Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone
Posted April 1st, 2009 by Grace Shapiro, Teacher.
Taking risks to explore new challenges has been fundamental to the syllabus of this class. We’ve thrown tons of different exercises and projects at these students and asked them to dive right in. Sometimes our students accepted the challenges with ease and other times, it was more of a struggle. Nevertheless, they stayed with us, and returned for more. These last two weeks brought a flurry of new experiences for them.
Our sixth week welcomed two guest artists into our midst. Regina Brooks threw us headfirst into a hip-hop routine that had all of us stepping and grooving until our muscles were sore. For the less coordinated, it was a challenge to just attempt moving in time with the class, but for others, it was a fun opportunity to learn some new moves and be up on our feet.
Jessica Wallenfels joined us that week as well, and guided the students in creating their own form of dance, unique to them, and to the story they wanted to tell. Using the raps that were created the prior week, she gave a few pointers and led the students in a group dance to the beat of the class’ collective rap.
However, it was Friday that truly captured the spirit of each of the students. As John took on various physical traits, the students witnessed the endless possibilities of building characters based on physical movements. What happens if a character leads with their hips and walks on their toes? What does that look like? What if they’re in a rush? How does it change when they are nervous? Then, students filled out a questionnaire, which guided them through the creation of their own characters. These were then shared in front of the class. Their imaginations were impressive. From a character with no eye sockets, to a mumbler, to one with rapid-fire speech in a high-pitched voice, we were entertained with the unexpected.
This made a perfect transition into Monday’s art project. We had each student create a character collage on a blank sheet of paper, using magazine cutouts, markers, pipe-cleaners, random buttons, beads, and other various odds-and-ends. The only requirement was that each body part must be created with a different material. So if one eye was a bead, the other could not be. These were collected at the end of class on Tuesday. My only regret was there wasn’t any time set aside for sharing what had been created. One of our greatest challenges throughout this semester has been our limited class time with the students, which was why we had given everyone two full days to complete this project. Personally, I’d love to see a gallery of their pieces displayed as some part of our final production, but of course, we’ll leave those decisions up to these students in the end. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
After quite a bit of reflection about the past seven weeks we’ve shared with this class, three projects stood out in my mind as cutting to the core of What Do You See? Not surprisingly, these three projects seemed absolutely entwined with one another. You See, I Am was one exercise that fed so many others, and allowed each of us a little window into the world of these individuals in our class. Next, John’s rap workshop built on the ideas, personalities, and voices of each student in a single form of expression that most had not been exposed to before, other than as bystanders. Without prior knowledge, it was remarkable to me how I could identify each unique voice that composed each stanza of the collective rap created through that workshop.
All of us are part of multiple communities (our families, our peers, our city, state, country, our interests, our fears) and yet, our genetic makeup clearly proves that we are one-of-a-kind. So here in our Roosevelt classroom, this collective rap was artistic proof of our “one-of-a-kind” voices within the voice of the community of Jo Lane’s drama class. Amongst us, a competitive roller skater who shared a day of practice in rhyming couplets, a guitarist who rocks “Superstition,” an actress burnin’ with rage, a generous friend, and a person who hates the aroma of sweet pickles. By way of You See, I Am and the raps, we discovered the wealth of talent beneath the surface of these supposedly “typical” teenagers, so, we decided to give them a platform to express those interests.
Thursday and Friday were dedicated to a talent sharing show, and the third project that I felt gave the students a chance to share their true voices with us. The lineup included a solo dance reenactment of the choreography to “Thriller,” an improvised display of B-boying, a singing performance of “The Rose,” the impressive work of a comic book artist, the drawings of a talented sketch artist, and an original piece performed for the first time by our resident band of two guitarists and a drummer. With everyone being engaged and supportive, it seemed natural that the students were unaware when class ran overtime, even with Spring Break just around the corner. Who knows? Maybe our talented sketch artist will take her classmate’s recommendation and “do sketches of criminals for the police!” as a future profession. Wherever this may lead, it has been incredibly encouraging to be a part of a program that allows students to explore various forms of expression and hopefully, find their original voice through the process. May the work continue to surprise us. . .