Sister Jannita Complo
Dramakinetics Creator
Earned her doctorate in curriculum development from Wayne State University. While writing her doctoral dissertation, she created Dramakinetics, which uses movement and drama to foster a child’s kinesthetic intelligence.
“When I first began teaching, I noticed that regardless of children’s intellects or abilities, they had one thing in common. They could all use their bodies to express themselves,” Sister Jannita explains.
After she earned her doctorate, she became the director of student teaching at Marygrove. Through her Dramakinetics classes, many teachers have used this method to develop the potential in children.
Sparked by an interest in Native American dance, Sister Jannita received a grant to work with the Jemez Indians in New Mexico. She documented her movement activities with the Jemez Indians in her first Dramakinetics in the Classroom book.
While ministering in New Mexico, she received an Honor Award for Meritorious Service from the United States Department of the Interior and an Outstanding Administer from the National Indian School Board of Education.
When she returned to Monroe, Sister Jannita started the Children’s Creativity Center to provide a learning space for children with special needs. When it first opened, she placed an advertisement in the Monroe Evening News, “Just as IHM co-founder Theresa Maxis did in 1845 to draw students to the first St. Mary Academy.” In the 19 years the center was opened, she and her staff served more than 500 children.
Pam Futvoye Shooner
Dramakinetics Arts Integration Specialist
Studied creative dramatics, theatre, music, dance, speech pathology and audiology, and special education during her undergraduate degree at Edgecliff College and University of Cincinnati. Later, she attended graduate school at SUNY Stonybrook and Dowling College in New York to further align her studies in theatre and special education in order to utilize the arts for arts integrated purposes.
Ms. Shooner discovered Sr. Jannita’s “Dramakinetics in the Classroom” book in the adult stacks of the children’s section of the local library in New York in 1999, while helping her daughter with a research project. She quickly realized that Sr. Jannita’s method could serve as the foundation for limitless arts integrated applications, and began using it for teaching people of all ages.
In 2007, Ms. Shooner founded Dramakinetics of Cincinnati and began using the method for direct instruction, and training teachers, therapists, caregivers, and her own Dramakinetics teachers in its use. She left Dramakinetics of Cincinnati in 2017, after serving over 8,000 adults and children, and continues to train others in the Dramakinetics method for educational, recreational, and wellness purposes.
Currently, Sister Jannita. and Ms. Shooner hold workshops in Ohio and Michigan for caregivers of Elders who have memory and cognitive matters, and Ms. Shooner works side by side with classroom teachers in the Greater Cincinnati area who wish to add Dramakinetics to their instructional approaches.