Promoting the Performing Arts

It is critically important to continue to look for new ways to promote the arts, and arts thinking, at TBS. We have a robust and powerful studio arts program, thanks to Julianne and Benicia, and in its second year of existence our elementary music program has begun to find solid footing through the dual paths of Eve's music class and the optional strings program run by Irene. But there are more opportunities for us to explore as we pursue the learning outcome of creativity with and for our students.

This morning I spoke on the phone with Avilee Goodwin. Avilee has been teaching dance in various public schools in the East Bay for 15 years and in private studios for almost 30 years, and possesses both an M.A. in Creative Arts (emphasis dance) from San Francisco State University, and a state teaching credential in P.E. with a dance concentration. Avilee's approach is to teach dance "from the inside out", using a discovery approach through exploration of the basic dance elements of Space, Time, and Energy. Rather than force students to simply learn steps or routines, Avilee teaches them deeper concepts such as line, shape, path, range, level, tempo, rhythm, and weight; just as strong number sense allows students to move from counting to addition to multiplication across the elementary grades, so does Avilee's teaching give students the underlying understandings necessary to develop their skills as dancers. Clearly this is not the indoor winter unit on square dancing we all experienced in our own elementary educations! This conversation made me excited to continue to look at the possibilities around adding dance to our elementary program.

This afternoon I spoke with internationally known composer and musician Paul Dresher. We first learned of Paul last spring, when our 2/3 classes went to see, hear, and experience a program he had created called the Shick Machine, and subsequently had some of his assistants visit our classrooms with their hand-built instruments. That experience led to a conversation about a sustained collaboration between Paul and our school, and we are excited to be welcoming Paul and his crew to TBS beginning in January for a six week program working on instrument building, and the concepts and physics of sound, with our 4th and 5th grade students. While figuring out how to jigger the schedule and spaces to meet the program's needs is a challenge, it is one we gladly take on in order to provide our students with this incredible, hands-on experience.