The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Maia
Welcome to the Casual Dance Teachers podcast. I'm your host, Maia. I am so excited that I get to share another special guest with you today. I have Maria Daniel here with me. She is the founder of iDance Ministry and Project Broken, among many other projects. And we're going to be talking about the intersection of dance education and dance ministry and how she's fused those two things through her work. Now, before I introduce Maria, I do want to give a quick trigger warning for this episode. Around 10 minutes and 50 seconds into the episode, we do have a conversation that centers a lot around mental health issues. Addiction, suicide, self-harm, depression are all mentioned at this point. So if you'd rather not hear that part of the conversation, you can step away around 10 minutes and 50 seconds into the episode.
You could pick back up around the 16-minute mark when we move on to some other topics. This is really integral to what Maria does, so it's an important part of the conversation, but I just wanted to give everybody a heads up ahead of time.

Now, I could probably do an entire episode that is just a summary of Maria's career and all of her many, many accolades, but let me give you just a small background about Maria Daniel, the founder of iDance Ministry and Project Broken. Maria has received five mayoral proclamations for her work through iDance and a 2023 joint resolution by the New Jersey Senate and Assembly for her meritorious record of service, leadership, and commitment as a dance educator who leverages the creative arts to benefit those impacted by mental health issues, addiction, and disabilities.
Maria Daniel also received a dance ministry of the year award, a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. volunteer award, a professional businesswoman of the year award, and a 2024 Dance New Jersey Community Impact Award in her capacity as a dance educator. Maria's notable choreography credits include Disney World, a hip-hop opera, the McDonald's Gospel Fest, the Wawa Welcome America Festival, Project Broken, an event for New York Fashion Week, a tribute to Mahalia Jackson in Philadelphia, Hershey Park performance, live performances for the Circle of Sisters New York Gospel Showcase, National Dance Week events, Philadelphia Christian Fashion Week, and an event at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Now, without further ado, welcome Maria. Thank you so much for being here.

Maria
Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure.

Maia
Oh, yeah, the pleasure is definitely all mine.
I have gotten a little bit into reading about your story, which is fascinating, and how you got to start iDance. Ministry and Project Broken. But for those listening, could we start by just having you tell me briefly a little bit about your story and what got you into doing this?

Maria
Absolutely. I am a dancer at heart. I'm a gifted dancer, and my mother noticed this gift at the age of four. But coming from a family of educators, dance was not considered a profession. So I became a lawyer, but I never stopped training. I never stopped dancing. I never stopped having that passion. It took literally having semi-paralysis for me to realize that life without law, I could deal with. But life without dance, it was suffocating.

So during that period, I had to accept the fact that while I had a profession, I was not walking in my calling. So that was the, as we say, come to Jesus moment. And instead of being the attorney who was a dancer, God told me I'm a dancer. And so that was the pivotal turning point. And that's what led me to found iDance Ministry. And the other thing is not only was it a moment of clarity for purpose, it was actually calling me out on why I was dancing. I was one of those people, if the camera was there, I'm dancing. I'm the captain. I'm on the 50. So it was always about I, I, I, I, I. So when this happened, I realized it's really not about me.

And that's why I dance has a lowercase I, because I literally had to decrease. And I had to refocus on dance is not about showing off my gift. It's about who can I impact. And that's why our motto is educate, elevate and impact others. So that's what led to us, me founding I dance ministry.

Maia
Wow, that's amazing. Can you tell me a little bit because I know I dance ministry kind of encompasses a lot. So can you break down a little bit of the different elements of what you do and what you offer?

Maria
Yes, on a macro level, what we do is we provide experiences for community members, students, and people of all abilities using dance.
And that includes our most popular offerings like the hip hop experience, we've done classes and workshops in things like contemporary dance, we do cover a lot of different styles, for the simple fact that we want to be show the diversity of dance. And we also want to provide that variety. We don't want to be known as the modern dance studio or the contemporary dance studio. We've done stepping, you know, and that's also why we do our National Dance Week event. I've had clogging, I've had, I've had a house dancer from Japan. I've had a Palestinian flamenco dancer. So we try very hard to show diversity of dance, not just through our offerings. The second thing we do is we mentor. It's important to me that we mentor our dancers.
They're not just bodies to fill spaces, to compete and to perform. So that's the secondary layer of what we do. And also, we want to provide our company members with experiences like our international exchanges, and like these collaborations that we do across disciplines.

