First grade students at Jessieville Elementary recently welcomed ballet dancer Kathleen Marleneanu into the classroom with her program, “Egyptian Cinderella.”
Students have been learning the story of Cinderella, as told in cultures around the world, and the essential question posed by the teaching module was: What can versions of the same story teach us about different cultures?
Marleneanu introduced the story “Egyptian Cinderella” to students and then showed them how to express the story through dance, without using words. The first graders learned about Egyptian culture and its influence on characters in the story. The residency was brought to the school by Arkansas Learning Through The Arts (ALTTA), which works with teaching artists to develop programs that help classroom teachers inspire deeper levels of learning.
Dancer Marleneanu sparked imaginations by describing a character’s emotions or appearance through physical motions. Because the dance is set to music, they also learned how a musical phrase can represent a character. The students were very excited to perform together the dance and record it so they could see what they have created.
First grade teacher Kristi Cosby said her “students absolutely love it. They are all focused on learning the (ballet) movements and want to know when [our] ballerina is coming back.” After the artist’s residency, students select their favorite version and tell why they liked that version the most. They have a much easier time writing because they have developed opinions and have new vocabulary to describe their thoughts.Arkansas Learning Through The Arts was formed to “ignite students’ interest in learning by integrating the arts into the educational experience.” ALTTA will participate in ArkansasGives on April 6 to raise funds to support these in-school programs. Donations made that day by credit card between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on the website ArkansasGives.org will have bonus dollars added by the Arkansas Community Foundation. Donations originating from individuals or businesses in Garland County will be used to support residency programming in that county.For more information about ALTTA, go to altta.org or contact Craig Welle, executive director, 214-676-0222, or Martha Smither, board president, 501-922-2743.
