Creating community through song and dance – Variations on BrainDance themes: With Jennifer and Laurel Nikolai

About Jennifer Nikolai:

Associate Professor Jennifer Nikolai (PhD) is a performer, and performance studies scholar. Live, improvised and digital dramaturgical approaches inform her research objectives through improvisational inquiry in performance and community-based contexts. Nikolai’s research also addresses intergenerational arts engagement and dancing as lifelong, with a focus on active ageing through the arts. Nikolai leads a research group spanning physical activity, health and well-being with older adults; titled never2old, in the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ). She lectures and supervises Postgraduate students in the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at AUT University, Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand.

About Laurel Nikolai:

Laurel Nikolai is an Arts Educator who has taught students from pre-K through to graduate students. Her teaching career has spanned Canada, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Nikolai holds her Master of Education degree from the University of Alberta where she has taught courses in music and dance pedagogy. Nikolai is currently a music specialist with Edmonton Public school teaching K-6 students where she weaves movement seamlessly and organically with music in her practice. She is the movement instructor for the University of Alberta Orff Levels courses. Nikolai is the First-Vice-President of Carl Orff Canada and she looks forward to sharing her dedication to arts education with music and dance specialists across Canada.