The Arts
At Studio we believe that
art is a natural and necessary form of human
expression. In
fact, The Studio School derives its name from
the image of an artist working in a studio. Within
each discipline (art, singing, and chorus, instrumental
music, dance, and theatre) we offer a carefully
orchestrated, sequential and incremental learning
experience tailored to each child throughout
the early childhood, elementary, and middle school
years.
Visual Arts
In
the early years, children are offered different
basic materials such as: clay, paint, crayons,
chalk, string, fabric, paper, scissors, glue,
tape, etc. All materials are presented
in a non-judgmental way, unstructured and without
specific instructions on how to use them or
what to do. Thus, students are free to
experiment and examine the properties of the
materials, reaching deep inside themselves
to express their creative vision with integrity
of intellect and emotion. As children
grow, they work with more complex and subtle
materials as part of their artistic expression,
helping them to focus with clarity and go deeper
into the process, while providing them with
the necessary tools, techniques, and concepts
to do so.
As students continue to experiment
throughout their preschool and elementary years,
they discover for themselves a plethora of creative
preferences and styles, and soon begin empirically
to forge their own artistic direction. When ready,
they are encouraged to share their creative ideas
and begin to work on murals with others. Together
in this process of give-and-take, exchanging
and challenging artistic decisions, students
learn to synthesize their individual creative
vision into one complete artistic expression.
In
Middle School, students are introduced to formal
art techniques as tools for further exploration
of their creative abilities and future direction. They
study Art History, individual artists and their
works, and how to describe and identify artistic
styles. By the time they graduate, students
have a portfolio of a variety of work.
Vocal Music
At
Studio, the younger students sing together daily. Songs
are varied and engaging, helping the children
to appreciate the melody, rhythm, and meaning
of each song while expanding their musical horizons. Each
day these songs are repeated so that the words
and sounds may become familiar and comforting. In
time, the students know them by heart and can
sing together with anticipation about what
is to come. These experiences for students
lead to the enjoyment and skill of using their
voices to make music. As the elementary
years begin, children join Chorus
class to develop their talents and blend their
voices together to create music and harmony. Children
are encouraged to perform individually at special
events, regardless of ability or talent, and
are helped to do so. The Studio Chorus
meets weekly and performs at our annual Thanksgiving
Feast, Multicultural Festival, and Graduation
ceremony, as well as at other times during
the year, always providing a truly uplifting
experience for the community.
Instrumental Music
Children’s
natural sense of rhythm begins with the rhythm
of the heartbeat. The ability
to keep a steady beat in music is strengthened
through singing with body percussion. This
skill is mastered as students work with simple
instruments to imitate and sustain different
rhythmic patterns. The instruments we use
were designed by Carl Orff, (the composer
of Carmina Burana) who founded Orff Schulwerk,
as a method of teaching music to children. The
method is child-centered, focusing on the learning
experience through creativity, and strongly emphasizes
movement, singing, dancing, and speech.
The
Orff instruments, although variously pitched,
are designed so that even inexperienced musicians
can improvise harmonious music together. The
sense of music in the body remains the foundation,
while musical skills and knowledge are acquired
through creative activities utilizing concepts
such as fast and slow, call and response, or
crescendo and decrescendo. Students explore rhythms
and create orchestrations using the instruments
together. This moves them beyond skills
into creating music – and communicating
through music – so that music becomes part
of each child’s creative repertoire. In
addition to the Orff instruments, children begin
to read music and play the recorder when they
are eight years old.
Movement and Dance
Beginning
in the younger years, children move their bodies
in space while beginning to find their own inner
rhythm in Movement and Music classes. As
the piano follows their every movement, students
gradually become able to work in tandem, expressing
their individuality as part of the group and
in accord with the music. In the elementary
years, the children study a variety of the elements
of dance such as isolated movements, pathways
through space, and dynamics. They also
learn and perform folk dances from a variety
of cultures, and begin to choreograph as individuals
and within a group. From warming up together
in one large group to working on creative studies
in smaller groups, children learn to cooperate
artistically with one another, while acquiring
the necessary skills of coordination and movement
to learn and create dances. With experience,
dance becomes a channel for a student’s
thoughts, feelings, and ideas, inspiring creative
self-expression. Studio’s middle
school students choreograph and perform their
own original pieces, practice dance interpretation
exercises, and learn intricate dance arrangements
from other cultures and eras.
Theatre Arts
The
beginning of theatre is tied to its history with
pantomime and improvisation. In
early childhood, children delight in repeating
the words of a character in a much-loved picture
book. As a story comes to life in the
classroom, students interact with one another
in acting out the roles of the various characters,
with the teacher’s help. In time
they want to write their own stories and perform
them together. Often, puppet-making class
leads to a creative story inspired by the puppets. This
leads to increasingly complex and original
theatre experiences; the writing of plays,
and the performing of this written material,
which is sometimes based on students’ studies
in History and English, and other times stems
from their own inner needs for expression. In
Middle School study the great
playwrights from Shakespeare to George Bernard
Shaw to Thornton Wilder, in their weekly oral
script reading class.They have the opportunity
to act, direct, and stage-manage, and to create
props, scenery and costumes in original or
published plays. The students’ annual
production of one of these plays is a highlight
of the year for the Studio community.
