DO! Project
Multi-Disciplinary Residency/DO! Project (Dance Opera)
Hansel and Gretel
January 29, 2013
Nashville Elementary School
Nashville, IN
Each year the Indianapolis Opera, Brown County Schools and Dance Kaleidoscope collaborate to produce a 70 minute adaptation of an opera. This semester-long residency provides the elementary school students, teachers, and administrators the opportunity to share in the excitement of producing a live performance.
The operas featured are chosen for their musical excellence and potential for cross-curricular learning. They all feature: four-five lead roles that are performed by the singers of the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble, secondary roles that are sung by students and several student choral numbers. During the opera production members from DK perform the primary dance piece while 3rd and 4th grade students perform two-three pieces of their own.
The residency schedule is set a year before the program actually occurs, and is planned with the music teacher’s school schedule and curriculum standards in mind. Local high school dance students create choreography for the 3rd and 4th grade students’ dancers and teach the dance pieces to them. Master classes are offered in marketing, choreography, modern dance, voice, and lighting design at the elementary school or high school.
Students design and build scenery and posters in art class, write press releases and articles for the local paper, work with high school mentors as technical crew members running sound and lights and take on the job as stage managers. Parents and students create costumes and collect props.
After four rehearsals, two performances are presented…one for the other three elementary schools in the district and one evening performance open to the public.
