Minds in Motion
She asked a simple question - "How do I get to be a reporter?"
She received a danced answer, then another, and then another in many forms of movement as Richmond Ballet's Minds In Motion presented its annual end-of-year performance dedicated to the newspaper industry. Extra! Extra! Dance All About It!
Tiny businessmen and businesswomen with coffee cups, very brief cases and cell phones covered the political scene and gathered copy as the petite female President entered the scene. Junk foods and nutritional foods had a miniature battle in the Health Section, and a tennis game was divinely danced in the Sports pages. All the arts were represented on the Arts pages, while veggies and more was a colorful cornucopia of movement in the Food section. And did the Travel section ever take you places in their pages.
This was an extravaganza in every sense of the word. Over 800 fourth and fifth-grade school children, plus the program's Xcel and Double Xcel teams of exceptional young dancers, packed the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center with high-impact energy. Costumes were simple, bright and quite creative. The kids were well prepared and the choreography was quite inventive and innovative. Nothing boring was allowed.
It was an evening that everyone deserved to be proud of.
Director Brett Bonda began Minds in Motion seven years ago. It is modeled after former New York City Ballet principal Jacques d'Amboise National Dance Institute who took dance into the public school system in New York as part of the regular curriculum. NDI satellites can be found nationwide now, with programs beginning in Europe.
Bonda's program started with 60 dancers in one school and now reaches over 800 children in nine schools in the Richmond area. It conforms to SOL standards, which helps schools improve, and is popular with the kids, helping them improve in physical fitness, arts awareness and self-confidence in addition to their traditional school courses.
Parents, teachers and principals were only too happy to sing the program's praises. Rachel's parents were one of many who hailed this as a big boost for her self-esteem in addition to timing, grace, coordination and physical conditioning. Teachers and principals noted how this creative approach to the subjects they were presenting helped reinforce the subject matter. Students' attention, then their grades, improve because they are now very interested in what is being taught.
That they are also excited is a big boost to any learning process.
The body is an integrated entity but school courses are often taught with just one approach, in lecture form, with students sitting at a desk. d'Amboise has often said, "If you can control your body, you can control your mind." Educators have learned that the more movement and rhythm are involved somehow, the more children retain. It is difficult for children to sit still and learn. Many are misdiagnosed with ADD when the children are simply being children, using their entire body and as many of their senses as they can activate to absorb and process the information.
No child is neglected in any NDI-based program. Every student in the fourth grade is automatically included. Audience members will see children of all sizes, shapes, colors and abilities in the same presentation. It is moving to see, and it moves.
No previous dance training is required. The participants began with basic, natural movements such as walks, hops and gallops, and are taught how to take those basics to a higher level. Those in wheelchairs will also glide and spin in the same floor patterns as their peers, taking geometry to new artistic levels.
Geometry? That's stage blocking and choreography. Math? You'd better know your counts. Languages? Many dance terms are in French. Directions? Paying attention? Keeping your focus? Self confidence? Self control? You have to master those and more to be in a proper dance performance.
No subject is undanceable, from science to history to literature and more. Who can dance about stamp collecting? Minds In Motion did just that last year in Signed, Sealed and Delivered. School teachers appreciate how those offering this program work with their curriculum to help reinforce the course requirements for the year.
d'Amboise said, "The goal was to allow the children of inner city schools to experience what it's like to be an artist -to seek excellence in an art form. It's not to make them dancers, painters or musicians. Using the finest professionals, we introduce them to an activity that demands excellence in themselves. There's no winner or loser as in sports. It's a motivational program for children that works - the constant striving for excellence - getting better and better."
One rule of those teaching this program is never to accept mediocrity. "Good enough" never is. Better is always best.
Minds in Motion - enhancing education through the arts. And how! •