• Skilled in grounding and designing teaching and learning in culturally relevant pedagogy.
• Successfully teaching under-resourced PreK-5 students in disenfranchised NYC Title 1 public schools and communities. 
• Teaching age-appropriate creative movement, dance skills, student self-directed improvisation and composition, and interdisciplinary inquiry projects during and after school. 
• Integrating learning standards and arts blueprints. 
• Highly motivated and motivating. 
• Open to learning and professional critique to improve practice and problem-solve in the field. 

Committed

• Demonstrates child-centered and inquiry-based teaching and learning methods.
• Serving students, teachers and communities similar to ours.
• Using differentiated and culturally responsive instruction. 
• Continually improving practice. 
• Supporting an organizational vision, mission, core values and programs similar to ours. 

Artistic Excellence

• Dance education grounded in professional artistry. 
• Choreography, improvisation, pedagogy, world dance forms and performance.
• International and intercultural exchange and communication. 

Education

• Higher education degree.
• Certifications of relevant learning.
• Professional experience equivalent to credentialing.

Professional

• Punctual; attention to detail and deadlines; and highly organized. 
• Empathic with strong classroom management. 
• Excellent communication and conflict resolution skills with children and adults.
• Creative problem solving and professional responsiveness-in-action. 

Qualifications

• Two to five years plus in dance education with at least one year teaching in similar communities.
• Demonstrated effective teaching NYC Title I public elementary students, including multilingual learners and students with disabilities.
• Gains students’ engagement through culturally responsive, differentiated, and restorative justice pedagogies.
• Experienced choreographer for PreK-5 students able to develop and integrate students’ original work via dance improvisation and composition for school- and community-wide sharings (AKA performances).
• Shown to engage co-teachers effectively in order to develop and sustain multi-year public school partnerships.
• Excellent writer with dance education planning, assessment, and evaluation experience.
• A Master’s degree or equivalent is a plus, especially in dance education and special education.
• Bilingual Arabic, Creole, Mandarin, Spanish or other multilingual skills with fluency a plus.

Compensation:

This is a part-time hourly permanent position with payroll benefits (W-2). Compensation is $25 per hour for writing lesson plans, reports, evaluations, staff meetings, and participating in the Professional Learning Program; $50 per class (or $67 per hour) as a base teaching and preparatory period rate at schools; and $75-$100+ per hour for special projects. Benefits include: paid professional development, paid disability payroll deduction, and local travel reimbursement. Special projects and New York City, national, and international networking and performance opportunities for your professional artistic growth are additional benefits to working on MDD’s team. This is a growth position with potential to advance within the organization. Successful candidates are dance professionals who seek permanent part-time employment with an established New York City dance organization with a research-based and evidence-based dance education program targeting Title I elementary schools.

Application Instructions:

Qualified candidates should email a cover letter with projected availability through August 2025; résumé; annotated list of three professional references, including from direct teaching supervisors with emails and telephone numbers and relationship to the candidate; video links of artistic work and and sample syllabus with overview of 10 lessons and 1-3 lessons in detail. Optional materials include: schedule of teaching for observation and video links of preK-5 in-person teaching work.

Email materials to: search@markdegarmodance.org

Complete applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until available positions are filled.

MARK DEGARMO DANCE IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, national origin, marital status, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, personal appearance, family responsibilities, political affiliation, or enrollment in a college, university, technical school, or adult education. All inquiries are kept confidential.