The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

from other schools to watch two lecture/demonstrations entitled 'An Introductionto Contemporary Dance' and 'Dance Choreography'. One hundredand forty pupils attended the first lecture and seventy older pupils attendedthe second. The company did two evening performances which were opento the public and Irene Dilks gave two practical sessions for Manchesterteachers.What we hope we are achieving is:a Opportunities for teachers to be together for a week working side byside — sharing experiencesplusCross fertilisation of ideas from school to school by Dance Leaderplusseeing dance artists working with them from their own schoolsb Exposing them to a variety of styles and techniques in order thatthey may use these forms to express with greater relevance and claritytheir own inner statement of the dance.Lecture Demonstrations in Secondary SchoolsDancers from Ballet Rambert, Festival Ballet and London ContemporaryDance Theatre have visited schools when the Companies have been dancingin Manchester. Some dancers have now been to the same school for fourconsecutive years and built a relationship with the teacher at the school.They take technique classes, short extracts from a ballet, a movementphrase, and work on the development of it.Primary SchoolsTo further opportunities for primary school teachers to work togetherwe have set up a team of four area teachers and one co-ordinator. Thefour area teachers (themselves primary teachers) work for half of the weekin their own schools as class teachers and for half of the week workingalongside teachers in infant and junior schools helping them to teach dance.They give them confidence to teach dance as part of the education programme,leaving material for them to work with and then returning to seewhat they have done and to help them further. The co-ordinator (a fulltimejunior teacher) organises the programmes of the area teachers and withthem selects teachers who have flair and can be helped further. The coordinatorworks with these teachers. From these teachers working partiesare set up and are linked with the Inspector, the curriculum developmentleader and the Dance Centre leader, thus forming a spiral system.Mornings and afternoons of danceThese are arranged throughout the year so that work can be seen andshared. Children from infant, junior, special and secondary schools take part.3 Dance in the Inner City — a Teacher's AccountThis is a multi-racial, inner city, Middle School in Leeds with 75% of the152