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| Overlooking New York Harbor, the soaring glass-enclosed World Financial Center Winter Garden is home to the Arts & Events Program, an innovative, year-round series of free perform- ances, exhibitions and festivals created to showcase emerging as well as established artists. The Winter Garden was badly damaged in the Nine-Eleven terrorist attacks but was almost fully restored within six months. The June 23 Dancing Classrooms program was part of the New York City River to River Festival. |
| TOP — In the restored World Financial Center Winter Garden, young dancers from NYC public schools competed June 23 for the Dancing Classrooms grand prize. In the audience were Omaha Public Schools superintendent John Mackiel and Mrs. Mackiel, ARTery artistic director Marian Fey, and Omaha Dancing Classrooms teaching artist Michele Patterson. J. Mackiel, Fey, and Patterson are pictured at left with Pierre Dulaine, American Ballroom Theater artistic director and Dancing Classrooms founder. |
| Dancing Classrooms—Up close & personal in the Big Apple |
| World Financial Center Winter Garden |
| Midtown in Omaha, Nebraska Dancing Classrooms News |
| 'Art Is for Everyone' |
| Dancing Classrooms liaisons help coordinate growing program ARTery poised to become regional Dancing Classrooms hub experienced dancers and educators Michele Patterson and Carol Burk, as ARTery Liaisons, are helping artistic director Marian Fey coordinate program details. They conduct teaching-artist observations; stay in touch with TAs, building principals, and classroom teachers; and troubleshoot any problems that arise — in addition to teaching Dancing Classrooms sessions themselves, working at their “day jobs,” and caring for their families. Carol has taught dance in other ARTery programs as well. In October 2007, Michele and Marian participated in a Dancing Classrooms workshop at the American Ballroom Theater in New York, where they were trained as Senior Teaching Artists—a giant step toward enabling the ARTery to become a regional hub, training and mentoring other Dancing Classroom sites in the midwest. |
More Dancing Classrooms news...
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| ABOVE: Omaha Public Schools superintendent John Mackiel, ARtery artistic director Marian Fey, Dancing Classrooms founder Pierre Dulaine, and Dancing Classrooms liaison Michele Patterson, in New York June 23 for the NYC Grand Final competition |
| Year 3 — bigger and better than ever! Dancing Classrooms than in last year's program, thanks to the Sherwood Foundation and The Rose, which donated training facilities for teaching artists. New to the ARTery's Dancing Classrooms program in the Omaha Public Schools this year:
The ARTery brought Dancing Classrooms to Omaha in the spring of 2006, starting with | |||||||||||||||||||||
| four schools. The program was a hit with kids, parents, and teachers, and there were eight host schools in the spring of 2007. This year, fifteen schools will participate. Each school will have its own Showcase, as in the past, but the culminating events will be competitive semifinals each semester and the districtwide championship in May. |
Participating in the fall 2007 season were Belle Ryan, Crestridge, Druid Hill, Fontenelle, Harrison, Kellom, Liberty, and Rose Hill elementary schools. Spring-semester 2008 participants are Belvedere, Catlin, Columbian, Dundee, Gomez, Joslyn, and Springville elementary schools, and Beveridge and Norris middle schools. Each class is led by a trained, experienced dancer, called a Teaching Artist, who works with the classroom teacher to make the experience more than recreation. |
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| Copyright 2008 The ARTery, Omaha, Nebraska. Contact: 402-556-7608, info@arteryomaha.org. Website by Zero Gravity, www.LifeIsPoetry.net |
