The National Ballet of Canada’s YOU dance initiative returns to York University this week, May 5 to 8, for a third year. On May 15, a performance of YOU dance will be livestreamed to about 20,000 students across Canada.
YOU dance is led by Senior Manager of Education and Community Engagement Lisa Robinson and Tanya Howard, Teaching Artist. Both are former Soloists with the National Ballet. Through the dance residency, they’ll be leading students through 41 movement workshops, and five live performance by National Ballet RBC Apprentices.
The program, which is held each year, reaches 1,300 students at no cost across 12 schools in the Jane and Finch area.
The grand finale will be a performance on May 8 that will showcase works from Definitely Dance, Elite Dance Initiative For Youth, Inspiring Community Dance Connections and York University’s Department of Dance for an audience of 320 family and community members.
The performance will include a new piece that was developed during the residency by Senior Teaching Artist from the National Ballet Annemarie Cabri in collaboration with students from Driftwood Public School.
The May 15 livestream will reach about 20,000 students in 189 and across 207 school boards in every province and territory in Canada.
YOU dance (Youth, Outreach and Understanding Dance) is a free program that was created in 2007 to inspire elementary school age students to have an appreciation for dance. Along the way, it’s hoped they’ll begin to develop a deeper connection to the arts and culture in a broader sense, as well as find their imaginations piqued by the experience.
Students may experience the program live in their schools, attend a theatre performance, or via livestreaming.
The residency takes a relaxed and multidimensional hands-on approach where students can both watch and interact with the artists of the National Ballet’s RBC Apprentice Program.
They’ll learn about a range of movement and musical vocabularies, and cooperation, self-knowledge, and empathy are encouraged, along with problem solving skills in a creative forum.
It’s a win-win situation for both the elementary school students and the RBC Apprentices who are building their professional skill sets.
So far, YOU dance has reached about 390,000 students in grades four to six.
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