Therapeutic Dance-in-Education (TDIE) in partnership with Creative Movement Therapy Association of India (CMTAI)
The Therapeutic Dance-in-Education (TDIE) program was introduced to extend the use of dance and movement with children and young adults in schools and special education settings. This training program is extended to teachers, educators, special educators, and school counsellors, covering the various aspects of dance/movement therapy techniques and tools with an inclusion of a theoretical framework.
TDIE embodies an inclusive and nonjudgmental approach to using dance/movement, emphasizing a process-oriented perspective over performance outcomes. The program consists of 60-80 hours of training, complemented by shorter workshops tailored to the specific needs of educational institutions.
How it works:
Impact:
Since the launch of this program in 2017 in Delhi and Bengaluru, 85% of participants have successfully completed the longer-term TDIE program, with over 120 educators integrating their newfound knowledge and skills into school settings. Key benefits reported include:
- Implementation of multimodal classroom learning in participating schools
- Heightened empathy and understanding of students’ needs among participating teachers
- Increased student attention span and classroom participation
Moreover, TDIE workshops and shorter programs have been delivered to more than 1000 educators across various educational institutions in India. These initiatives have empowered individuals such as 175 women fellows of the Kaivalya Education Foundation’s Gandhi Fellowship and 120 facilitators of the Piramal Foundation, who work with rural populations. Additionally, partnerships with institutions like Amity University, Delhi Public School, and Helen O’Grady School have trained over 1000 educators to integrate movement into their teaching plans. To further advance TDIE in educational contexts, we collaborated with the Shikshantar Institute and UNESCO to establish the Indian Creativity Consortium.
Testimonials on how the program has helped educators
“Apart from using some of the exercises, I have tried to imbibe the philosophy. I have seen the direct benefits of personalizing learning, students learn faster, are more receptive and engaged, and take ownership of their learning! In every class, I make sure I use the structure that we were taught at the TDIE online program. Whenever I have started with a tune-in, the students have always been 100% more engaged.” – Primary school teacher in New Delhi
“From day 1, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the teaching and delivery and the in-depth knowledge of the instructors. The course helped me gain a better understanding of essential self-care practice as well as guiding others to be aware of self and emotions through dance and movement. The course has empowered me to help several students in class get comfortable with movement, sensory regulation, and learning Maths and English through movement and dance. In my additional role as a mental health first aider, I have been able to use my learning to self-regulate and strengthen myself to better help the staff colleagues around me. Thank you very much for the well-planned course, delivered beautifully by the talented and knowledgeable staff of CMTAI and Chaari Centre for Creative Movement Therapy.” – Sharada Sabu, Assistant Headteacher, Mental Health First aider in a special school in Cambridgeshire UK
“After going through the TDIE sessions, I have had a greater understanding of bringing DMT out of a therapy setting and taking it into a school setting. I could use activities like layering, movement building, rhythm, etc to focus on building body memory, counting, coordination, and so on with children from the ages of 6-12 in schools. And the best thing is to see children learning together while having fun.” – Dance Movement resource person at a school in Kerala.”