Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, and the
Richmond Public Schools’ Arts and Humanities Center
Partner with the John F. Kennedy Center to Bring Innovative
Arts Education Workshops to Richmond Public Schools Teachers
Kennedy Center teaching artist Dr. Karl Schaffer will present two workshops
exploring the relationship between dance and mathematics on February 25 and 26
RICHMOND, VA – The Richmond-based partners of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education Program will present two teacher workshops with Master Teaching Artist Dr. Karl Schaffer on February 25 and 26, 2013. The region’s partners are Virginia Repertory Theatre (formerly Theatre IV), Richmond CenterStage, and Richmond Public Schools’ Arts and Humanities Center, and these innovative workshops will focus on using physical movement and dance to explore and understand mathematical concepts.
Dr. Schaffer comes to Richmond from Cupertino, California, where he teaches math at DeAnza College. During the last fourteen years he has worked with dance teacher Erik Stern to develop performances, classroom activities and teacher workshops linking dance and math. Their work demonstrates that mathematical ideas become more exciting, tangible and memorable when acted out with the whole body. The interdisciplinary approach to learning demonstrated in these workshops is the cornerstone of the Kennedy Center education partnerships. More about Dr. Schaffer’s work can be found at www.mathdance.org.
“Research has long shown the effectiveness of using the arts to teach concepts in other core subjects such as math, and given the state’s recent revised math standards and testing, the partners thought this to be an extremely valuable professional development opportunity for teachers in Richmond Public Schools,” said Janet Krogman, Director of Education for CenterStage. “Through this partnership with one of the nation’s leading performing arts center, we have the unique ability to introduce new, exciting, and engaging ways for teachers to enhance their curricula.”
“Dr. Schaffer is the nation’s foremost practitioner in using movement to teach math,” said Bruce Miller, Artistic Director of the Virginia Repertory Theatre. “As we’ve learned that different students learn in different ways, we’re excited to explore using the arts to teach math SOLs to kinesthetic learners.”
Since 1997, Virginia Repertory Theatre and Richmond Public Schools have been a part of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Partners in Education Network, a program designed to assist arts organizations throughout the nation to develop or expand educational partnerships with their local school systems. The primary purpose of this program is to provide professional learning in the arts for general classroom and arts teachers.
In April 2012, Richmond CenterStage joined the team as an additional arts partner. To date, there are 95 partnership teams across the country.
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