"A Night with Raul Midón" at Sabathani Community Center this Friday!

Fall Musical Theater Dance Classes!

Ordway’s Musical Theater Dance classes will act as a dance boot camp, preparing performers to dance in various musical theater styles. Led by seasoned dance theater practitioners, participants build their dance repertoire with instruction in tap, jazz, ballet, and hip-hop as well as expand their dance vocabulary and audition techniques.

Classes will run 90 minutes and consist of a 45-minute warm-up with instruction in dance technique and 45 minutes spent learning a Broadway musical theater dance combination.

Four classes of musical theater dance are taught by veteran Ordway performer, Lisa Bartholomew-Given. One class of theater tap dance is taught by James A. Rocco, Vice President of Programming and Producing Artistic Director at the Ordway.

$75 for 5 class Fall session

Every Saturday, Oct 5 – Nov 9 (except Oct 19)

9-10:30am

Young Performing Artists Ages 12-18

11:30am – 1pm

Adult Performing Artists Age 18+

To register, call 651.224.4222

Space is limited to 25 dancers

Pre-requisite

You must have completed a beginner’s course in dance or have previous experience with dance and choreography in a musical.

Participants will need jazz shoes (jazz sneakers preferred) and tap shoes.

Welcome Alan Post, Education Assistant!

Greetings!

My name is Alan Post. I graduated from Hamline University in 2008 with a degree in Communication Studies. I’m originally from Yorba Linda, CA – “The land of gracious living!” I currently reside in St. Paul, MN. A quick fun, yet embarrassing, fact about me –when I was 18 years old and fresh off my first year in college spending the summer in sunny southern California, I was on the MTV dating show “NEXT.” Like I said, very embarrassing! I’m a team player at the Ordway and wear many “hats” being a part of the marketing department, ticket services team, and now, the education department.

We are very excited for Alan to join the Education Team! 

Welcome, Alan!

Featured Article: Ordway Partnership with WE WIN Institute, Connections to Independence and Sabathani Community Center

Here's a great article from InsightNews.com covering the partnership between the Ordway, WE WIN Institute, Connections to Independence and Sabathani Community Center that happened this summer. The program brought youth together with professional artists and "...helped children develop a respect for the arts and gave them an opportunity to participate in all aspects of the arts."

The Ordway is incredibly proud of our partnership with WE Win Institute, Connections to Independence, Sabathani Community Center and all of the young people who participated!

It's National Arts in Education Week!

National Arts in Education Week is September 8th-14th!

Here's a message from Sandra Ruppert, Arts Education Partnership (AEP) Director, in regard to National Arts in Education Week:

In July 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution #275 designating the second week of September as “Arts in Education Week.” The resolution states, in part: "[...] Arts education, comprising a rich array of disciplines including dance, music, theatre, media arts, literature, design, and visual arts, is a core academic subject." 

Since that time, arts education has been the subject of news stories across the nation featuring both the opportunities and the obstacles to ensuring the arts are an essential element of a complete and balanced education for all students.

AEP recently asked a group of leaders in arts and education to share their thoughts on "What story about the arts in education still needs to be told?" You’ll find their candid, insightful, and eloquent responses on AEP's National Arts in Education Week Webpage.

It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story, according to an ancient Native American saying. Let’s make our collective voices heard. Add your voice to the stories that still need to be told about the arts in education and post it to our Facebook page or share it in an email.

Thank you for the extraordinary work that you all do every day on behalf of our nation’s young people. We join you in celebrating the power of the arts in education.

More Arts Education Resources from the AEP :

• What School Leaders Can do to Increase Arts Education (2011): As the top building-level leaders, school principals play a key role in ensuring every student receives a high-quality arts education as part of a complete education. This brochure-length guide, prepared by AEP with support from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) offers three concrete actions—supported by low-cost or no-cost strategies—school principals can take to increase arts education in their schools. (Download the PDF)
• Preparing Students for the Next America (2013): AEP’s latest research bulletin offers a snapshot of how the arts support achievement in school, bolster skills demanded of a 21st century workforce, and enrich the lives of young people and communities. It draws on the research in AEP’s ArtsEdSearch.org, the nation’s first clearinghouse of research on the impact of arts education on students and their school communities. (Download the PDF)
• New Opportunities for Interest-Driven Arts Learning in a Digital Age, The Wallace Foundation (2013): This report delves into “interest-driven arts learning,” that is, exploration of the arts that emerges from children’s and teens’ own creative passions. The report identifies challenges and offers suggestions for future research, practice, and policy that build on current knowledge about interest-driven arts learning to enable more youth, particularly disadvantaged youth, to participate in the arts. (Download the full report)
• Six Reasons That the Arts are the Ideal Vehicle to Teach 21st Century Skills (2013): Americans for the Arts (AFTA) Artsblog post by Lisa Phillips, CEO of Canada's Academy of Stage and Studio Arts shares how the arts offer an untapped opportunity to catapult 21st century students toward achieving their goals in life.

Ordway Education Receives $60,605 Grant!

Ordway Education has received a $60,605 grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board Arts Learning program for residencies with three teaching artists (Leah Nelson, Karla Nweje, and T. Mychael Rambo). In these residencies, students will connect learning to artistic and cultural content in shows by Rennie Harris Puremovement, Step Afrika!, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. These residencies are being developed within the Ordway models Dance to Learn and Share the Rhythm and align the program Taking Our Place Centerstage: the African Diaspora in Harmony. 

 Congratulations to the Education team and our teaching artists!

innOVATION Grant Awards Program

Ovation, America’s only arts network, has partnered with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH); and Americans for the Arts (AFTA) to introduce the second annual innOVATION Grant Awards Program. 

This year’s innOVATION grant awards will be made to schools that have developed model STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) programs in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of integrating the arts into educational curriculum. The innOVATION Grant Program invites school administrators and teachers to submit programs that have effectively incorporated the arts with these core subjects into their curriculum and can show the creativity and innovation of the program as well as robust partnerships between the arts and their communities to enhance learning. innOVATION STEAM grant awards of $10,000 will be made to up to eight schools with exemplary STEAM programs. Open applications are currently being accepted. Elementary through high school-level schools within the United States, including charter and magnet schools, are eligible to apply online at http://www.ovationtv.com/innovation-steam. 

The submission deadline is October 28, 2013. The final eight grant award recipients will be announced at a special ceremony in Washington, DC, in early 2014.

A great opportunity!

Ordway Education Honored by the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures!

Ordway Education will be honored at the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures with the Pro Lingua Award for our support of education in world languages and cultures.  This award is given annually to a deserving organization that promotes and contributes to world language education. 

“You were nominated because of your Education Programs which always feature a variety of world music and dance, your Global Arts Workshops which allow students to explore cultures from around the world in a hands-on way, and the performances you bring to the Flint Hills International Children's Festival which allow students to experience music and dance from around the world.  Not only do you provide programs of exceptional quality, but you work hard to make performances and activities accessible to all schools regardless of socio-economic status.  The bus reimbursements and very reasonable ticket prices make it possible for all students to experience languages and cultures outside of the classroom. “

-Kay Edberg, MCTLC Awards Chair

From the ushers to the production team, this award truly belongs to everyone at the Ordway whose efforts contribute to the success of the school performances and Children’s Festival each year.

Kristie Gaalswyck and Erin Matteson will be accepting the award on October 18^th on behalf of the Ordway at the MCTLC annual conference.