Communities: Nashville, Salem
Launched: 5 virtual workshops, 2 instructional videos
Engaged: 35 community participants
Involved: 15 JSoM students, 2 JSoM faculty
Summary
The Bloomington Ballet Ensemble (BBE), a student organization comprised of dancers from the Indiana University Ballet Department, engaged with youth in Nashville and Salem through virtual dance workshops and instructional video material. Led by IU Ballet Department instructor Robin Allen, the ensemble held 4 weekends of virtual dance workshops with the Washington County Family YMCA.
These workshops each included classes in introductory ballet and creative movement. Young students in Salem gathered socially distanced and masked up at the YMCA, and connected via zoom with the IU dancers who had the same socially distanced set-up in an on campus studio.
Next, the BBE ensemble held a 2.5 hour long virtual workshop with members of the Nashville Junior and Senior High School Swing Choirs. The workshop included diverse dance curriculum including Pilates, Jazz, and Ballet instruction, as well as opportunities for the Nashville students to perform some of their swing pieces for the IU Ballet students.
As the semester ends, the IU Ballet dancers are completing the filming and editing of several instructional dance videos that will be publicly accessible to rural students online. These IU students were inspired to create these videos so there is available content and instruction for the youth involved in these workshops to continue practicing and working with.
“Working with the Community Engagement Initiative and the Washington County Family YMCA has been such an impactful experience. It has easily been one of my favorite parts of a semester that looks much different from a normal one. I am so passionate about dance and the power it has as an art form to inspire and move people. This program allows us the opportunity to share dance with a wider audience and make such a beautiful and powerful thing more accessible to those who likely have never experienced it before. Doing this while in the middle of a global pandemic makes it all the more exciting, as it demonstrates just how many ways there are (virtual and not) to bring new audiences to the ballet.”
– Morgan Jankowski, Bloomington Ballet Ensemble Member
“I think it’s super important for ballet to become accessible to kids everywhere, regardless of location, socioeconomic status, race or gender, and this project makes that possible for the kids at the YMCA in Salem. Hopefully the joy and wonder of ballet was spread through the carefully crafted ballet class and creative movement content.”
– Lexi Eicher, Bloomington Ballet Ensemble Member
JSoM Students Involved
Colin Canavan Lexi Eicher Lily Leech
Eliana da Fonte Zoe Gallagher Mairead Moore
Jaya Dhand Morgan Jankowski Cameron Pelton
Eli Diersing Sarah Knutson Andrew Rossi
Others Involved
Robin Allen Kristi Billings
Sarah Wroth Daniel Lyng
Chelsey Miller