Between Confucius and Cotton Stands the Land of the Teaching Artist

This post is from Open Dream Ensemble's Artistic Producer and General Manager, Rebecca Nussbaum.

As Open Dream Ensemble heads out to its third residency of the season, I am reminded of this quote attributed to Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” In the past weeks the Open Dream artists have made the transition from performers to teaching artists. They have entered classrooms and coaxed the students into caves, caverns, and canyons. They have hiked up mountains to experience volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides. They have explored valleys, ecosystems, and food chains. They have dived into oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, and more – all through the performing arts. The purpose of integrating the arts into the science standards is to have the students experience what the standards mean through being on, in, at, under, around, between and betwixt the many aspects of natural science they are mandated to learn. Drama and music are used to tell the story of a volcanic eruption preceded by an earthquake and landslide. Vocal techniques are used to examine how various landforms toss sound around. Dancing is used as a tool to better understand how the producer, consumer, and decomposer flow together. And the hope for the learner is, “I do and I understand.” One can read through the blog posts of the Open Dream cast to see that the experience of teaching artistry is one that requires a great deal of thought, preparation, and learning. One of the wonderful attributes of being an Open Dream artist is the desire to continue to improve, learn, experience, and take on challenges. This season’s deeply talented cast of eight are exceptional artists with an incredible array of talents and skills. They are blessed with alacritous minds and generous spirits. But mostly, they have the drive to keep learning, and thus teaching. After all…. "Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." ~John Cotton Dana