Maia
So when you say company members, can you break down who is a company member and what they're doing versus someone that might just be taking a casual class with you?

Maria
Yes. So one of the reasons we do what we do is to give people the option. If you just want a casual experience with dance, even though you're going to get way more with us, we don't want this to be cumbersome. A lot of studios say you have to sign up from September to May. That's our season, take it or leave it. For us, we try to give them small experiences first, so they can actually explore dance in a safe environment. And we make it accessible. So hip hop is one of those things, which isn't true, but like, oh, anybody can do it. It really does have technique. It has a lot going on. But if you say come to a ballet class versus come to a hip hop class, I'm pretty sure more people will think at least that hip hop is easier, even though it's just as rigorous. So that's one of the things that I wanted to put out there. So we do provide those smaller experiences. Company members are with us all year long. They're the ones we mentor. They're the ones that we pour into.
Those are the ones we partner with outside of I Dance. I'm not one of those people that's like, you cannot go to another organization. You must be exclusively with us. I encourage that. In fact, I'm on the board of one of my dancers' organization who focuses on autism and dance. So we try to make this a broader family-type experience. And I know that's a toxic word I'm told in dance, but I can't pretend that we're not like family. When my dancers are hurt, I don't think of, 'oh my gosh', I have to replace you. I think that's your livelihood. What can I do? How can I support you? I'm just checking in. I don't care that you can't make 10 events. So those are company dancers and they're the face of I Dance. They're the ones that go on our mission trips. They're the ones that perform, co-create with me, and also attend our dancer retreats.

Maia
Very cool. So I'm curious because of the variety of different things that you offer. When you first started I Dance ministry, did it start as just a small seed or one thing and then branch into all of this? Or are you just that magical that you just made it all happen at once?

Maria
Well, believe it or not, I am one of those few dancers who knew early on at the age of eight, I was choreographing. So for me, I don't see dance as styles. When I dance, you'll see elements of career. You'll see elements of ballet. Someone will say, is that modern? I saw a little hip hop.
Is that dance hall? So for me, dance is holistic. So that being said, it's one of those things where when I started, I said, 'What is the easiest class to offer to bring a broader audience?' And what I have found is street styles, hip hop, dance, and breaking is that vehicle. So that's what I started. And then ironically, I was able to say, 'Let's try street jazz.' And then from street jazz, it's like, 'Let's go all out. Let's do Broadway jazz.' And you should have seen the fellas' faces. But because I had already started that relationship with them, when I said, 'Let's try a pirouette,' let's try Latin dance. Have you tried partner dancing? So as we started expanding, it was Intentional. I need to get bodies in the door. I need them to see what we offer and to see who I am and buy into what we're doing. We're trying to create dance as a safe space. We want it to be an authentic experience. And we also want to point you to the healing powers of just having arts engagement in your life. So that's what we do. Yeah. And that's how we got to hip hop to all these other things.

Maia
That's so cool. And it brings me right into the one project that I did want to talk a little bit more with you about, which is Project Broken. Can you give us a little background about what that's all about?

Maria
Yes. So Project Broken, the title was intentionally decided on because of the two letters, "OK," in the middle. And I wanted people to know, and I always tell my dancers, you're perfectly imperfect. So don't put pressure on yourself to be exactly perfect all the time. Allow for a little bit of a break. And if you're not, then you're not perfect. And if you're not, offer yourself to be what we say is human. So we all have things going on. That being said, what led to Project Broken is me noticing the struggles my students were going through, whether that was upper elementary, middle school, high school. I noticed some were struggling with bipolar. Some were struggling with depression. Some were autistic. Some had attempted suicide or were witnessing violence in the home. So I said, I'm not a therapist. But what can I do? As always, I look around and I said, let's dance. So we started using dance as that vehicle and outlet, but that led to COVID. After COVID, I said, I know now that I have to do what has been on my heart to do. And that is to provide a space to explore, to normalize and bring awareness to mental health, addiction, and disabilities. So literally, God laid it out as if, you know, if I wasn't an idiot, it was like, here you go. You don't have to guess. So I wanted this to be an experience like a journey. So I wanted people to see the process of us creating.

