• Peruse our available products in our Shop or with our NYC DOE Catalogue, available on the Shop page.
• Give our Sole Vendor Letter, available on the shop page, to your purchasing secretary. The sole vendor letter is not intended to be a catalogue for you, the Dance Educator, to shop from. It is just a business protocol for selling goods to and with the Department of Education. The active NYC DOE FAMIS vendor code for the LODC, USA is LAN489819. The school must create a purchase order and send to info@lodcusa.org.

There are 2 main ways to easily purchase from the LODC.

Purchase Orders: Contact the LODC (info@lodcusa.org) with items you wish to purchase or complete this Educational Institution Order Form to receive an invoice or quote.. We will send an estimate to help your purchasing point create the school's PO. (DOE purchase orders usually start with WI, WV, WO, VP and show the DOE seal.) After delivery, an invoice will be sent to the school’s corresponding borough unit for payment.

SIPP (Small Item Payment Process): Contact the LODC (info@lodcusa.org) with the items you wish to purchase. We will send an estimate with an invoice number and the final order total including shipping. Once the SIPP is created and payment is complete, please notify the LODC. We will confirm receipt of payment and ship your order.

Please note: the purchasing limit is NOT $250.00 for the LODC as we qualify as a Sole Source Vendor. Shipping rates for NYC DOE orders are 20% of the order subtotal (Curriculum Units are delivered electronically so please subtract the cost of the units before computing shipping). Shipping rates must be added to the purchase order. Contact the NYC DOE school based team of FSC help desk at 718-935-5000 with any additional questions.

For orders within the US, we have NEW fixed shipping rates based on the total value of your order. The following fixed shipping rate will automatically apply to your PayPal cart:

Total Value of Order	Fixed Shipping and Handling Charge
$.01-$55	$9.00
$55.01-$85	$18.00
$85.01-$115	$27.00
$115.01-$200	$36.00
$200.01 and higher	$60.00

Coaching fees, membership fees, course registration fees, and Curriculum Units are exempt from shipping fees.
International shipping rates will apply for all orders outside of the USA. A flat shipping charge of 95% of your order total is automatically applied to all orders outside the United States of America’s states and territories. If you live in the United Kingdom and Europe, please order through our sister organization, Language of Dance Center, UK.

The goals of the Language of Dance Center are to:

1. Educate teachers, professionals, students, and the general public in the LOD Approach
2. Certify educators and professionals in the LOD Approach
3. Communicate and exchange ideas about LOD to support practices and research that promote dance literacy
4. Develop social engagement aspects of the LOD Approach
5. Develop markets for LODC services and products.

The LODC works with institutions throughout the US to host courses. To find out more about our courses, please see our coursework information.

You can now register on our website for many of our courses.

• Find the course you want to register for in Coursework.
• Select the Course you wish to register for.
• Scroll down to the Register information, select any specific information from the drop down menu if applicable, and click on Add to Cart.
  
• Select the Check Out button to pay with debit/credit card or the Check out with PayPal button to pay with your PayPal account.
• Follow the directions on the PayPal site to complete your payment and you will receive a payment confirmation email from PayPal.

The path towards becoming a Language of Dance® Certification Instructor is an exciting and challenging one.

Your journey: 

LOD Foundations Part 1 and 2 (can be taken in either order)

Master Practitioner:

Module A

Module B

Module C

Master Practitioner Bridge Course

Teacher Training Process:

Assistant Foundations Instructor (Parts 1 and 2)

Assistant Master Practitioner Instructor (Modules A, B, and C)

Foundations Instructor (Parts 1 and 2)

Master Practitioner Co-Teacher (Modules A, B, and C)

Language of Dance Teacher Trainer (Foundations and Master Practitioner)

Discover more details on our Coursework page.

To purchase our study materials, please see our Shop. The following are required reading(s) for our courses.

Foundations:

• Motif Notation: An Introduction
• MOTIF AT A GLANCE! Flip chart

Modules A-B:

• Your Move: The Language of Dance Approach to the Study of Movement and Dance
• Your Move: The Language of Dance Approach to the Study of Movement and Dance Exercise Sheets
• MOTIF AT A GLANCE! Flip chart

Select Membership on our top menu, read about the benefits of our membership, and complete the membership application. To complete the membership application:

• Enter your name; address; email address; and how you know of LOD or the LODC.
  
• You will then select the type of membership you wish to register for: Institutional, Individual, Retiree, or Student (student memberships will be verified with a scan or copy of a valid campus ID emailed to rwurman@lodcusa.org).
• Finally, select your method of payment and click Send.
• A Thank you page will appear with the address to mail your payment to and the Subscribe buttons to pay with your debit/credit card or PayPal account. Select the Subscribe button corresponding to the membership you indicated in your application.
• Select the Check Out button to pay with debit/credit card or the Check out with PayPal button to pay with your PayPal account.
• Follow the directions on the PayPal site to complete your payment and you will receive a payment confirmation email from PayPal.

