In 1992 and ’93, Norma Canner developed a creative dance workshop in Kansas for teachers, artists and therapists which took place in a wilderness environment and focused on our place in and connection to the natural world. This unique outdoor workshop transported a group of teachers, therapists and artists into a dramatic natural setting for the opportunity to experience creative expression and recapture a child’s sense of wonder. Through individual and group exploration, internal and external dialoguing with the self, others and the environment, viewers are able to join the group’s ability to play, discover and transform.

Through creative dance, song and other structured sensory experiences, participants explored the way place affects the very nature of the learning process and increased both their personal and group awareness of the integral connection between creativity and place. The video provides an opportunity to witness the creative spark between person and place as we trace the group’s journey through magnificent chalk cliffs that were carved by an ancient sea in Western Kansas.

Commentary by Anne Brownell.

This video was formerly included in the Expressive Media Arts Therapies Films Collection distributed by Expressive Media Inc.