Dafna Soltes Stein
(C3)2 Teaching Artist
Dafna Soltes Stein has been a performance and teaching artist in drama, storytelling and dance since 1971. In the 1970's, she travelled throughout the United States and Mexico, performing her own work and performing as a member of ARCANA Dance Company. Her one-woman show, Blessed is the Heart, a biographical play about World War II heroine Hannah Senesh, toured throughout the US and Canada from 1984-86. In 1987 Dafna travelled to the Soviet Union to research and interview Jewish dissidents. Upon her return, she wrote and performed the one-woman play, Irina, off Broadway as well as across the country and in Canada and Israel.
As a teaching artist, Dafna designs and implements arts-in-education curricula for elementary, middle and high school students as well as adult learners. Her lessons integrate the arts into Social Studies, English Language Arts, Math and Science curriculum. Some of her projects are: Knowledge Alive; Moving Words; Tell Me a Story, Dance Me a Dance; Dance Mathsters; The Struggle for Freedom Against Tyranny; Stories One Generation Tells Another; and Earth Dance.
Dafna holds a BA degree from Bard College Department of Drama and Dance, is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, a Registered Dance Educator and has Aesthetic Education training in theater from the Lincoln Center Institute in NYC. In addition to her affiliation with (C3)2 grant, Dafna works with the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Great Neck Arts Center, Kinesthetic Intelligence Plus, and Pass-Around the Magic with Pass-Around Storytelling.