Music, drama and dance were the focus at The British School of Nanjing earlier this week, with the in-person return of collaborators from Juilliard in New York, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading schools for performing arts.
Monday of this week, 17 April, saw three curriculum specialists from Juilliard return to The British School of Nanjing (BSN), after 3 years of COVID-induced absence. While online visitations have taken place in lieu, nothing beats getting up close with a performing-arts specialist.
So it was that Salla Saarikangas-Kramer, Ashley Renee Watkins and Nick Mahmat spent time with not only students throughout the school day, but also parents of BSN children, in an after-school workshop.
That workshop sought to inform parents as to the mechanics of the unique program that is the collaboration between Juilliard and BSN, together with other schools in the Nord Anglia Education group.
It was an eye-opening experience for many, and very much a deliberate effort to challenge perceived notions as to the value of the creative end of a school’s curriculum.
Many might see performing arts in schools or extra-curricular classes as, essentially, learning how to play a particular tune on the piano.
The Juilliard-Nord Anglia Performing Arts Program sees it as much more than that.
Watkins is a classically trained multi-genre vocalist, songwriter, educator and facilitator. For her, it’s all about building a spirit of exploration. “[It’s] truly fostering a sense of curiosity. … I often say how beneficial it is when we have individuals who just stop and ask questions, and aren’t always rushing to that sense of conclusion”, she said, talking with The Nanjinger ahead of Monday’s workshop.
“Creativity is a habit of mind to have. So when we are thinking about all of these skills, we’re really thinking about skills, as a human, to have”, she said.
Watkins’ thoughts were echoed by Mahmat, Drama Curriculum Specialist for Juilliard’s Global K-12 Program. “We’re building students who are used to active and exploratory learning. So they’re on their feet, they’re willing to try things, they’re taking risks, they’re ideating and coming up with lots of ideas. They are really steeped in the creative process”, said Mahmat.
Then it was time for the parents in attendance to come up with a few ideas of their own, when Saarikangas-Kramer, Dance Curriculum Specialist, put them on stage in the BSN theatre. Many might have initially wondered at the next step; being asked to create various shapes with their bodies, in various positions. Some chose to just lie on the floor.
But it all made sense afterwards, when they viewed a video performance by professional dancers, in which many of the shapes they had improvised moments before suddenly came alive.
Saarikangas-Kramer spoke of the collaboration that makes world-class performing arts accessible to all students within participating schools. “Sometimes those studio classes don’t look at the performing arts as a whole, and all that is there; they’re more focused on, ‘let’s learn this piece’, or ‘let’s play this song’, or ‘let’s study this technique’”, she said.
“I know from personal experience that when I graduated as a dancer from a conservatory, I didn’t really know that much about dance. I knew how to dance, but I didn’t really have a great picture of what I was part of”.
This was the insight which also revealed that teaching performing arts is about so much more than building confidence in a child. After all, the skillsets learnt through performing arts, comprising collaboration, problem solving and flexibility, are transferrable to, and applicable in, all walks of life, no matter the career choice.
