Diavolo Dance Performance Admission

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.

Remember the first time you saw a live dance performance? For my fourth graders, they are still waiting for that experience. This year, thanks to the generosity of the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, we are able to attend a dance performance by the Diavolo Dance Company at a reduced rate with bus transportation included. For our students, this is a rare treat, as our school budget left us without any money for field trips, so the major expense (bus) has been taken care of by the Skirball Center. However, due to a change in policy at our school, we are unable to fund raise as easily as we have in the past to pay for our admission fees. Two years ago, I was lucky enough to take a class of fourth graders to a different performance by Diavolo at the Skirball. My students loved it, and their understanding of art and dance was permanently changed. The experience informed their readings of stories, as they were able to visualize the story as more than just a simple narrative but also as a skeleton for a dance performance. This meshed very well with our 12 weeks of dance instruction from a trained dancer. Once again, we will be having dance instruction during the time our dance performance is scheduled, and I look forward to them making connections between the experience and they art they create as well as see or read. My school is in East Los Angeles, in the neighborhood of El Sereno. Most of the students receive a free lunch (around 90%), and more are also English Language Learners. The fourth and fifth grade gifted classes will be attending this performance. Of these 61 students, 34 of them are identified as gifted. This is quite an achievement in our Title 1 school, which has just been designated as Program Achievement this year. I give instruction in all subjects, except for art, where I am a participant in our school's Arts Prototype program. I hope you make a contribution towards making this experience possible for these wonderful children. I know they will be very thankful for your generosity.