Page 14
Students Meet Jaime Vargas :
Arcola Elementary School Dance Experience
By Ann Kipling Brown
The Arcola Project
This is the 3rd year that we have held the dance experience at Arcola Elementary School in Regina . Initiated by one of the teachers , Cara Calibaba , a graduate of the Arts Education program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina and led by Ann Kipling Brown , dance professor in the Arts Education program , this experience has involved nearly 200 young students and over 70 university students over the past 3 years . Cara has taught at the school for those 3 years and felt from her background in the Arts Education program that one experience in particular would benefit her students : a dance experience where the students would develop their movement vocabulary and create a dance that would explore an idea of interest to her students .
Art Education Students
Typically , the experience takes place in the winter semester of the 2 nd year when the Arts Education students are taking a dance education course . Their experience in dance varies from those who have danced from an early age to those who have just begun . However , they have all taken a common course in dance where they have explored the elements of dance , participated in a variety of dance styles , investigated the Canadian dance scene , and created dances of their own . In the Arcola project , the 2 nd year Arts Education students have the opportunity to put into practice some of the things they have learned in the previous course . They now have the experience of dancing with and teaching dance to young students .
Project 2013
This year the experience involved 80 young students in Grades 3 , 4 and 5 together with 20 university students over 5 weeks , meeting every Tuesday afternoon . Each university student had a small group of students from the Grades 3 , 4 and 5 cluster . Over the 5 weeks , the groups worked well together and bonded as a group , becoming comfortable in sharing ideas with each other and performing their dances for the other groups .
Each session began with a general warm up that evolved into a Sports Dance led by Ann , followed by the university students teaching mini lessons to their groups , and ending with a time to write in a collective journal . The mini lessons focused on spatial concepts that explored shape , levels , direction , different ways of travelling , and working with a partner . A question was posed for each journal entry , such as describing the movements that had been explored that day or asking how the students felt about the dance sequence they had created with their dance teacher .
A Special Event
During our session in Week 2 , Jaime Vargas , ballet master of the Canada ’ s Royal Winnipeg Ballet ( RWB ), joined us http :// www . rwb . org / company / artistic / jaimevargas . Robin Poitras , artistic director of New Dance Horizons and a performer , choreographer , and educator based in Regina , accompanied Vargas . Jaime , with his work on an Outreach Project for the RWB , wanted to work with students in a public school as well as the traditional studio setting . He talked about his life as a dancer . The students sat in awe of this man who moves elegantly and speaks with an accent . I asked the university students to work with their group on some questions for Jaime . They had many questions that ranged from “ how many hours a week did he train ?” to “ what was his favourite role in dance ?” They wanted to know what it was like to leave his hometown of Mexico City to train and dance , first in London , and then in Australia . They were inspired by his tenacity to continue after he had been told he would not make it in the ballet world and intrigued when they found out he was paid to dance ! Jaime answered the many questions from the young students and they continued to pursue him after the session was over .
We continued the session with Jaime by showing him our Sports Dance , which had the students performing the selected sports movements in unison , concluding with their own arrangement of a selected sport . The latter ranged from Taekwondo to Rhythmic Gymnastics . He responded to the dance by performing some of the movements in the ballet style . For instance , our shooting in basketball produced a grande jété that brought the comment from a young boy that “ he ( Jaime ) was like a deer .”
continued on page 15