Our school of about 215 students, grades PK-5, is growing, becoming increasingly diverse, and is very interested in the arts! We are "A Community of Learners, A Community of Leaders" who embrace the Leader in Me program and seek to develop the whole child. Dance allows our students to find a special way to shine, build confidence, and embrace who they are.
Our students love to move and express themselves.
They are most joyful when engaging in large traveling movements, creating with their classmates, participating with community organizations, and seeing live dance.
Beginning in PK, all students in our school receive dance 1-2 times a week. Our lower grade students develop as an artist through play, creative movement, and explorations while our upper-grade students study various forms of dance and dive deeper into creating. Our dance program also uses movement to explore, embody, and express learning in other content areas such as literacy, science, social studies, and math.
We have two larger performances to share with the community what we are learning and several smaller showings. Students engage with the diverse art programs in NYC through field trips, visiting guest artists, and seeing live performances.
My Project
Our kindergarten and first grade dual language students have been learning about Frida Kahlo and even saw her exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. In dance class, they are getting ready for their spring performance translating Frida's paintings, photographs, personality traits, and a timeline of her life into movement. Students are very interested in their dance and would love even be able to "look like" Frida!
Costumes help our dance come alive!
Costumes help our kids feel excited and confident while performing and create an overall "look" or image for the audience to better understand the story/setting of our piece. Even better, we plan to reuse this costume in the future as our dual language classes are often embodying topics like Noche Buena and stories like Ferdinand and The Bull into movement and dance. The red is just perfect for these ideas!
Our vision: As this is the second part of our project we still need floral headbands to really complete our vision and truly feel like Frida Kahlo as well as more skirts so all students can wear a red one! We want to feel united through our costumes!
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