In December, Rhonda Morton will be visiting the schools to introduce Chemung River School students to haiku poetry and to discuss seasonable changes. Students will refer to their journals full of notes taken during the autumn riverwalks with Tanglewood Nature Center educators and the poet, Sue Heavenrich. (See the post below).
Rhonda is new to CRSP, but she brings lots of experience as a writer, poet and improvizational performance artist to the program. She has taught children and adults of all ages. Check out the link to an educational children's television program - Move it! - on which she recently appeared!
Rhonda Morton is a poet, performance artist, dancer and singer with a particular interest in improvisation in all those roles. In 2005, Rhonda formed Alligator Mouth Improv, a four-person ensemble that draws on theatre, movement, vocals, music and storytelling, all created in the moment, often from audience input and interaction. Rhonda is the author of two books of poetry -- Woman Seeking Water (FootHills Publishing, 1997) and Breathing In, Breathing Out (FootHills Publishing, 2001) -- as well as a book of short-short stories, She Opens the Suitcase (FootHills Publishing, 2009). She is a poet of the stage as well as the page, and has been the featured reader at venues throughout the Northeast since her first performance on the Centerway Bridge in Corning, NY, in 1992.
Rhonda is also a skilled workshop facilitator and has worked with groups of every type -- from pre-schoolers to trust bankers -- to open up the potential and harness the creativity in individuals and groups.
In addition, she is certified as a leader of InterPlay, an improvisation-based approach to personal and organizational effectiveness practiced around the world, and she conducts creative writing workshops for adults and teens. In 1997, she founded GirlSmarts®, a series of workshops and retreats that use the arts to help teenage girls understand who they are and what they want out of their lives. In 2005, Rhonda was awarded the Arts Partnership Award from The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes for "tirelessly supporting others in their artistic endeavors, for encouraging young poets and musicians, and mentoring young women with her passion for and commitment to the arts."
Teachers, mentors and major creative influencers include Chemung River School Project poet, Michael Czarnecki, Martin Keogh, Bonnie McCubbin, Phil Porter, Rhiannon, Owen Walker, Sarah Williams, and Cynthia Winton-Henry.
