Education Programs
- Stretching for Life is a dance education program for children aged 4 to 17 and is based on Spectrum in Motion's teaching and performance residency at Charter Oak Cultural Center.
The program was designed with curricular links to Connecticut’s Common Core of Learning, including the outcomes for dance:
1. Elements and Skills: Students will identify and perform movement elements and dance skills.
2. Choreography: Students will understand choreographic principles, processes and structures.
3. Meaning: Students will understand how dance creates and communicate meaning.
4. Thinking Skills: Students will apply analytical and evaluative thinking skills in dance.
5. History and Cultures: Students will demonstrate an understanding of dance in various cultures and eras.
6. Healthful Living: Students will make connections between dance and healthful living.
7. Connections: Students will make connections between dance, other disciplines and daily life.
The program goals are:
To provide a framework through which young people from Hartford can celebrate the city of Hartford’s rich resources and experience cultural diversity through dance, music and visual arts.
To create an original contemporary ballet, based on a children's book, enabling the youngsters to participate in the creative process of choreography.
To provide an opportunity for the young people and their families to publicly celebrate their accomplishments.
And to have fun!
- Instruments of Culture is the full day six week summer program which grew from Stretching for Life.
Artistic Director Olivia Davis will give a core group of 12 Neighborhood Studios teen apprentices the leadership-building opportunity to be mentors for younger members of the 55-children summer program that culminates in an original production based on a children’s book. The Neighborhood Studios apprentices will be immersed in their own age-appropriate and level-appropriate studio work in dance, but also be part of a team that helps guide younger children in the development, rehearsal and production of an original full-length children’s ballet which will include a discovery of Hartford. Apprentices will learn choreographic principles, processes and structures, apply analytical and evaluative thinking skills, explore dance in various cultures and eras, and make connections between dance, other artistic disciplines, and daily life. A presentation of the children’s ballet will take place at the end of week five and a performance by the Neighborhood Studios older teens will be showcased at the end of week six. The Apprentice Application is available here as well as on the Greater Hartford Arts Council's website: www.letsgoarts.org
Instruments of Culture is a six-week summer dance intensive beginning June 29 through August 7, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This summer’s production “Totoro” is inspired by a 1988 Japanese anime film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The story centers on the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. While it addresses the concerns of the family due to the mother’s illness and relocation from the city to the countryside, it offers rich areas of creative exploration and lends itself well to casting the broad age range we have in the program. The student performance will take place on Thursday, July 30 at 6 p.m. The Apprentice Showcase will be on Thursday, August 6, also at 6.
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Spotlight On....
- Spectrum TOO!
This group of teen-agers have had several years of training with the Company and are regularly invited to perform with them.
- Children's Performance Ensemble
Ms. Davis selects youngsters to receive additional training to prepare them for additional performances.