Diligent and Cerebral

This post is from our prized veteran Open Dreamer, Haydee Thompson. Through the years she has guided one dancer and now five musicians in the craft of teaching artistry. She is pictured here working with a group of fourth-graders last season.



This week we were assigned our teaching partners. I was not surprised when told Cameron would be mine. Every year I am paired with a musician and last year my partner was Guy who was also a trombonist. Drama requires using your body as an instrument and completely relies on the physical, whereas a musicians craft tends to be more cerebral in nature. I like working with musicians. So far I have been lucky to see them as diligent in there facts and enjoying the study of science. I often can rely on them to be a great source of knowledge which inspires me to co-create exciting lesson plans. Cameron is doing a great job and I know it will be an absolute pleasure to work with him this season!

IT'S BACK TO SCHOOL FOR THE OPEN DREAM ENSEMBLE!

This post is from Open Dream Ensemble artist Julianne Harper. This is Julianne's fourth season in Open Dream and as you can see from the photo, she is a pro at working with children during our residencies!


Our Teaching Artist training began this week, and let me be the first to tell you, I've had a few "Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" moments while brushing up on K-5th grade science curriculum. Relearning information old and discovering information new, has my curiosity and imagination fully engaged! There are so many exciting parallels to the arts and sciences. We are hard at work developing ways to use music, theater and dance to help further the understanding of earth's life cycles, ecosystems and fossilization processes. The hope is that an observer of our class will gain new understanding of creative thought and performance art while solidifying lessons learned in this year's Science curriculum. The student will leave the class with an equally enhanced understanding of each!