Reflection: Dance performance/theater as a learning space...

Tonight I went to watch a dance show. Before attending, I knew that the show was trying to raise money for a cause somehow related to the prison system, perhaps to help out people who are making the transition to everyday life.

The benefit was a good opportunity to raise awareness about the issues at stake that the individual organizations cared about, but it was not conveyed in the most efficient manner.

Good Points:

• Many of the dances/ skits focused on themes relating to the difficulty former prisoners face when trying to integrate into society, dark themes of distress and imprisonment, etc, which can possibly present a new perspective to an audience member.

• Representatives from the hosting groups came out in order to give more detailed information about their activities and causes during breaks between acts.

• The programs listed summaries of the goals and activities of the organizations that helped put the program together.

• At the end, the final act was given to the audience and they made their way onto stage to have their own dance. This involves the audience more actively in the show, and helps to reinforce their interest.

• After the program, audience members had self-initiated discussions amongst themselves about what they'd watched and heard- what they agreed with and didn't agree with.

Bad Points:

• The organizers seemed to assume that the audience already had an interest in and knowledge of issues with the American justice system.

Deb Kim: This is an interesting comment. So, the group if they were explicitly trying to think about the activity/event as a learning experience, they might begin their design of the dance performance thinking about the prior knowledge the audience would come with and include scaffolds for the audience in their experience and what they should get out of the event.

• The overreaching message was not cohesive; the different organizations focused on/promoted their own agenda (what they considered to be the most important).

Deb Kim: Again, from a learning space design perspective and wanting to be principled about the design, it might be important to think about the Understanding by Design rubric I presented last week and the kinds of ''Enduring Understandings" the group wanted as a cohesive outcome for the audience to leave with.

• The descriptions of the organizations in the program sometimes seemed to contradict what the organization members said they believed in/ were working for. Also, these descriptions came at the end of the program. There was no vision statement or overreaching goal for the program.

• Contact information and ways of getting more involved in the organizations were not distributed.

Deb Kim: Very nice point - something to include perhaps in our rubrice for the design of learning spaces and a great rubric of presentation design from Edward Tufte. All really great observations.

Suggestions for improvement:

I think that for any theatrical production, there is a chance to learn more about theater itself- the technical aspects, acting, behind the scenes production. For this show, there is more specifically a progressive issue that is trying to come across.

In the final act of the play, the audience goes onto the stage to dance and the actors/musicians/dancers are with them, but there isn't any real interaction betweeen them. I think that the organizers should encourage the audience members to ask the actors questions in order to learn more about issues in the criminal justice system. There could also be activities where the actors work with the audience members to quickly teach them some theater skills as well as have them reinforce a theme from one of the acts at the same time. This would sort of be like cross-learning. Also, a lot of people milled around afterwards and had refreshments, so this would be a key moment when organization representatives could actively strike up conversations and be available for questions. These people raised their hands at one point so that we would know who they were, but it would be more helpful if they were wearing some kind of insignia, even a button with "staff" on it. I also think that discussion about the topics among the audience should be encouraged generally. A large portion of the audience stayed around after the show for 30min-1hr, and there is a lot of time to learn from one's peers.

Deb Kim: Wow, Kristle. What an interesting learning space to share a reflection on. Theater and dance are certainly potential learning spaces and you brought up several very important issues and points. Who the audience is(are), what prior knowledge the audience brings with them about the space, the content, ways of participating in the space/activity, what the enduring understandings/interations are for the space, and how the activities designed facilitate the audience leaving the space with those EUs. And of course, tons more. Please do bring many of these ideas up next week in Week 3 when we spend some dedicated time to discussion of the readings. Thanks for sharing.