Robert has been providing programs for children and professionals in the local Los Angeles area, as well as
internationally for over 30 years. Programs have been supported and funded by The Dana Foundation, James
Foundation, the US Embassy in Panama, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Robert Gilliam’s Artist Collective is a student-centered arts program that focuses upon using physical activity and
creative opportunities to boost participants’ self-esteem and well-being.
At the center of all of the work is the drive to allow the safe space for young people to create, express themselves and
find their own voice. programs are not cookie-cutter - we have created programs on the streets of Panama, in parking
lots late at night, juvenile halls, formal dance studios in China and local school cafeterias. All very different audiences,
with broad and diverse needs and yet each found the encouragement and the creative support that allowed them to
release their self-consciousness and confidently get lost in the beauty of their own creativity.
The Artist Collective mission is to help participants recognize and celebrate their individual creativity and build
communities that do the same. Occasions where people come together and create and share works of personal
creation are rare, and generates a bonding that outlasts the event.
Whether Robert leads a single event or a series of workshops the outcome is the same. Everyone contributes, no
matter the age, or ability. Robert is a nurturing and sensitive Master Teaching Artist and carefully designs workshop
sessions for participants to learn new ways of expression, develop new abilities and cultivate courage and confidence.
A 10 week residency consists of learning 4 group dances.
Day One - Introduction and African Gumboot Dance - Urbanized and creating a group identity and school pride.
Days Two and Three - Group Dance - learning choreography, transitions and formation changes - counting music and
working with a partner
Days Four and Five - Boys and Girls are separated and create a dance.
Boy Dance incorporates the individual style within a community - building teamwork - athletic movement.
Girl Dance is lyrical in movement style, a variety of transitions and formation changes - expressive - the dance is an
expression of the beauty and strength that we each possess within.
Days Six and Seven and Eight - Student-centered small groups - students are presented a “recipe” to create a dance,
and they are charged with creating and teaching their team members all the movements and structuring their personal
choreographic pieces.
Also students work together to create a community painting that serves as the backdrop to set their stage for their
culmination.
Both the dance and the painting are metaphors for recognizing the contributions of the individual to the community
creation. Everyone contributes no matter the ability, and each contribution builds and supports the work of the others to
create a beautiful whole.
Day Nine - Rehearsal
Day Ten - Culmination
The most successful professional development sessions develop a love for the art form, generate a feeling of
enjoyment and value in the learning and instructional experience.
Dance can be an uncomfortable art form for educators, especially when they are not dancers themselves - and yet we
would want children to all have the opportunity within their education to express themselves through music and
movement.
Robert’s programs give teachers the tools to lead a successful dance class that is not dependent upon professional
dance skills.
As with Robert’s student programs, everyone contributes no matter the age and ability, the same applies with teaching.
Robert has designed techniques and methods to help make teaching dance easy and successful which is not
dependent upon prior dance or movement experience.
Accessible teaching strategies for organizing students within the space, having students contributing movements and
dance “recipes” that allow the students to contribute their creativity and enthusiasm to drive the dance sessions. These
techniques are easy and flexible and are easily adaptable to integrate other subjects of study into the dance session.
Teachers are taught a simple and successful warm up that they can lead. Teachers are then placed in groups of 3 to
demonstrate the teaching, participating as a student and observing and critiquing the instruction and the learning -
Later, teachers are given a dance “recipe” and work together in a small group to work within the creative structure to
choreograph an original piece.
The group culminates in talking about the process and strategies for integrating movement and music into everyday
activities in the classroom.