Trauma-Informed Performing Arts Education Workshop

Kymberly Mellen (Theatre), Alethea Inns (OIT), Morgan Iommi (NSC), Olga Townsend (UNLV Art Alumna), and Yvonne Houy (College of Fine Arts) facilitated the most requested workshop for the 2022 Art Schools Network national conference. Trauma — an emotional response to disturbing events — literally changes the way students think and learn.

Learning activities in the performing arts  — such as adjusting the body through touch, or the emotional content of scenes — can re-traumatize students unintentionally. Performing arts educators can proactively support students and performances by becoming trauma-informed and actively using intimacy training and consent processes. This two-hour workshop for performing arts educators brought together a Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE) and DEIJB educator, a professional dancer and trauma victim advocate, and learning designers focused on the effects of emotion on learning, trauma-informed education, and conditions for flow learning experiences.