Movement Toward Literacy
Society for the Performing Arts supports exploration of the performing arts and creative writing as a way to enhance literacy - an individual’s ability to understand spoken words, interpret written words, and develop and appreciation for the written and spoken word. We also encourage collaboration and creativity as essential 21st Century Skills.
Movement Toward Literacy (MTL) initiatives utilize the power of the performing arts to teach active listening, articulate speech, coherent writing and reading for knowledge and comprehension.
MTL initiatives include a summer residency, classroom workshops and after school workshops for ages 12 to 18, plus professional development for dance educators, English teachers and teaching artists.
The professional development workshops with Paul Taylor Dance Company and/or Mark Morris Dance Group will demonstrate how professionals in modern dance connect to various elements of poetic language and physical interpretation of text. Since dance performances are almost completely void of dialogue, dance creators and performers express feeling and ideas through movement of the body and dance composition. The teaching artists will demonstrate how educators can use dance theater technique to enhance students’ understanding of classic and contemporary poetry.
Participants in the professional development workshop will be able to observe how teaching artists implement techniques and facilitate a student workshop as part of the session.
In collaboration with Writers in the Schools and Ad Deum Dance Company, classroom and after school workshops will focus on the composition of original poems & monologues, the oral interpretation of poetry and the creation of movement and choreography based on metaphors, imagery and poetic language.
Select participants will be showcase the slam poetry, choral reading and dance elements of MTL as part of the H-E-B Performance Preludes for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Pedrito Martinez.
In addition to crafting poems and dance performances at school, participants will have monthly opportunities for creative expression with Writers in the Schools during their Meta-Four Friday workshops. As a culminating event for Movement Toward Literacy, Society for the Performing Arts and Writers in the Schools plan to co-host the Space City Grand Slam in April 2014.
SPA is currently developing Movement Toward Literacy events for the 2013-14 season with the following community and school partners: Harbach-Ripley Neighborhood Center, Ripley House Neighborhood Center, La Porte Neighborhood Center, Miller Intermediate School, Key Middle School, Yates High School and Furr High School
Tentative Schedule of Events:
8/13/13
| MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 8/20/13-8/25/13 | AAADT Summer Residency
|
| 9/3/13 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House
|
| 9/10/13 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley
|
| 10/01/13 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 10/8/13 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 10/10/13 | MTL Professional Development Workshop
with Paul Taylor Dance Company
|
| 10/25/13 | Meta-Fourth Friday at Jones Hall
|
| 11/5/13 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 11/12/13 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 12/3/13 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 12/10/13 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 1/7/14 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 1/14/14 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 1/31/14 | MTL Professional Development Workshop
with Mark Morris Dance Group
|
| 2/4/14 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 2/11/14 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 3/4/14 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 3/11/14 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 3/14/14 | Ad Deum Prelude for AAADT
|
| 3/15/14 | Writers in the Schools Prelude for AAADT
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| 4/1/14 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 4/8/14 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
| 4/25/14 | Space City Grand Slam
|
| 5/3/14 | Furr HS & Ripley House Prelude for Pedrito Martinez
|
| 5/6/14 | MTL Workshop at Furr HS & Ripley House |
| 5/13/14 | MTL Workshops at LaPorte & Harbach-Ripley |
For more information about Movement Toward Literacy, please contact SPA at 713.632.8102 or education@spahouston.org. ![]()
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