05/15/2007

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Third-graders at Frankfort Elementary School listen to instructions from the director of the Michigan Dance Collective Philip Leete.

No child left behind

Project brings dance to every Benzie County third-grader

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Christian Johnson, 9, listens to instructions. Third graders participated in a dance and visual arts project focusing on the so-called Trail of Tears.

FRANKFORT — Third-graders at Frankfort Elementary School could have learned about the so-called Trail of Tears the old-fashioned way — through social studies books.

Instead they explored the forced relocation in 1838 of the Cherokee Native American tribe to the Western United States through a dance and visual arts project aptly titled "Mosaic.”

An outreach effort of the Traverse City-based Michigan Dance Collective and the Crystal Lake Art Center in Frankfort, the eight-week project involved third-graders at Betsie Valley, Crystal Lake, Lake Ann, and Platte River elementary schools and third- and fifth-graders at Frankfort Elementary School, said Lee Harper, executive director of the Art Center.

"The goal of the program was to serve every third grader in (Benzie) County and we did that,” Harper said.

Classes spent four weeks working with professional dancer Philip Leete to create a group dance centered around a topic they were studying, then four weeks with local artists Meg Louwsma and Ken Lake to design sets, costumes and props. At the end of the period, they performed for audiences at local schools.

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Maisie Nugent and Scott Cole, both 9, pass along imaginary apples.

"It teaches a broader perspective and different ways of looking at things,” said Leete, co-founder of the Dance Collective, a contemporary professional company, and programming and event coordinator for the City Opera House in Traverse City. "It's a totally different way of teaching the things teachers have been teaching, some of them, for 20 years.”

Besides learning about topics ranging from geometry, weather and Midwest industry to songs of the South and the life cycle of butterflies, students gained a new perspective on art, said Frankfort Elementary art teacher Eileen Millard.

"The kids are learning that art for theater is different than art for an art show,” she said, adding that props for the dances included black bears, a longhouse, coonskin caps, bear claw and bead necklaces and fruit made from materials like Styrofoam, tissue paper, drawer liner and construction paper. "It has to be quick and exaggerated in color and texture, so it has an impact.”

Bringing professional artists into the schools for an integrated project also gave students a creative boost at a time of year when they are often restless, she said.

"They like art, but to have some new and different people and kind of a different way of working is exciting for them. It's a different energy level,” she said. "And it's a good time to do it: at the end of the year.”

Leete said he based the project on a educational program of metropolitan Detroit's Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, with which he danced for five years before moving to northern Michigan. It's one way to bring dance into schools where the art form is not incorporated into the curriculum, he added.

Besides helping to build teamwork, he said the project teaches students how to communicate in non-verbal ways and gives them a chance to experience the creative side of dance rather than just the entertainment side that is more focused on technique.

"Third-graders are great. They don't have the inhibition of sixth-graders because they don't have the guy-girl oddities,” he said. "Third-graders aren't worried about fashion like a fifth-grader would be. If I'm entertaining, a third-grader will follow me down almost any road.”

This was the second year for the Benzie County project, which expanded this year to include Frankfort-Elberta Area Schools, Harper said. Funding for the $20,000 project came from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA), Target Corp. and a private foundation with Benzie-area ties, although MCACA support was held up mid-way following a moratorium on state-issued grants.

The project not only helps build clients and audiences for the two presenting organizations but enhances and supports the arts program in the schools, Harper said.

"We're rural and the people in our county don't have the opportunities people in other counties have in the arts,” she said.

Organizers say they hope to make the project an annual affair.

"We already have kids that are saying, 'Do we get to do that next year?'” Millard said.