Council Member Rosie Mendez visits The Earth School and P94M High School Explore Careers in Theater

MAKING CONNECTIONS THROUGH DANCE AT THE EARTH SCHOOL

District 2 City Council Member Rosie Mendez visited The Earth School’s dance performance. Pictured with Mendez and students are (L-R) ArtsConnection teaching artists, Nami Kagami and Kim Grier, school principal Abbe Futterman and Executive Director Steve Tennen

The spring semester is off to a great start with our 115 schools! This month, District 2 Council Member Rosie Mendez, who generously provided support for our dance program at The Earth School in the East Village, attended a performance showcasing work from the fall semester. During the 17-week residency, the school’s third, fourth and fifth grade classes, led by ArtsConnection teaching artists Kim Grier and Nami Kagami, learned basic dance technique, language and terminology through structured warm up routines, producing choreography and small group works. The students connected their social studies curriculum, including the civil rights movement and a water study, to their choreography. Each group also chose their own songs which ranged from the soulful sounds of Glory by John Legend and Common, the country twang of Good Time by Alan Jackson to the ethereal sound ofAssassin’s Creed by Lindsey Stirling.

Fourth and fifth grade students connect modern dance to their study of the civil rights movement with a choreographed piece set to John Legend and Common’s powerful song Glory

Fourth and Fifth grade students presented a moving piece reflecting their study on water to Lindsey Stirling’s angelic sounds of Assassin’s Creed

Council Member Mendez addressing the students, staff and parents of The Earth School

COLLEGE & CAREER READINESS AT P94 EXPLORING CAREERS IN THEATER

P94M The Spectrum School High School took a behind-the-scenes tour of The New Amsterdam Theater where they learned about various front-of-house careers and visited the prop room to try on some Disney Musical costumes

P94 @PS 188 – The Spectrum School, for students on the autism spectrum, and ArtsConnection have created a special initiative, specifically engaging their high school students. Exploring Careers in Theater introduces students each month to focus on a different professional area of theater from front of house to props, from costumes, stage managing and house managing to technical crew. ArtsConnection teaching artist Laura Bogwardt, along with the students, their classroom teacher and para professionals, toured The New Victory and New Amsterdam Theaters, engaged with professionals from the Blue Man Group and Carnegie Hall and, later this spring, will be visiting the prop and costume shops at Julliard. They will end the semester with a mock job fair that includes interviews with theater professionals and by putting newfound skills to practice in their middle school’s production of Peter Pan Jr.

Students took turns practicing front-of-house skills like being a ticket taker

Backstage, in a room only opened to special guests, students discovered a whole new world of Disney Musical props and costumes

Trying on actual costumes from Disney Musical The Little Mermaid