Godfrey-Lee — Second-graders at the Early Childhood Center loved hearing a love story about humans, fairies, elves, butterflies and bugs — otherwise known as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare.
“We’ve got some drama going on in the woods; that’s where the fairies live,” Jaci Tyler, Grand Rapids’ CARE Ballet community outreach coordinator, said to her captivated young audience at the recent assembly.
Tyler read an abbreviated version of Shakespeare’s story, while ballet dancers demonstrated how movement and music can bring the characters and plot to life.
“We don’t talk in a ballet,” she said. “That’s why, when you see a character who is sad, you’ll see them wipe away their tears or put their hands over their heart when they see the person they’re in love with.”
The performance ended with a triple wedding and all the characters living “happily ever after.”
Second-graders Alex and Hugo said they both enjoyed the story, for two different reasons.
“I liked when they had the marriage,” Alex said. “When people do this, they have happiness in their hearts.”
Hugo added: “I liked when the fairy sprayed the magic flower. They wake up and when they see each other, they like each other. It sounded interesting and now I will do something new when I go to the ballet.”
Making the Arts Accessible
Grand Rapids’ CARE Ballet is a community nonprofit organization dedicated to offering performance opportunities for all students. Their visit to the ECC prepared the second-graders for their field trip to see a one-hour ballet performance at the East Grand Rapids Performing Arts Center.
The show is choreographed to portray characters, conflicts, and humor in an accessible and entertaining format to young viewers. CARE covered the cost of students’ tickets and Tyler said Dean Transportation supplied buses to get students and their teachers to the show.
“We want to give students exposure to the arts that they may not have gotten before and we want every person to know they have a place in performance arts, as an audience member or on stage,” she said. “Arts have the ability to create community and bring people together versus dividing them.”
ECC second-grade teacher Char Walsh said exposing young children to the arts nurtures their creativity, emotional development and cognitive skills, setting them up for success in many areas of life.
“Engaging with music, dance, theater, and visual arts allows children to express themselves in ways that words alone cannot capture,” Walsh said. “It fosters imagination, problem-solving, and critical thinking, enhances fine motor skills, improves focus and concentration and boosts self-confidence.”
In the presentation, Tyler explained to the second-graders how ballet teaches students about storytelling, and asked questions to get them thinking about the process: “We ask them to think about how the music sounds; what emotion does it make you feel? What instruments sound happy, scary or mad, (and) how could you show emotions without using words?”
During the assembly, the ballet dancers answered students’ questions and helped prepare them for what to expect during the performance, especially for those attending a ballet for the first time.
Students also got the opportunity to try out basic ballet steps. After learning how to do a move called a plié, second-grader Amina said, “It was cool when the real ballerinas danced and did a twirl.”
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