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Submitted by The Washington Center for the Performing Arts

This spring, students from Avanti High School were invited to participate in a series of four workshops over five weeks with Bodyvox Master Teaching Artist, Eric Skinner. Each week, the students joined Skinner in the Black Box theater at The Washington Center, where he would take them through a series of dance and movement exercises designed to encourage “freewheeling imagination through dance.”

The Washington Center of the Performing Arts
Avanti High School students pose with Eric Skinner, Bodyvox Master Teaching Artist at The Center’s Creative Connections workshop. Photo courtesy: The Washington Center of the Performing Arts

The workshops were a part of The Center’s Creative Connections program, a collection of educational and outreach opportunities made possible with funding from The National Endowment for the Arts and Western States Arts Federation.

“I had an amazing experience with Avanti,” said Bodyvox Master Teaching Artist Eric Skinner, “The kids were really involved and had a great time.” Skinner said his greatest takeaway from the workshop was teaching the students games and experiences that were movement based. Many of the alternative high school students face physical or mental barriers in their lives. Through programs like The Center’s Creative Connections, Avanti High School is able to provide personalized learning through creativity and innovation, emphasizing high standards for all students within an interdisciplinary structure.

Participating students were equally invested in the fun and success of the program. Spencer Beetle, a local student said, “I’ve never been comfortable with physical movement, and with dancing especially. [This workshop] made me much more comfortable with that. It taught me that I didn’t have to be the most graceful person in the room to be able to dance, and I didn’t have to be able to do every dance move to be able to dance. It was just it was a lovely, invigorating, thoughtful experience.”

To learn more about the Creative Connections program, including educational outreach workshops and The Anacker Scholarship for the Arts, visit The Washington Center for the Performing Arts website. 

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