DANSANTE DAYS

DANSANTE DAYS
For the past three years, the Utah Festival Opera in Logan, Utah has conducted a program with students within the northern part of the state, to assist them and their teachers in teaching the Utah State Core Curriculum within the social study discipline through use of the creative arts. Focusing on the 3rd grade study of pioneers, mountain men and Indians, UFO devised ways in which students learned songs of the three indigenous groups and their history on native and authentic instruments, they learned how to paint and make block prints of Indian designs, they learned the dances of the groups, and stories of the groups through creative expression of drama and pantomime. They enacted rendezvous, pow-wows and the challenges of the frontier pioneers. The work was conducted during the day, with a performance held for the parents that evening. The results in internalizing the learning for the children was remarkable. The program is based upon the dictum set forth by Benjamin Franklin when he said “Read to me and I will forget, involve me and I will learn”. Perhaps one of the greatest impacts of learning through the arts is the fact that it can involve the creativity of every child. There is less comparison and judgement in the arts, and students will often become involved and participatory when they are singing, dancing, painting, designing etc. Two years ago, the program centered around World War II. One of the most extraordinary moments was seeing a group of 3rd graders pantomime a story told to them first hand by a survivor of the prisoner of war camp. The moment of deliverance, when the Allied Troops arrived, was chilling. The reality of the moment was far more profound for those participating children, than reading about the incident in a text book. Involvement of this nature makes learning of this nature personal and genuine.