Curriculum Vitae - CV

Linda Duda Craig - Teacher

Professional Story.

Teach it

Linda Craig, or Ms. Linda, as her students call her, is a magician of creative chaos in the classroom; known for her energetic, patient, and FUN teaching style.

  • 17 year teaching career. Specialist in ages 3-7, but years of experience with children preschool to high school, college students, and adults. Creator of a youth Teaching Assistant program and experience teaching teachers.

  • Primary teaching venue is private dance studio and community theater. Experience as a public school K-12 substitute in Oakland Unified, supplemental college instructor, and preschool enrichment teacher.

  • Graduate work and ongoing professional development in teaching including a year-long commitment to Luna Dance’s prestigious Summer Institute at Mills College, and dance teacher summits.

Sharing is Caring - Teaching Resources from Ms. Linda

  • Link to Ms. Linda’s 5 page resource:

    A More Interesting Freeze Dance PDF

  • Link to Ms. Linda’s semester plan for The Nutcracker using Susan Jeffers’s Beautiful Picture Book

    We can play, tell stories, learn dance history, get excited about art and literacy, practice technique, AND free dance all at the same time. You don’t have to pick just one.

  • Link to the 4 page PDF - Primary Curriculum

    Get inspired by one of Ms. Linda’s former charts for differentiating and planning prek-1st grade classes.

  • First position is harder than it looks…

    Pizza slice. Triangle.     I hear a lot of fun descriptions for the “shape” of first position. However, there are pitfalls to giving a visual end shape to students without telling them how to get there.

    My explanation for 1st position (with Pre-K/K/1st age groups) goes like this:


    “Heels Say: MUAH!”     – students make a kissing noise while they touch their heels together (it’s fine if the toes are touching too).


    “Toes Say: EWWW!” – students move the toe part of each foot away from the other as if the toes think the kissing is “gross”. Now we have a 1st position!

    If their heels also separated at this step, you can repeat the whole thing or use the prompt, “What did the heels say?”

    ~Ms. Linda

  • PDF Annotated by Ms. Linda of dance books to check out at your local library or book store

Ms. Linda’s Teaching Philosophy

 Unreasonable Joy.

Childlike Wonder.

Reverential Acceptance.

On a good day, it’s all right there, and on a bad one, well, it’s a welcome reminder of what’s possible.

When she needs the short version, it looks like this:

Joy.  Wonder.  Reverence.

Here’s the rundown of the qualities each mantra holds for Ms. Linda:

  • Unreasonable Joy.   —Permission to celebrate life; to be full of life without reservation or shame; to experience, through dancing, a joy that logic and reason cannot explain away.

  • Childlike Wonder.   —Permission to not know and to be curious; to try new things with excitement; to be a lifelong learner.

  • Reverential Acceptance.   —Permission to be perfectly imperfect and to accept that limitations exist, and can be worked with. Gratitude & respect for those who’ve come before, for our peers, for our teachers, and for all in our community.

Mentorship

Mentorship is more than a one-way transaction of advice-giving. Mentorship is an energetic of holding a space open to the MORE with loving awareness. Ms. Linda proudly maintains relationship as both mentee and mentor, and nurtures containers in which mentorship happens at both the studio and the national level.

  • Linda Craig is a member of the Independent Sector Mentorship Committee of the National Dance Education Organization, and also a Mentor in the program.

    • As a Committee Member, Linda is part of a conversation about how to build a culture of mentorship, and cooperation above competition, among private sector studio directors and teachers across the nation.

    • As a Mentor, Linda has a two-year partnership of guidance with a new studio director in Pennsylvania.

  • It was Ms. Linda’s dream for her studio to have a TA program that taught the art of teaching rather than simply tossing older kids into young classes to help. Joy in Motion has a growing and thriving Teaching Assistant (TA) Program (with 32 TAs in Fall ‘24 session) under the directorship of Ms. Linda.

    • This mentorship program enables our students to assist our professional staff in classes, gain unmatched hands-on work experience, learn child development, and contribute to choreography all while enjoying the art of dance. The TA Program provides community and warm connection across age groups that benefits the entire studio population.

Love for Ms. Linda

Debbie, Mom of teen in Ms. Linda’s Teaching Assistant Program

“I wanted to thank you for putting together the TA program, and for such in-depth training for the TAs.  I love that you are imparting so much wisdom and learned expertise. I saw the packet that [my child] brought home, and it was fun to see that you are teaching her the same "5 Levels of Learning" that I was just taught at work by some fancy-pants consultants! ”

Joy in Motion Studio Parent

“I just wanted to share how happy my daughter is in Ms. Linda's Thursday class. She went from crying on the floor before the first class to asking us every single day ‘Do I have dance today?’”

Kara T., Mom of a young dancer in Ms. Linda’s class

“Thank you so much for a wonderful year of dance. We so appreciate all of the guidance, love, and patience you bring every week. It’s been incredible to watch [our child] blossom from her ‘regular self’ to her ‘dancer self',’ thanks to you!”

Diablo Valley College Evaluation from a Student

“I wish we could clone her.”

Studio Parent of a Teen Dancer

“I am leading 4 groups of girls through their Silver Award projects right now and none of the mentors have taken the ‘mentoring’ aspect as seriously as you do and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that.”