Contribution by Ms Valerie Avery – Mentor and MYP Art teacher
This week MYP 2A participated in a great online workshop from a former ballerina from the Scapino Ballet. Annemarie danced with Scapino ballet for over 15 years and is a great instructor for the students. She has 2 daughters ages 14 and 12 so she really knows our target audience.
MYP2A is currently working on the unit: “Narrative in Art”. We started the year with Pop Art portraits of the students with different painting materials on canvas. Now we are looking at a portrait that is not so ‘stiff’. Showing emotion with light and photography. Scapino introduced dance as a story you tell with your body. Not just emotion with your face but with your pose, posture, stance.
Annemarie started the workshop with a bit of history of the Scapino ballet. She then explained how dance can tell a story: the contrast in movements, but also the expressions of the dancers, lights, costumes and partnering between dancers. Students learned a short piece of an existing choreography of the Scapino ballet, after which they were shown a video from the Scapino Ballet of the same choreography. They ended the workshop with the creation of their own choreography. All students were asked to come up with one signature move. All moves added together resulted in their own special choreography! This short video clip shows a small part of their choreography.
The idea of ballet can be a little daunting for some teenagers, but Annemarie had them all engaged, challenged and smiling. I am excited to see how 2a incorporate this into their Narrative photography. Learn more about using common phrases such as ” sorry for the short notice ” and similar phrases. You can easily find alternative phrases on the phrasepicker website. Learn new phrases and words.
