Dance Educators Training Institute

Summer 2026

Transform Your Teaching with Dance: Join DETI 2026!

Are you looking to provide your students with a transformative dance experience and don’t know where to begin? Do you want to immerse yourself in dance styles from diverse cultures—all in one place? This year’s event introduces dances of resistance: Capoeira, Frevo, Samba, and Irish Step. Then join us for the Dance Educators Training Institute (DETI) in partnership with Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) and Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) this June 29-30!

Why Attend DETI?

DETI’s mission goes beyond dance techniques. The two-day workshops will offer culturally responsive teaching, touch upon history and ritualistic wellness, and also focus on mindfulness and self-care practices, and, of course, keep you moving.

New addition to the DETI Program

If you’re an educator looking for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credit or Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) credit, then join us for DETI 2026! This year you can receive 1 CPD/MSDE credit by attending the 2 days of the program. Our partner BCPS will work with you to ensure you receive your credit. Please email dpilate@bcps.org for more information.

Date and time

June 29 and 30, 2026

9:00am-5:30pm EDT

Location

CCBC Center for the Arts

360 Campus Drive, Catonsville, MD 21228

Join us for our 20th annual Dance Educators Training Institute (DETI) in partnership with Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) and Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). This event embodies wellness in education by focusing on educators’ needs to care for themselves and their students. DETI 2026 will support wellbeing, broaden perspectives, and, of course, keep you moving.

DETI2026 Schedule

Meet the Artists

Adrienne Clancy Ph.D., MFA

DETI Co-director

ClancyWorks Executive & Artistic Director

Dr. Adrienne Clancy is a contemporary dance artist and scholar who earned an MA in Dance History with a focus on marginalized dance cultures, an MFA and a PhD focusing on nonprofit leadership. Dr. Clancy has spent 30+ years working with under-served communities using dance as a tool for positive social change while exploring themes of social justice in dance. Prior to founding ClancyWorks, Dr. Clancy was a Company Member for Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Bella Lewitzky, Nora Reynolds-Daniel, and Bill Evans.

Darryl Pilate

DETI Co-director

BCPS Dance & Theatre Specialist and MDEA President

Darryl Pilate is a fifteen-year dance education and new arts administrator in the Office of Performing Arts in Baltimore County Public Schools. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Dance with a minor in Health Administration from Texas State University and a Master of Business Administration from Texas Woman’s University. He studied various dance artists in genres such as ballet, jazz, Hawkins technique, hip-hop, and contemporary.

Kate Spanos, Ph.D.

Kate Spanos_by Violetta Markelou_680x680

DETI Facilitator

Ecducarte Director of Operations & Finance and Co-Founder

Kate Spanos, Ph.D., is a dancer, educator, scholar, and arts administrator. Her scholarship focuses on “dances of resistance” and social change through dance, especially in Brazil, Ireland, and the Eastern Caribbean. She is an Irish dancer with an M.A. in traditional Irish dance performance from the University of Limerick and has experience in a variety of other percussive dance forms. Her doctoral research focused on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, known for its Irish and African heritage. She also practices Brazilian movement forms including capoeira, frevo, and samba, and she also completed a postdoctoral Fulbright study of frevo in Recife, Brazil in 2018.

She is a faculty fellow in the Honors Humanities program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches a seminar in dance ethnography, highlighting the power of dance and the arts to build and enact change for communities around the world.

Melinda Blomquist, MFA

DETI Co-director

BCPS Dance Professor & Program Coordinator

Melinda Blomquist holds an M.F.A. in Dance Choreography and Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Master of Arts in Dance Pedagogy from Brigham Young University. Melinda has presented her choreographic work at numerous venues nationally and internationally including the Mid-Atlantic and South-Central American College Dance Festival, Northwest Vista College, Towson University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the Attakkalari Festival in Bangalore India.

Pablo Regis de Oliveira

EducArte Executive Director, Artistic Director, and Co-Founder

Pablo Regis de Oliveira is an arts administrator and musician. After getting his dual BA in political science and Latin American studies from UCLA, he worked in communications conducting public service advertising campaigns for government and non-profit clients, and worked in government, including serving in the District of Columbia Mayor’s Office of Community Relations. He is an accomplished community-based arts administrator, having served as program manager for Strathmore Community and Education Department and the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council. Pablo supported and coordinated the Brazilian segment of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage’s annual Folklife Festival. He was selected to represent Maryland for the 2023-24 National Leaders of Color Fellowship curated by WESTAF.

Pablo is a cavaco (string instrument) player, singer, and percussionist performing Brazilian music in the DC metro area. He grew up in Los Angeles and Brasília, surrounded by Brazilian music and culture. He is a recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council 2018 Individual Artist Award. He has also trained in a variety of Brazilian movement styles, including the martial art of capoeira, as well as frevo and cavalo marinho from the state of Pernambuco.

Yara Cordeiro

DETI Facilitator

EducArte Instructor

Yara Cordeiro is EducArte’s samba specialist. She will introduce the key movements and rhythmic patterns of samba, including basic footwork, hip movements, and group practices for the samba workshop, and also provide a brief overview of samba’s cultural history and its meaning for communities in Brazil and the African diaspora. Her class will include ideas for adapting samba principles for classroom use and encouraging students’ cultural engagement.

Previous DETI Photos

Wondering how you can help?

MAKE A DONATION