The LODC, USA will process your membership and email you your membership letter and card.

*To receive your members only access to our website, please follow the directions below to register your membership on our site.

• Select the Member Login option under the Membership menu and then select Register or click here: LODC, USA Membership Registration To complete the registration application:
• Enter your name and email address.
• Create your unique username and password, re-enter your password and select Register.
• Once your registration is approved by our LODC staff, you will receive a confirmation email. You may then log on to the site and access the member’s only shop where your membership discount has already been applied!

*Please note: you must be a paid member of the LODC, USA to register for and access the member’s only discounted shop.

• Select Member Login at the top of our website and login.
• Once logged in, shop away and enjoy your member’s discount!

*Please note: you must be a paid member of the LODC, USA to register for and access the member’s only discounted shop.

Select the Member Login option under the Membership drop-down menu and select logout.

• Select Donate at the top of our website or click the link below:
• A new PayPal payment window will open. Please enter the reason for your donation and the donation amount.
• Fill out all of your payment information on the left hand side of the page to pay with debit/credit card or login on the right hand side to pay with your PayPal account.

You will receive a payment confirmation email from PayPal.

Created and developed by Dr. Ann Hutchinson Guest, the Movement Alphabet ©1980 is composed of the prime actions (the movement ‘verbs’), movement concentrations and aims of which all movement, hence all forms of dance, are comprised. Each ‘letter’ of the Alphabet, expressed by a Motif symbol, represents a movement category.

The Language of Dance Approach is a learner-centered pedagogical framework that uses the Movement Alphabet and related Motif symbols to link the physical experience of moving with cognitive and affective understanding. Grounded in experiential learning, the Language of Dance Approach cultivates critical and creative thinking, personal empowerment, and artistic agency.

Dance is a “language” of functional and expressive gestures and body configurations through which non-verbal communication can be achieved. Notation provides the means to analyze movement patterns, phrases, and “sentences.” The Language of Dance^®, like any verbal language, has basic “parts of speech.” There is a clearly constructed grammar that defines the relationship of the movement words to each other and how they function in the movement sentence. The structural categories in this language of movement are verbs, nouns, and adverbs.

Dr. Ann Hutchinson Guest, dancer, teacher, writer, researcher, visionary, and an acclaimed dance notation expert, created and developed the Language of Dance Approach and coined this term in 1967. Dr. Guest began to use the notation symbols in a freer, more exploratory way while teaching children at the 92nd Street Y in the 1950’s. She discovered that the physical coordination and focus required by structured notation limited the children’s freedom to move and be creative. This experience inspired her to research and identify the prime actions universal to all movement forms. After consulting many lists and sources including the “Seven Movements in Dance” as taught in the Cecchetti Classical Ballet Method, Laban’s list of basic actions, and the writings of Margaret H’Doubler, she codified her definition of the ABC’s of movement, the Movement Alphabet ©1980. Dr. Guest is also the primary developer of Rudolf Laban’s (1879-1958) system of Kinetography, which she coined “Labanotation.”

Children love to move. They learn through both visual and physical means hence their joy in discovering each Movement Alphabet ©1980 ‘letter’ and their ease in relating to the symbols. Not only does it enhance their motor skills but also their creativity. Generating their own sequences is like a game; they see it written down and they enjoy performing the movements they have chosen.

The Language of Dance Approach and practice is presented through our commitment to DEI.

Dance artists using the Language of Dance Approach throughout their professional and pedagogical practices. They use it as a pedagogical framework in teaching, learning, and assessment; as a compositional tool; as an inroad to understanding the dance in dance history studies; as a pedagogical framework to create comprehensive literacy-based dance education curricula; as a research framework for critical analysis and comparative studies in dance; as a principal means to access to our dance legacy; as a means to build and develop artistry; and as an advocacy tool to communicate about dance using a dance-based language and symbol system.

The Language of Dance^® approach promotes the transference of the physical experience of dance to an intellectual understanding that enhances student learning as well as the dance-making process. In gaining these skills and developing a sense of ownership, students grow in confidence and in perceptual skills. The movement terminology introduced from the start, provides an important means of communication and can save time and confusion. This is particularly helpful for children or participants with learning difficulties who, with Language of Dance^®, are able to talk about their movement ideas and comment on what they are observing in the performances of others.

The Language of Dance Approach uses Movement Alphabet ©1980 concepts together with the symbolic representation of each concept to give students the chance to achieve measurable skills in dance, learn movement, vocabulary, and develop choreography. This in turn will improve fitness and coordination, encourage social and communication skills, and help build self-confidence. Addressing kinesthetic (through the movement), auditory (through correct terminology), and visual (using visual motif notation symbols) learning styles, classes can be adapted to suit students of all levels. The process of exploring the raw material of dance provides an enlightening and revealing experience for all who have grown up learning structured forms of movement. They begin to recognize the component parts of familiar actions and positions and hence experience them in a more insightful way.