> Colleges > Cabrillo > Sharon Took-Zozaya
ACE Faculty
NAME: Sharon Took-Zozaya
COLLEGE: Cabrillo College
TITLE: Instructor & ACE Master Teacher
DEPARTMENT: Dance & ACE
EMAIL: stzozaya@cabrillo.edu
WEBSITE: http://babyface.cabrillo.edu/salsa/listing.jsp?staffId=399
INVOLVED WITH ACE SINCE: 2004
ACE COURSES TAUGHT/TEACHING:
Body/Mind Balance: Movement Awareness
Faculty Experiential Learning Institute (FELI)
Foundation Course
Team Self Management 1
REASON FOR BECOMING INVOLVED WITH ACE:
I first became involved with ACE through design and implementation of the movement course, which is a visionary and vital element of the social justice cohort model. An integral part of the Bridge Semester, this course helps to provide students with skills which lead to greater self-efficacy, by providing opportunities for
- kinesthetic learning
- developing self discipline
- learning stress release and relaxation techniques
- understanding and practicing effective non-verbal communication
- learning about how to make choices that support positive outcomes in the classroom and in the work place
- exploring teamwork
- developing public speaking skills
I have continued to work in this program because I’m deeply inspired by its effectiveness; the high quality of professional, yet humane, interpersonal relationships it fosters among faculty and students; and by the passionate commitment of everyone involved to make this world a better place one small step at a time.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND:
Sharon Took-Zozaya teaches the Foundation Course and Team Self Management course.Currently on the faculty of Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA, Took-Zozaya teaches a wide variety of practical and theoretical dance and somatics-based courses for both able-bodied and disabled students. She first taught the Body/Mind Balance: Movement Awareness movement course for ACE (formerly the Digital Bridge Academy) in 2004 and has subsequently authored detailed documentation of this course for use by other movement faculty. Took-Zozaya has also taught dance courses for the University of California, Santa Cruz and Mount Madonna School in recent years.
As Artistic Director of Stamping Zebra Dance Theatre, Took-Zozaya has choreographed and performed in a wide variety of professional, university, college, education and community contexts, working with both mainstream and disabled dancers. From 1988-1996, she lived and worked at the Findhorn Foundation, an international intentional community and education center in northern Scotland. There she researched and developed an approach to dance which integrates creative movement and improvisational dance with elements of Psychosynthesis and selected somatics practices.
Ms.Took-Zozaya's choreography has been presented across Scotland, in the U.S.A. and in Mexico. A versatile dancer and choreographer, her work has been supported by several Scottish Arts Council grants; National Dance Agencies in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow; the Findhorn Foundation; and other organizations. Since returning to California in 2003, her contemporary dance choreography has been commissioned by local music organizations and supported by the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz
County, as well as being selected for several San Francisco Bay Area festivals. She has also choreographed theatrical works such as The Fantastiks, Tommy and the Hindu epic Ramayana, and musicals, as well as performing with Nita Little, Therese Adams, Atelier 5 and Sarah Wilbourne.
Her degrees are MFA in Dance from ASU, MS in Kinesiology and BA in Dance from UCLA, as well as a Diploma in Counseling from the Psychosynthesis and Education Trust. Sharon Took-Zozaya is a contributor to /Dancing on the Earth: Women's Stories of Healing Through Dance,/ slated for publication by Findhorn Press in June 2011, edited by Johanna Leseho & Sandy McMaster. Her chapter in the book is /Dancing with (Dis) Abilities.