Education & Community
for Martha's Vineyard
ARTIST-IN-THE-SCHOOLS & MULTI-CULTURAL RESIDENCIES
The Yard has a long-standing commitment to the arts in education. Through our multi-cultural and artists-in-the-schools programs, we bring world-class dance companies to Vineyard schools each year. Our programs offer assemblies, creative movement and multi-cultural dance classes, curriculum that dovetails with the work of music, theater, physical education and social studies teachers, professional development for interested classroom teachers, and culminating events in which students may perform for their peers or community. In addition to workshops and presentations in the public schools, visiting artists teach dance and choreography master classes for adults and for island children who study dance more intensively outside of the school setting. Contemporary dance groups are chosen for their artistic quality and their proven expertise in teaching in the school setting. In recent years, multicultural groups representing the dance traditions of West Africa, Korea, Brazil, Ireland, and Spain have brought the world to island students.
COMMUNITY DANCE ACTIVITIES
Popular adult dance classes, taught by Yard visiting artists, bring high-quality, varied dance techniques to the island. Artists from the Limón, Graham, and Bill T. Jones Companies, among others, teach these classes. In addition to our ongoing community dance classes, 2007 brings early morning yoga and exercise daily and special master classes in technique and choreography with resident artists Lynn Brown and Lynn Marie Ruse of Freefall, ltd, Chris Elam of Misnomer Dance Theater, and Johannes Wieland.
Dancers, athletes, actors, poets, and lovers of the arts all regularly participate in The Yard’s collaborative community events. The Yard is known around the island for its site-specific public performances featuring guest and local artists.
MAIN STAGE PERFORMANCES
The Yard brings popular dance performances to the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center and/or the Tabernacle as fundraising benefits for our in-school programs. These events bring some of the best performers the dance world has to offer to Martha’s Vineyard. Recent performances include: Alvin Ailey II, the popular Brazilian music and dance group Negro Gato, the Caribbean Dance Company, and Harlem-based children’s African dance group Batoto Yetu.
YARD ARTS! FESTIVAL
Year two of the festival continues our partnerships with local organizations and presenters to bring another world-class lineup to the island. Look for celebrity names and faces in the acclaimed New York production of Stories Left to Tell, by Spalding Grey, work by Chilmark Writer’s Workshop with Nancy Aronie, and the return of Yard Affiliate Artists Urban Bush Women, bringing work from their 23rd season in New York including a the restaged masterpiece Chicken Soup by Blondell Cummings.
