Dance Workshop: Art & Creative Movement in the Garden

After participating in this field trip, students will be better able to:
• Demonstrate how movement and gesture can communicate stories, ideas, and emotions without words
• Discuss how different animals can represent values, character traits, and aspects of identity
• Identify personal strengths, build self-awareness, and express aspects of their own identity through creative movement and artmaking

Program agenda:

5 min | Welcome / Introduction
• Divide students into 2 smaller groups for activity rotations. One group will participate in dance activities while the other group makes the art project. After 40 minutes, the groups switch activities.

40 min | Dance Workshop
• Led by teaching artist Chitra Subramanian, students visit 3-4 different areas of the garden to see animal sculptures including sculptures of a lion, swan, dogs, and birds.
• With each animal sculpture, Chitra will tell a story about Hillwood’s founder, Marjorie Post, that highlights a particular character trait or value associated with the animal.
• Chitra will guide students through using gestures and poses inspired by Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form that includes use of gestures to represent different animals.

40 min | Art Project
• Led by Hillwood’s museum teachers, students will visit 2 rooms on the first floor of Hillwood’s mansion to see examples of animals on artwork – this will include an example of a decorative box with an animal figurine
• After seeing examples of animals on art, students will then get to decorate a gold-colored keepsake box, choosing an animal sticker to highlight – students will choose the animal based on a quality it represents that they find personally meaningful (such as bravery, loyalty, etc.)

5 min | Wrap-up / Departure