Chelsea Branch » Ms. Branch's Biography

Ms. Branch's Biography

Chelsea Branch is from Fort Wayne, Indiana. She attended Hope College in Holland, MI and graduated with a BA in Dance Education K-12 and a minor in English Education. Chelsea worked at Hamilton Elementary School as the dance and yoga teacher. During her years at Hamilton, she designed and implemented a PK-8 dance curriculum centered around National Arts Standards that created opportunities for student creativity and voices. Chelsea worked closely with classroom teachers to build arts integrated units in literacy, math, and science. Additionally, she assisted in leading SEL initiatives that greatly improved the climate and culture for students. Mindfulness is a core value in Chelsea‘s work with students and she was trained by Mindful Schools. Chelsea is passionate about sharing yoga and is certified in Yoga Calm, Rainbow Kids Yoga, and became a RYT 200 yoga teacher through Marianne Wells Yoga School in Costa Rica. 

In her free time, Chelsea loves to read fiction and memoirs, cook (although she’s not very skilled yet), and is a professional dancer and choreographer. Chelsea co-owns The Rooted Space, a dance studio in North Center and serves as the Kids' Business Coach for Guppy Tank, a grant and mentorship program for young entrepreneurs.  

 
 

Posts

5th graders have started designing their costumes for the winter show. We used rubber bands last week to prepare our spiral shirts and will tie dye them tomorrow. 

Denita Inez & Dance Technique

The Dance Technique class was so lucky to have Denita Inez with us as our first guest choreographer! Come see her choreography, "Blaze," in the winter show on January 30th!

Junior High Dance Photoshoot

The General Dance class studied dance photographers in Q1 and have been hard at work planning, directing, and dancing and shooting their own dance photography sessions. Now we head into editing the shots that we took in the studio and Lerner Park! We can't wait to unveil the photos at the winter show on January 30th.

Flamingo Dances

In first grades we studied how flamingos traveled together and than had a ton of fun moving like them. Can you guess which animal we studied next based on the last video?

The Human Alphabet

Kindergarten studied a dance company called Pilobolus and a book they are featured in, The Human Alphabet. Then, we worked in partners to create the letters with our own bodies!
Second grade just started our first ballet unit and we have had fun learning French -> English translations of our favorite ballet vocabulary. This week, we started using flashcards to work on recognition. 
5th Grade is also learning to break dance alongside our tutting practice. One of the hallmarks of breaking is the "freeze" at the end of a battle dance. Check out Diesel's freeze. Just another reason for you to come see the Winter Show in January! 

Our First Tutting Experience

5th Grade learned a brand new tutting combination and are working to perfect it. We are excited to see if it makes it into our winter show dance piece!
Mr. Roper's class had their first ever STUFFIE day which worked out perfectly for our Mindful Kids Card of the Day: Tummy Ride! Our stuffies had the chance to introduce themselves and share why they are so special to their student. Then, they had a chance to go on a tummy ride to "breathe in waves of peace." Send me an email if you would like for me to share with you how to do Tummy Ride at home with your stuffies! 

My Magic Breath in K-2 Dance

Our students read the book "My Magic Breath" by Nick Ortner and Alison Taylor. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful illustrations by Michelle Polizzi while learning about how deep breaths can help turn our day into a happy one! Enjoy our artwork based on our interpretations of our own Magic Breath! We will no doubt use this skills in both every day life and to prepare for our performances throughout the year.
Dance Technique students (6-8th graders) worked to create SMART goals for themselves this semester in one of three categories: strength, length, or dance skills. This week, we benchmarked so that we can visualize our progress in December.