MSP 162: Anna Pasternak and Blair Brown with Movement Exchange
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Building Community through Arts Education with\\xa0Anna Pasternak and Blair Brown of Movement Exchange
Our guests today are passionate about dance, dance education, and serving communities. Join us today as we share a podcast with you featuring an interview with Anna Pasternak, the Founder of Movement Exchange, and Blair Brown, the organization\'s current Executive Director. During our conversation, we hear about their journeys with dance, what captivates them about the arts, and how their life paths led them to Movement Exchange. Movement Exchange is an international non-profit organization that provides accessible and sustainable dance education to youth of all ages. They share all about how it started, how it evolved, and their plans for expansion. We hear more about their university chapters and international volunteer dance exchanges and how they build leadership development, cultural awareness, and a passion for community building through arts education. To hear more about their year-round sustainable programs in underresourced communities, be sure not to miss out on today\\u2019s episode with Anna and Blair from Movement Exchange!\\xa0
Key Points From This Episode:
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Anna shares her personal history and transformative journey with dance.
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 She elaborates on her aspirations after high school and how getting into Harvard impacted her dance journey.
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Fly and be free; the pull to see and experience everything the world had to offer.\\xa0
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Anna talks about the exciting journey of founding the Movement Exchange.
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Her biggest worry stepping down as Executive Director at Movement Exchange.
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 We hear from Blair about who she is, where she\\u2019s from, and what brought her to dance!
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 She elaborates on the biggest shift that altered her life as an artist: dance education.\\xa0
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Meeting Anna and Movement Exchange; the second jump in her career.
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 We discuss the realization of the barrier to dance, even in the USA.\\xa0
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 They talk about any pushback experienced with Movement Exchange (and how they counter it).
\\xb7\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 How you can get involved in the Movement Exchange programs.\\xa0
\\u201cThere will be nothing in my life that will be as important or have made me as happy as running Movement Exchange.\\u201d \\u2014 Anna Pasternak\\xa0
Anna Pasternak founded the dance non-profit Movement Exchange in 2010 when she was 25 years old and living in Panama. She is a Fulbright Scholar, Harvard graduate, and currently supports Movement Exchange as a member of the board of directors.
\\u201cDance is social. It\\u2019s all about community and how do we connect with that and make our communities stronger.\\u201d \\u2014 Blair Brown\\xa0
Blair Brown received her BA in Dance from Loyola Marymount University, her MFA in Dance from UC Irvine, and spent 10 years teaching dance in under-resourced schools and programs in California and New York before becoming the Executive Director for Movement Exchange.
Learn more about Movement Exchange!
More on this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast
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