Program Description
This 35 minute music / dance / drama features four professional dancers who portray a group of animals who live and go to school in a delightful forest. String Sounds Quartet provides the classical music to which the dancers perform as well as the storytelling prologue to each scene. The program is presented in play form using costumes, props, and minimal backdrops. A school "chorus" is optional and will sing two original songs as part of the program.
This program is only available on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
Project Objectives
This project is designed to introduce elementary age students to both the world of string quartet music and to the world of professional dance within the context of an entertaining and amusing music / dance / drama. Considerable research went into deciding how to present the topic of bullying within our program. The three main points our story is meant to emphasize are (1) telling about bullying is necessary and it is not tattling. (2) It is very important for students to tell a responsible adult about bullying who can intervene between the bully and the other students. (3) All bullying incidents need to be documented (written down) by a responsible adult so that the incidents are a matter of school records.
We wish to stress that this is a work of fiction and is not a realistic model of how students, teachers and school districts will deal with bullying. However, the program is an excellent starting point for student discussions about bullying. Story characters are two dogs, two cats, one skunk, and Mother Nature with her magic wand.
Story Synopsis
The animals of the forest love dividing into teams and practicing running, and they get healthy exercise at the same time. One day Scully Skunk shows up and says he is taking the place of Brownie, who doesn't feel well. Things go from bad to worse with Scully bullying all of the other animals and threatening that if they tell on him he will make them very sorry. The animals write down evidence of the bullying and take it to Mother Nature. She calls a meeting of the animals and announces what Scully's punishment for bullying is going to be. There is no "quick fix" for Scully, but after a long period of counseling and of making amends to all of the animals he had bullied, he is finally able to rejoin the group of students.
Teacher preparation and follow-up materials will be provided to schools in an attempt to assist teachers to integrate the performance experience into their classrooms.
These performances will be, in most cases, a child's first opportunity to attend a live performance by professional dancers and musicians.
(Photo of Desert Dance Theatre dancers courtesy of Cameo Studios, Scottsdale, Arizona)