I wanted them to see how do you depict anxiety in an authentic way so it's not comical or it's, you know, it does justice to these serious conditions. And we used expressive dance, art which I love. We had an art exhibit and then involved the community. I'm very community centered. So we had students bring their art into the art exhibit and talk about their journeys with addiction. I mean, they're teenagers. They were talking about suicide, self-harm. And then we actually gave a live performance where we invited the community again and hosted simultaneously a resource fair. So if you were triggered, you could go outside. If you needed the resources, they were right there. And because of that, we are continuing in our workshops and exploration for next year as well.

Maia
That's so exciting. And I just want to stop real quick and say thank you for all the work that you're doing. I just think it's phenomenal. And I wish we had more of you. We could just duplicate you around the world. But for those of us who are in more of the traditional studio setting, I'm sure there's a lot of people that are in the traditional studio setting. Lots of parallels and things that we can take away. But there's limitations because I'm paid to teach ballet, modern. I got my one hour a week. So are there areas where you might be able to guide me to find those parallels and be maybe more socially conscious or tie in some of this work that you're doing in a weekly technique class?

Maria
Yes.
Believe it or not, when I taught pre-ballet and when I subbed sometimes for ballet, what we do is similar to like a cipher. So our check-ins are in circles and we're in tendu. And what we do is we kind of go around and do our check-ins, our SEL. We see where everyone's at. I used to have a ritual where before you come into this space, you'd have to curtsy and I'd have to ask, 'Are you ready to dance?' And that would give them a chance to say, 'You know what? I had a little thing on the way here. I need a moment.' So we would allow them to sit. And as a class, we would offer them a chance to sit and dance. And we would have them sit and dance.

We would all come together and ask, 'Are you ready to dance?' And if they weren't, we would say, 'It's okay.' And we just want to normalize. It's okay not to be okay. We are encouraging you to participate when you're ready. So you can still get those holistic aspects of SEL, as well as how can we invest in you as a person? And even in our end-of-class rituals, we ask them for their opinions. We let them go throughout the class and say, 'Hey, what are you feeling?' And one of the things with mental health is give them a space. Our project Broken Workshops uses all styles of dance. So that is still something you can use in your space. We give them prompts and we say, 'How can this movement depict anxiety?' Or we'll talk about wellness.

And of course it's age-appropriate. So we're not going to go into self-harm and suicidal tendencies with a four-year-old, but it's okay to say, 'How are you feeling today?' Right. And if you were emoji, what would that look like? Right. And then, well, why don't we see what that would look like in ballet? How would that sharp feeling, would that be this type of movement? Would that be a fluid movement? Are you tired? Is there a movement in ballet that you think could show, you know, the fondue, you know, like, so I'm just saying that it's, you can do those things by taking what they give you and purposing it on, ballet, but in a way that makes sense to them and they will appreciate you for it. Yeah. I love that.

And really simple, practical things that can be tied in easily without losing out on any technique. So this is kind of an open-ended question. I know that you said everything's in place for another season of Project Broken.

Maia
That's really exciting. What is next? Is there anything more? Obviously you're doing so much. You have so much on your plate, but is there anything more or anything that you see expanding? Into or coming next for your ministry?

