Stage Becomes a Classroom for Callanan Students
Callanan Middle School students get a unique lesson on stage at Des Moines Performing Arts with the Diavolo Dance Theater.
There may be no grander example of partnership between a community’s private sector and its public schools than Des Moines Performing Arts’ APPLAUSE SERIES. APPLAUSE brings world-class performing artists and diverse art forms to DMPA stages throughout the school year for one-hour matinee performances that are tailored to suit school audiences. Each performance connects to in-class curriculum, providing irresistible opportunities to learn about and through the arts on fieldtrips with the pizazz of a night on the town.
“Last year we broke the previous season’s ticket sales record in the spring,” said DMPA’s Communications Manager Cindy Hughes Anliker. “This year we broke last year’s record in the fall!”
We’re talking in excess of 56,000 tickets, and counting, at the almost-too-good-to-be-true price of $1 per student (thanks to community partners and private donors underwriting the costs of bringing the shows here).
The series is aimed at schools throughout the state but it’s breaking box office records thanks in large part to the enthusiastic participation of the state’s largest school district, DMPS. Each show in the series comes equipped with study guides prepared by DMPA staffers Karoline Myers and Michelle McDonald so the audiences know what they’re getting into (@ a buck apiece!) before they pile onto the yellow buses and head downtown.
The current production in the 2014-15 series, Transit Space, is being performed this week by the LA-based high energy troupe that calls itself Diavolo. In addition to their matinee performances at the Civic Center troupe members are conducting workshops in schools while they’re in town.
Wednesday morning they were at Callanan Middle School working with students before heading over to Harding Middle School in the afternoon to facilitate a professional development session with faculty and staff.
Callanan’s annual participation in APPLAUSE is but one aspect of longstanding support from the school’s business partner, American Enterprise Group, Inc. AEG doesn’t just write checks so the whole school can go to a show at the Civic Center once in a while that most of the students wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to see. Throughout the year the downtown company sends groups of employees over to Callanan to tutor and mentor.
“We are so grateful to American Enterprise for all the help they provide,” said Callanan principal Dawn Stahly. “They are generous with all kinds of resources; money, yes, for experiences like this, but just as importantly with the time and talents they share with our students on a regular basis.”
Callanan’s student body, the perfect word in this context, has been readying for the mobile assembly in curricular areas from PE to math. Physics were the star behind the scenes of this show even if the athletic artists on stage were the objects of the ovations.
“Diavolo is a fusion of many different movement vocabularies such as everyday movement, ballet, contemporary, acrobatics, gymnastics, martial arts, and hip- hop,” it says on the company’s website. Architecture in Motion is how they put it. And how!
Whether in workshop or as part of their live performance, the Diavolo performers, five men; five women, emphasize the tenets of teamwork, trust and communication and the importance of them in all walks and facets of life, absolutely including family and classroom.
Chisa Yamaguchi was in charge yesterday at the workshop in the Callanan auditorium for students who’d signed up in their PE classes. Besides being a performer, she is Co-Director of the Diavolo Institute, the organization’s community outreach branch with a strong educational emphasis.
“Come on, young ones…” she exhorted, and they responded with enthusiasm. “Remember: trust, teamwork and communication! That’s how we win, that’s how we get along at home, that’s how we succeed at school.” They obeyed, tentatively and clumsily at first, but grinning nonstop.
Twenty-four hours later, at a time of day when most folks’ morning coffee is just kicking in Diavolo was kicking into high gear using the Civic Center stage as a jumping off point.
Besides Callanan, DMPS middle schools with groups in attendance at Thursday morning’s show were Brody, McCombs and Harding. There was audience interaction, there were ramps and bodies constantly moving and soaring to and fro, there was music and reflective narrative, and there was rapt attention throughout.
So don’t be surprised if you hear the kids bounding up or down the stairs to the cry of “Diavolo!” You might even try it yourself the next time there’s a puddle to jump or some furniture to rearrange.
At the outset of Transit Space each troupe member introduced themselves and recited a brief educational and experiential resume. All of them hold college degrees, something not lost on the young and impressionable audience. When the performers made time for some Q&A at the end of the dazzling show one of the first things someone wanted to know was what BFA stands for.
“That’s a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree,” explained Rico Velazquez (degrees in dance and theater; also played football and wrestled) for who knows how many of the kids’ future reference.
Thanks to all of the following community partners who make APPLAUSE possible for so many students. They deserve a rousing round of their own: Alliant Energy, American Republic Insurance Company, Bradford and Sally Austin, Bank of America, Casey’s General Stores, EMC Insurance Companies, Greater Des Moines Community Foundation, Hy-Vee, John Deere Des Moines Operations, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, Richard and Deborah McConnell, Pioneer Hi-Bred – a DuPont business, Polk County, Prairie Meadows, Principal Financial Group, Sargent Family Foundation, Target, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo & Co., Willis Auto Campus, Windsor Charitable Foundation and more than 200 individual donors.
