The International Association for Creative Dance is delighted to present the 2025 Creative Dance Congress in Tucson, Arizona from July 26th to August 1st!
“Fulfilling the basic human need for free movement expression”
Barbara Mettler’s work explored the roots of movement expression to make dance available to everyone. She used improvisation to awaken creativity and engage the whole person. Balancing freedom and artistic discipline, she brought her students to the level of craftsmanship necessary to create satisfying improvised individual and group dances.
One of Mettler’s greatest discoveries was an approach for having groups-even very large groups-improvise freely together. Mettler’s teaching was known for its clarity. She used carefully selected progressions of creative problems to lead people ever deeper into dance experiences.
This year the IACD Annual Dance Congress will embrace the quote that adorns the outer wall of the Tucson Creative Dance Center: “We dance for pleasure and for the good of the city”, which is credited to the indigenous Zuni people of the southwest. This quote embodies the foundational sentiment of Barbara Mettler’s work – that creative art activity is an essential human need, and that healthy humans make healthy communities.
PARTICIPATION
Who is the IACD Creative Dance Congress for? EVERYONE! People with previous in-person Mettler based dance experience are welcome to attend the Introductory Workshop, but it is not required.
People new to Mettler based dance, or have only attended classes via Zoom, must attend the Introductory Workshop on Saturday and Sunday, July 26 & 27. The Intro Workshop will be taught by veteran Mettler dancer and teacher, Griff Goehring. All are welcome to attend.
Barbara Mettler (1907 – 2002) was a renowned dance innovator and educator who’s career spanned more than 60 years–directing dance companies, writing books and articles, making videotapes and teaching thousands of students in a variety of settings.
The IACD is a community of creative movers who practice, promote, develop, and apply a free approach to the art of body movement and dance improvisation as pioneered by Barbara Mettler.
Learn more about her work and life at the IACD website and at Hampshire College’s Barbara Mettler Archive.
