A feather in the arts' CAPP

• Festival dancing

Youths participate in a sword dance led by artist Bob Walser during July’s International Festival in Worthington. The event was sponsored by the Comprehensive Arts Planning Program.

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“Swing your partners!” Pa called, and “Each gent bow to the lady on the left!” They all did as Pa said. Laura watched Ma’s skirt swaying and her little waist bending and her dark head bowing, and she thought Ma was the loveliest dancer in the world.”

From “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

WORTHINGTON — Sometimes it takes a smart CAPP to complete an outfit, and in the case of arts education in District 518, the CAPP arts grant may be just the ticket to rounding out arts opportunities for local students.

“Our state-funded Comprehensive Arts Planning Program (CAPP) grant was approved in June 2009,” said Jeanette Jenson, a Worthington Middle School general music and beginning band teacher, “and our 22-member committee has come a long way since then.”

Jenson co-chairs the local CAPP committee with colleague Jeanne Mammen, a music instructor at Prairie Elementary.

The pair explains the need for and significance of this grant, which will bring $4,000 into District 518 for the 2010-11 school year with the promise of additional matching grants and other outside funding down the road — not to mention an increased awareness of the arts’ value to the learning process.

“The Minnesota Academic Standards for the Arts were significantly altered in 2008 — the state legislature approved the revision this past spring — so district music and art educators have worked with the Perpich Center for Arts Education consultants over the past three years to update and align our curriculum to meet those standards,” said Jenson.

The five arts areas addressed in those state standards include music, visual art, media art, theater and dance, and while the committee’s assessment led them to conclude District 518 was doing a decent job complying with the standards in most of those areas, there was one glaring weakness.

“Dance was not addressed anywhere in the district’s curriculum,” noted Mammen. “We have done some things with multicultural dance, some limited work in physical education classes with folk dance and square dance, but those efforts have been sporadic.

“Nowhere in the curriculum did we identify the five elements of dance — body, action, space, time and energy — and there was little done with improvising or choreographing dance, or comparing and contrasting the characteristics of various dance works or performances,” continued Mammen.

CAPP committee members have already acted to begin remedying this vacuum by sponsoring two folk dance artists in Worthington: Andrew Ellingsen facilitated dancing activities during the June 2010 Windsurfing Regatta and Unvarnished Music Festival weekend, and Bob Walser, a folk dance historian/artist, engaged young dancers at the July 2010 International Festival.

“Our grant will also provide funding for a dance artist-in-residence during the coming school year that will introduce elementary students to a beginning dance education,” added Mammen.

In addition, CAPP activities with regard to dance will be complemented by the Memorial Auditorium Performing Arts Center’s engagement of the Eisenhower Dance Ensemble’s residency and performance in Worthington in early spring, plus the presence of local dance instructor/choreographer Kay Williams Prunty of The Dance Academy.

“We are lucky to have Kay [Prunty],” affirmed Jenson. “She’s very excited about collaborating with this venture, and we may be able to involve her as an artist-in-residence in the future.”

Mammen and Jenson credit former Prairie Elementary principal Paul Besel with pushing them to apply for the CAPP grant, with which he was familiar in his previous position as a school administrator in Austin.

“He shared his experience with CAPP, freed up time for us to do the necessary training and offered support for the process,” said Jenson.

“A consultant from the Perpich Center strongly encouraged us to apply for the CAPP grant, saying it was meant for a community with our demographics,” asserted Mammen. “Not every child here has had an equal opportunity to experience these things, or had the chance to see a live professional performance.”

Why, skeptics may ask, are any of the arts important to a child’s education?

“There is documented scientific evidence that involvement in and exposure to the arts contributes to brain development and academic growth, and in this age of testing, that can help not only the child but also the school district,” said Jenson.

Mammen noted that a recent research project conducted at a Brooklyn Park elementary school compared the academic growth in both reading and math of students who had an instrumental experience, either in band or orchestra, with those who had no instrumental instruction.

“Across the board, regardless of ethnic or socio-economic backgrounds, the average growth rate for scores in reading and math were higher for those students who had received instrumental instruction than for those who had not,” expressed Mammen.

Similar studies in California had the same results and drew similar conclusions:

“It used to be said that listening to Mozart would make you smarter, and while that may not be true, there is now evidence that actually playing Mozart’s music will benefit your brain,” commented Jenson as she cited information from the Aug. 14, 2010, edition of Science News, whose cover story is titled “A mind for music.”

“Musical training doesn’t just make you a better musician; its acquired skills seem to also transfer to other areas,” she added.

CAPP committee members have met monthly outside of school hours to develop a five-year plan to meet the five required CAPP outcomes, and next week they will present information on their plans and progress to interested individuals.

“The vision statement of the state CAPP program is ‘Art is for all students, and every child needs all the arts,’” shared Mammen. “Our vision statement is, ‘The arts provide a safe and nurturing environment where learners can express their individuality.”

With the popularity of current dance shows such as “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars,” the local CAPP committee appears to be on to something.

“We want to be sure to think multi-culturally, multi-generationally, and encourage more of an appreciation for using dance as an activity people can do together, whether it’s salsa, folk, hip hop or ballroom dancing,” said Mammen. “And because it’s usually done with music, it provides great artistic synergy.”

She concluded, “Dance is an art, and we need to recognize it, learn it and appreciate it just as we do with the other arts. Something is definitely missing without a piece of the arts.”

Those interested in learning more about the local CAPP grant and its programs are welcome to attend the CAPP kick-off event from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thurs at the Historic Dayton House, 1311 Fourth Ave., Worthington. RSVPs are requested; please call Faith at Prairie Elementary at 727-1173, ext. 5002.

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