When Virtual Academy students in grades four through six shared one word to describe the first day of virtual dance workshops with Black Box Dance Theatre this May, their responses included: interesting, confusing, hilarious, fun, tiring, relaxing, different, and new.
Unsure of how seamless learning a rap and a choreographed dance would be on their computers, students were a bit awkward at first. But they never gave up, and never turned those cameras off!
“Dance bigger!” encouraged Steven, lead teaching artist with Black Box. “Use your screen to your advantage when making those bodies move!” Students began working the camera–leaning in closer and further back to enhance the visual look of their choreography.
“This is such a great opportunity for movement,” shared Virtual Academy Curriculum Coach, Molly Upchurch. “Having our VA chairs makes it harder to move around during the day — I am so proud of [the students] for moving!”
With the aid of the teaching artists, students explored the elements of dance, splitting into groups on the screen to perform and critique each other after learning choreography based on real-life tasks to warm-up. They worked with the movements required to collect dirty clothes or pull a fishing hook, and they named and identified their dance moves together.
“Every single person has a part of their creative brain that they access, “ said Natalie Morton, lead teaching artist with Black Box. “And we do that in a certain way as dancers.”
Virtual learning locations look different for everyone, and on these dance days, dogs joined in, lights and toys made appearances, and younger siblings danced across students’ screens.
Black Box artists taught Virtual Academy kids choreography and rap lyrics about the laws of force and motion–a kinesthetic learning method for kids who need to get the learning into their bodies. Riffing on the idea of “force,” students shared a time when they were “an outside force for good or change” in someone else’s life. Their responses–ranging from helping a friend who was stuck in homework assignments to a friend who was stuck in fear–inspired some additional dance moves to add to their force and motion performance piece. And they were all in on this: After rehearsing the choreography several times from start to finish, one student said: “My heart is running a mile!”
Finally, on the last day, it was time to perform! Students brought their families and friends to watch what they had created together. Our Art for Resilient Kids Program Director Jessica Rigsbee was part of the audience, too: “Seeing them dancing together on screen brought a huge smile to my face. Everyone was in sync, and it felt like a whole production. It was so good!”
When the final performance were complete, grins were everywhere on the screen. “Thank you for this,” voiced one kiddo on behalf of the group.
This memorable residency was powered by Dorrie Casey & Archie Purcell.
Arts for Resilient Kids programming is made possible by partnerships with Chatham County Schools, Chatham County, the North CarolinaArts Council, and many individual, foundation, business donors.
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