Edwin Olvera and Kelly Munn with the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School students
Since February, the Pilobolus Institute, the teaching arm of Pilobolus, has sent master teachers Edwin Olvera, Kelly Munn, Holly Shunkey, and Otis Cook to schools in New Haven, Connecticut to spread our message of creative collaboration and productive play. As part of the Pilobolus Project, in partnership with Shubert Theater and New Haven schools, the Pilobolus Institute taught master classes at 14 sites in Greater New Haven, including a three-week after-school residency program at the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School, an interdistrict middle school with an arts emphasis. The project involved children of varying ages and abilities, from 3rd graders to high school students, some with little or no prior dance experience.
When asked about the three-week residency at Betsy Ross, Kelly Munn said she saw some great potential in her students. “Because Betsy Ross is a magnet school, the 16 boys who were participating in the daily workshops came from different towns and did not necessarily know each other. The initial task is to get the children to open up to each other.” Munn added, “It takes time to build trust physically, emotionally, and creatively, but once they developed that trust together, they were able to collaborate and create work together. They listened to each other. Once you remember that these are 16 boys from different areas and of mixed ages, it is pretty amazing.”
Over 70 students participated in the Pilobolus Project to learn how Pilobolus applies the concepts of creativity, collaboration, and play to create work. Edwin Olvera said he wanted to “show the students that, as long as they are committed, they don’t have to be ‘dancers’ to dance.” Even though some of the class activities may seem like games, he hopes that his students were able to get a feel for Pilobolus’ playful approach to making things. “We wanted to show them how real artists create work. Even when we play, we can make it into something.”
This Friday, as the frosting on the cake of the project, the students will get the opportunity to attend a Pilobolus Kids Show at the Shubert Theater in New Haven. Pilobolus will perform again that evening with a full showing of new and old repertoire.
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This is one of my favorite pilobolus institute projects. It is super! We need more things like this in our schools. It helps prevent number two pencil bubbling robots!
Matt Kent
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