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 a BCPS 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 CPD/MSDE credit(s) 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. All other participants, please contact us at development@clancyworks.org to learn about Professional Development Points (PDPs).

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.

DETI 2026 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.

James Gummer

DETI Facilitator

Drumming

James Gummer began playing drums in 1987 and is proud to be part of the original MTV generation. He has played everything from Metal to Jazz to Traditional Irish music.

James has studied with drummers such as Dr Bill Watson, Wes Crawford, and N. Scott Robinson, and is now a teacher himself. He teaches privately and is the drum and percussion instructor at The Saint James Academy in Monkton, Maryland and EMC in New Freedom, Pennsylvania.

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.

Nicole Martinell

DETI Facilitator

Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Dance, Towson University

Nicole A. Martinell is a dance and somatic movement educator and choreographer. She has a BS in Kinesiology from Penn State and an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University, and she is certified in the Alexander Technique and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies. Martinell is the founder of Resiliency through Movement, a somatic movement practice, and Deep Vision Dance Company, a performing arts organization in the Baltimore area. Her research has been presented at NDEO, IADMS, MDEA, Somatic Dance, and LABAN International conferences and published in the Journal of Dance Education. Honors include Maryland Baker Artist and Maryland Dance Education Association’s Dance Educator of the Year Award. Martinell is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Towson University where she teaches modern technique, composition, pedagogy, and dance science and somatics courses. As an educator, she inspires her students to embrace movement as a source of resilience, creativity, and self-discovery.

Yara Cordeiro

DETI Facilitator

Mestranda, founder ABADÁ-Capoeira DC

Mestranda Yara has dedicated over four decades to practicing and teaching capoeira and Afro-Brazilian related art forms, blending her deep passion with academic pursuits in psychology and physical education. Since beginning her capoeira journey in 1982 and teaching since 1996, she has authored three influential books and contributed significantly to the field’s body of knowledge.

In 2008, Mestranda Yara brought her expertise to the Washington, DC area, founding ABADÁ-Capoeira DC. Her exceptional abilities in capoeira earned her permanent residency in the United States as a person of national interest, and in 2022, she proudly became a U.S. citizen. Finally, in 2023, she received the title of Mestranda, indicating her mastery of the art of capoeira and ability to pass on her knowledge to others.

Previous DETI Photos

Wondering how you can help?

MAKE A DONATION