Maria
Absolutely. So as I mentioned, we sponsor national dance week events. And to me, that is one of the most accessible programs to get people interested in dance. They may not ever see, you know, we have an Irish step team in New York. Some people will never see that because they only want ballroom or they only want hip hop.
So those types of programs you want to expand. The other thing is we're trying to go to Costa Rica. Next year, so that we can work with their youth and young adults through Project Broken and also explore cultural dance. As I mentioned, our workshops take into consideration ballet, lyrical, whatever style of dance. And even if you're a non-dancer, we give you movement categories. Like what would it feel like if you were spiraling? You know, there's spiral motions. Let's try that. So those types of things we want to do. Worldwide. So we're looking to go to Costa Rica to do that. We're also trying to expand our expressive dance art. So I'm working on something that I can't reveal, but if this gets pulled off, it is one of those wow moments. I can reveal that I'm trying to get some things in a museum. Okay. And that museum is at least showing some interest. And that would be a 360 kind of 4D experience. And that's all I'm going to say.

Maia
That's so exciting. Hopefully we can do a follow-up or something because I absolutely love like interdisciplinary art and just delving into all the different areas of inspiration. And obviously looking into your work. I know that's a big part of what you do too. So I'm excited. Absolutely. Yeah. So because people will certainly want to be following your journey and what you're up to, can you give us some resources, how to stay in touch with your ministry, with Project Broken, future projects, where can people find and connect with you?

Maria
Absolutely.
So our Instagram is iDance Ministry. All of our handles are iDance Ministry. So Facebook is iDance Ministry. We're on YouTube. You can see different styles and things that we do. So those would be the primary places you would send me, in addition to our website, obviously, that would be iDanceExperience.com or iDanceMinistry.com. Both will take you to our website. And Dance New Jersey is our fiscal sponsor. So if people want to donate to help us make these experiences, one thing I like to do is remove barriers. So if anyone ever wants to donate, I would love to go into a school, which we do from time to time and say, hey, this is a free experience because so-and-so donated. Or because this grant is allowing me to bring Project Broken or hip-hop.
One of the things people don't realize is I've started researching the therapeutic qualities of hip-hop dance in a tangible way. So one of our Project Broken experiences is specific to hip-hop dance. And based on the pre and post workshop surveys, it's very, very promising. And we want to continue in that vein as well.

Maia
Wow, that is so exciting. So before we close, is there anything else? I'm sure there's lots, but just like narrowing it down to one nugget of wisdom or something that you would encourage teachers, again, in the studio setting to be aware of or try to monitor in their classes to make sure that they're fulfilling the social needs of their students as well as the technical needs. Anything else that you have to add on that?

Maria
Yes. Yes. Yes. I am very intentional about is making someone feel seen and heard. So if you're running a dance class and it's simply about, okay, put your shoes in the cubby, let's go, let's get to this technique. And then when you're done, you're just kind of so glad you're like, go, go, go. You're missing the point of dance. Dance is such a beautiful connection. A quick story: I actually had a person in my class, actually four, who did not speak English. And you would think the school would tell me that, but they did not. And the reason I didn't know is because they were connecting with me. I'm a very engaging, interactive teacher. I do all learning styles. So I'm pointing, they're rocking, we're doing everything.
And finally, I realized, as I said something, I said, 'Why aren't you responding?' And they're like, 'He doesn't speak English.' I said, 'It's been four classes.' But what I realized is because he connected to my spirit, my energy, and because of the way that I was talking to him, I was able to connect with him. He didn't feel, and the other students never felt like they didn't belong there. So as a dance instructor, make people feel seen and heard that they're not just someone to throw in a recital, like I said, or a competition. That's one of the biggest advices I would give. And the second thing, give them experiential experiences. Don't stay in a studio. We've had class outside. We've had class in some really weird places, but I'm telling you, it works.
We've gone a lot of places. We've gone to a lot of libraries. We go in the community. I've been on gravel, which is so unsafe. And I was like, do you realize we can slip and fall? But what I'm saying is give them experiences outside of the classroom because they're citizens. They're going to be young adults. And you want them to see that dance is not just a space. It's an experience. And that's the second piece of advice I would give to dance educators.

Maia
That's amazing. Thank you so much.

Maria
Thank you. I can share one thing because one of the things I've found is that a lot of people ignore disabled and neurodivergent dancers.

