Philadelphia Ballet
How do you foster an environment where students feel safe to tell their story through dance?
Ballet isn’t the only part of this ballet school’s program- they use different kinds of music and dance to encourage students to express different aspects of their identities. Watch how the students are responding to the music by dancing in different interpretive ways. By giving the students freedom in how they choose to respond to the music, these teaching artists are giving them a chance to explore their own identities.
“Our chosen frontier is to navigate teaching the basic principles of Ballet but acknowledge that it has a legacy of Eurocentrism and conformity. We strive to develop individual expression in students while still valuing the uniformity of the genre in a culturally responsive classroom… We want students to come away with understanding that dance is a tool to communicate story and that they should feel empowered to contribute their own story, movement and voice to a collective dance.”
-Philadelphia Ballet