Harlan Brownlee
Recognizing the powerful engagement and educational benefits of dance and creative movement, Harlan Brownlee integrates dance with STEM education.

'Biome Boogie: Exploring Animal and Plant Adaptations through Dance' with Harlan Brownlee

August 12, 2026 - May 31, 2027 | 60-minute workshop

Workshop cost: $100 per classroom. Scholarships and discounts available.

Grades 1-5

Inspired by Madeleine Dunphy’s engaging biome book series, this highly interactive workshop transforms your classroom into a moving ecosystem filled with discovery and creativity.

Through creative movement, dance, and imaginative storytelling, students explore how plants and animals survive in diverse environments by investigating adaptations for protection, camouflage, food gathering, and locomotion while physically modeling important science concepts in memorable and meaningful ways. This arts-integrated experience strengthens science comprehension while building creativity, communication, collaboration, and self-expression. Teachers may choose from four biomes that best connects to their curriculum or classroom interests: Tropical Rainforest, Southwestern Desert, African Savanna, or Wetlands.

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Harlan Brownlee understands the transformational power that the arts have to improve the quality of life for individuals and the community. He possesses a passion for the arts, guided by a disciplined approach to change. Harlan has worked in the field of arts integration for over 40 years. Beginning with Kansas City Young Audiences, Inc in 1984, he leads residencies for students K-12, presents workshops, demonstration teaching, professional development, and coaching for teachers, and has led training seminars for teaching artists nationwide.

Since 2000, Harlan has been a National Teaching Artist with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He holds a BFA degree in dance with an emphasis in performance and choreography and a MA in Educational Research and Psychology. In 2019, Mr. Brownlee joined the Focus 5 team, a National Arts Integration Consulting Firm. That same year, he was awarded a Young Audiences National Residency Teaching Artist Credential.

Recognizing the powerful engagement and educational benefits of dance and creative movement, Harlan integrates dance with STEM education. He has presented at Project Lead the Way’s (PLTW) National Conferences, showcasing his expertise in blending STEM curriculum with creative movement and dance.

In addition, he has designed and implemented hundreds of lesson plans in over 35 years of instructing a weekly class at Community School #1 that integrated dance and movement into the general curriculum with an emphasis on the subject areas of science and literacy. Harlan has been an adjunct professor for Rockhurst University’s School of Education and the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Education and is a past Associate Editor for the Teaching Artist Journal.