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| Six Years of Efforts Producing Fruitful Results-- “Dancing into the Future” Educational Achievement Showcase Successfully Held |
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On the afternoon of June 28, “Dream Starting Line”, an achievement showcase of the art education program “Dancing into the Future”, was successfully held in Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
More than five hundred teachers and students from over 20 primary and middle schools in Minhang District went on stage to show their happiness and confidence brought by “Dancing into the Future” with fifteen original dances in different styles. The opening dance, which used colorful fans to invigorate the Chinese-style performance, represented the colorful dreams of the children. It was followed by the programs full of true feelings and fun offered by other schools which combined “Dancing into the Future” with their own characteristics and focused on such themes as “Football Journey”, “Dream of Being a Soldier”, “On Environmental Protection” and “Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage”. It is worth mentioning that the performances were accompanied by live music played by a band composed teachers with lute, erhu, violin, cello, bass and other instruments under the guidance of a conductor from National Dance Institute, presenting combined styles of east and west, old and present. The shows received nonstop cheers and claps.
The art education experiment “Dancing into the Future” is carried out with joint efforts from Chen Baihua Leading Talents Studio of CWI Children’s Palace, Minhang District Education Bureau, National Dance Institute (NDI) and SACPE. Since its implementation in 2011, over 9000 students from 30 primary and middle schools have benefited from its courses and club activities. An assessment research jointly conducted by the “Dancing into the Future” Program Team and the Institute of Youth and Juvenile Studies, SASS shows that the program has exerted a positive influence on the students in many aspects such as their understanding of art and performing skills, sentiments and personalities, imagination and creativity. Targeting children without dance basics, “Dancing into the Future” also meets diversified learning demands of students and has established a “Dancing into the Future” student art club based on the popularization of dance education. The art club has been invited to perform on a number of occasions such as the New Year’s Greeting Party comprising people from all walks of life in Shanghai, the NDI Dances China in the United States, and “The Summer of Italy” show at Milan Expo in Italy, and has been widely acclaimed for their performances.
Over the past six years, “Dancing into the Future” has been promoting localization and the teachers have made new progress in their professional development. While drawing lessons from America’s educational ideas and methods on dancing, it has been sticking to localization and the teaching of Chinese culture. The teaching themes have varied every year from “The Four Great Inventions”, “Beautiful China•Teenage Dreams”, “Love in the Global Village” to “Colorful School Life”, but the purpose of education remains unchanged. CWI Children’s Palace also leads teachers in Minhang District to develop courses and conducts regular training, teaching research and supervision. Years of hardwork have lead to young teachers standing out, becoming school backbones and even teaching stars in the district. The program not only promotes the professional development of teachers, but also improves the teaching of art and PE at schools and enlivens school culture.
Over the past six years, “Dancing into the Future” has achieved remarkable results and caused desirable effects as a pilot program and an exemplification. Deeply rooted in Minhang district, the program has received broad attention and recognition in the area of art education from the city, the country and even the international community. In June 2016, entrusted by Shanghai Municipal Education Committee, the program carried out for the first time a six-month training event for teachers to promote its education experience in 32 pilot schools in 16 districts of the city. In October, at the invitation of the organizing committee of the 18th Shanghai International Arts Festival, “Dancing into the Future” was deeply involved in the thematic forum “Art Builds Perfect Personality” and undertook a number of workshops. The successful experience of “Dancing into the Future” has been a hot topic both at home and abroad.
In the future, “Dancing into the Future” will continue to lead the teachers in Minhang District for further practice and exploration and form its distinctive characteristics of art education popularization, in order to help children grow up healthily and happily and lead them to dance into a wonderful future!
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