1.b. Interactive Gateway
Interactive Gateway (IG) is a curriculum and reconstruction program centering on internationally renowned choreographer Yvonne Rainer, her choreography Chair/Pillow and the postmodern dance movement. Rainer is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, notably two Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur Fellowship, seven NEA awards, and three Rockefeller Fellowships. The research brought together distinct communities of university dance education students and HS students and included four components: (a) the reconstruction of the historic dance, (b) the revision of the Labanotation score to include Rainer's notes and comments about the piece, (c) the investigation of the limits of webcasting workshops, rehearsals and performances thereby providing access to choreographer’s directives and improvisational strategies employed in the reconstruction of Rainer’s signature work Chair/Pillow and, (d) the production of an online high school dance curriculum and teachers guide with two DVDs. IG broke new educational ground by allowing students and teachers access to the world of the choreographer, dance notator, re-stager and performers (Parrish, 2003; Parrish, 2003; Parrish, 2005; Parrish, 2016-2018). Yvonne Rainer’s dance, Chair/Pillow, is a popular dance often reconstructed and taught in dance history classes. With substantive changes to digital and distributed media, in 2016-2018, Interactive Gateway’s teacher resources, curricula and website were revised, updated and posted online.
Student Support Statements of Interactive Gateway
“All movement can become dance, even the sway of a palm tree, a tennis match or a lady walking down the street.” --Carrie LeBaron
I really liked using words and visual imagery to think of movements. Writing things down is a great way to organize my ideas and remember things, and it is also true for recording movements. I plan to do more writing in the future when planning dances.” --Rachel Ryan
List of Research Publications
Parrish, M. (2010). Enhancing Accessibility:
Interactive Gateway Creating Online Curriculum for Dance Education.
In Overby and Lepczyk (Eds), Dance: Current Selected Research, Volume 7. AMS Press, Inc.
List of Research Presentations
Interactive Gateway.
Dance and the Child International Conference-
Coloring Senses, Moving, Creating, Observing Three Dimensions of the Dancing Child:
daCi, The Hague, Netherlands. Adjudicated. (July, 2006).
Interactive Gateway and process-based dance documentation
Guest Lecture
State University New York at Brockport. (October, 2005).
Interactive Gateway and mediated curriculum.
Guest Speaker Invited master class
The Ohio State University. Columbus Ohio. (February, 2005).
Interactive Gateway: Happenings in the Digital Classroom.
Presenter: Dr. Mila Parrish
Southwest American College Dance Festival. Scottsdale, Arizona. (March, 2004).
Interactive Gateway: Happenings in the Digital Classroom.
Presenter: Dr. Mila Parrish and Kathy Lindholm Lane
Winter Conference on Arts in Education. Tucson, Arizona. (April, 2003).
Interactive Gateway
Guest Artist - Invited Master Class
Temple University. (November, 2003).
Living History Yvonne Rainer and the 1960’s.
Lead Presenter: Dr. Mila Parrish with ASU graduate education students
Jennifer Walker, Nancy Happel and Apryl Seech
NDEO Annual Conference. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Adjudicated. (October, 2003).
Interactive Gateway.
Dance and the Child International - Breaking Boundaries: Dances, bodies and multiculturalism.
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. (with Kathy Lindholm Lane). Adjudicated. (August, 2003).
Interactive Gateway: Happenings in the Digital Classroom.
Presenter: Dr. Mila Parrish and Kathy Lindholm Lane
Winter Conference on Arts in Education. Tucson, Arizona. (April, 2003).