My students need 70 tickets to attend a ballet performance of a Shakespeare play they will read in class. For most, this will be their first trip to the ballet.
$1,155 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
Many of my students are the first in their family to finish high school in America. Their exposure to "the arts" has been extremely limited. In fact, of the 70 kids we will take to this ballet performance, only one has seen a ballet before. My hope is for them to fall in love with ballet and Shakespeare.
My students are, for the most part, immigrants or the children of immigrants.
More than 85% of our student population lives below the poverty level. For most of them, even the most fundamental of school supplies places on their families a financial burden difficult to overcome. Therefore, access to what many of them consider "extra" events, such as the opera or the ballet, is extremely limited, making exposure to the arts almost unheard of.
Of the seventy students we plan to take, only one has witnessed a ballet before. They read Romeo and Juliet, but only see the play as the words of an ancient writer. My most profound hope for them is to have them SEE the power of dance in storytelling, to have them witness the grace and athleticism of dancers, and to help them understand the text as a story played out on a stage. Further, I hope to have them see that there is more than one way to tell a story.
My Project
I have worked with the Oklahoma City Ballet to get discounted tickets for this large number of students. Even with this discount (half the usual "student" price), many of my students would find this to be a financial hardship.
They will attend a Ballet Oklahoma performance of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." For almost all of my students, this will be their first exposure to the ballet, as well as to the live performance of a Shakespearean play. They will be able to see the characters from the text as human beings with hearts and souls, movement and emotion, substance and grace.
They will attend a Saturday matinee performance, so we are not asking for transportation funds, nor funds for food, etc., during the trip--only for the access to the ballet itself.
My students have little exposure to the fine arts.
Many come from homes where the fine arts are considered "extra" and not "vital." My students need to know that there is more to life than work and food. They need to know that there is life in art.
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