What they say is, oh, we're inclusive because they find out after the fact someone had anxiety or bipolar or ADHD. But we are intentional about having specific classes and creating specific spaces for them. Their needs. And it doesn't mean that it's a lesser of a class. It just means it's more intense. It's more personal and customized. And I highly would recommend that people consider doing that instead of just checking a box because you have someone in your class. Really take the time to learn. I had to have a nonverbal person with one of my students had cerebral palsy actually be the voice, the nonverbal dancer. Was the voice for all of the disabled dancers because something I was doing wasn't connecting. I'm like, why is this? I said, help me out. Help me learn how to reach you. And it took the nonverbal student. And after that, everything was fine for that particular exercise. As an educator, just go beyond the, I want the competition team. I want the teens. I don't want the little babies. I don't want the people who don't know how to do 10 pirouettes. Go into spaces where dancers and people can teach you, and you can connect with them through arts engagement as well. And we're very proud of our experiences that we provide for our disabled and neurodivergent dancers.

Maia
Yes. And thank you so much again for providing that service. That's something definitely needs more representation of.

Maria
Oh yeah. And it's a challenge. And I think that's why people don't do it. It takes more time. It takes training.
I actually am certified by RWID to teach special needs students hip hop. I've also trained with disabled dancers through the Axis Dance Company in California. And I have to be honest with you. I was stunned by the abilities of wheelchair-disabled dancers. They were literally running circles around me and I was so tired and they're like, 'You okay?' And I'm like, 'Whoa, like, can we take a break?' And they're like, 'No, let's keep dancing.' And we're doing Latin and we're doing contemporary. And I'm just like stunned. So don't look at you know, neurodivergent and disabled dancers as a challenge. I actually found it invigorating and inspiring. And it has informed my pedagogy with respect to all of my classes.

Maia
Do you think, I mean, I'm sure the first step is that you have to make sure that you're educated enough to carry on that class. But do you think, there's more value in working dancers with disabilities into your quote unquote, like general population classes or setting aside a separate space to make sure that they have the resources that they need? Do you see one as a better option than the other?

Maria
No, because we do both. Okay. So when it's appropriate, absolutely bring them in. I don't exclude. But if someone wants a deeper, more personal experience, then yes, it's no different than having a competition team. They do things that your regulars don't do. Right. And it's because they, they need a special experience because they have, you know, other things that they're doing that the other students are not.
So I don't look at it as a negative. They actually love it. In fact, specifically students with autism don't do well in those groups. They don't, they don't do well in group settings, but when it's more personal and intimate, my God, they just, they, they come alive. So yes, you have to know your students and inclusion is just as important as customized experiences. So we offer both.

Maia
Awesome. Thank you for answering that question. I was very curious, not having that background myself.

Maia
Hi, this is Maia again, but I am now chiming in after the interview has concluded. At this point in the interview, Maria and I actually had a fantastic additional conversation. I'm not sure how long, but maybe about another half an hour that Maria was giving me some personal tips and advice relevant to our previous conversations.
Of course, I just wanted to say thank you again, so much to Maria for all of the expertise that she shared both with us here publicly on the podcast, as well as personally with me on our call for the purposes of the podcast. I later brought the conversation back around to a favorite quote or catchphrase. And so to close out this episode, I'm going to share a few of my favorite quotes from the podcast. Maria shared this wonderful way that she has closed out her ballet classes in the past that we can share with our students as well. Again, thank you to Maria. And before we close, I want to say thank you again to GB Mystical for the theme music. And I hope that you will all join me on Facebook in the Casual Dance Teachers Network to tell me what you thought of this episode and all of the advice and insight that Maria gave us about her practices with dance as ministry, as a way to be a part of the community, and as a way to be a part of the approach mental health issues, disability awareness, and so many other things that her work in dance does. And now we'll close with Maria.

Maria
One of the things we ended with is never miss a chance to dance. Because I would say, what do we say at the end of ballet? And they all said, 'Never miss a chance to dance' because they knew the power of dance.