Carolina Ballet | Education

Carolina Ballet's Education & Outreach Program is committed to empowering individuals and developing life skills through creative and educational programming, while strengthening ties within the community and state of North Carolina. Programs are designed to inspire a greater appreciation for ballet while introducing participants to the benefits this art form offers.

Vision
Carolina Ballet’s Education Program is designed for students to discover insights into themselves by uncovering skills, which develop self-confidence. The program seeks to create an appreciation for the art of ballet that comes from the development of skills and performances. It is our hope that students will apply these concepts into every facet of their educational endeavors and throughout their lives, fostering positive attitudes towards ballet and the arts.

Goals
• Enhance the quality of life for children, youths and adults
• Expose and educate children and the community on the concepts of ballet
• Generate interest in ballet through educational outreach opportunities for students
• Broaden Carolina Ballet’s audience potential by generating interest from students
• Promote healthy lifestyles for youths and adults

Mission
Our Education Program strives to educate students and the community about the concepts of ballet by promoting physical, emotional, intellectual and social development through a variety of educational experiences. The following objectives are interwoven within all aspects of our educational programs:

• Stimulate mental alertness and concentration
• Promote creative problem solving, decision making and risk taking
• Foster cognitive development
• Develop critical thinking
• Extend reasoning and communication skills
• Emphasize social studies – history (society and culture)
• Emphasize health-related issues and healthy lifestyles
• Develop social relationship skills
• Develop an appreciation of cultural diversity
• Foster aesthetic values and improving quality of life
• Promote self-esteem and self-expression
• Promote the significance of discipline, practice, and persistence, and be able to
apply those in their lives
• Support student learning so every child has 21st century knowledge and skills in
order to succeed as effective citizens, workers, and leaders in the new millennium

cARTwheels Program
cARTwheels brings North Carolina’s finest opera, dance and theater companies to elementary school children, in a vibrant touring program designed to stimulate thinking and learning through exposure to the arts. cARTwheels sets in motion a unique program to develop “whole” children who will eventually become thoughtful, contributing citizens as well as future patrons of the arts.

Seven of the state's finest theater, opera and ballet companies perform across rural North Carolina. To date, students in predominantly 40 rural counties have experienced professionally staged performances. Carolina Ballet has presented Swan Lake and Peter and the Wolf, reaching approximately 30,000 students since 2006. Additional participants include: Piedmont Opera in Cosi fan Tutte; African American Dance Ensemble in See the Rhythm! Hear the Music; Opera Carolina in Pirates of Penzance; North Carolina Dance Theatre in Under Southern Skies; Children’s Theater of Charlotte in Schoolhouse Rock Live! and Tarradiddle Players in Nightingale; and Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Company in Festival Olé.

The touring program includes curriculum-based education materials to help teachers prepare students for the performance and explore connections between the performance and their schoolwork. The Arts Council has worked in cooperation with the Department of Public Instruction, local school districts and area arts councils.

For an in depth profile of the cARTwheels Program, click here.

Dancers in Schools Outreach Program
Dancers in Schools was established in 2003 through a generous grant from GlaxoSmithKline. The focus of our outreach program is to provide and expose pre-adolescent third- through fifth-grade students with a comprehensive educational program that emphasizes healthful living, the development of critical and analytical thinking, cooperation and teamwork, foster creativity, encourage interest in the arts and challenge students to think in new ways. The program also includes:

• Teacher Resource guides and interactive student materials and activities
• An Informance presentation which provides students with an onsite demonstration
  of ballet movements, discussion on "A Day in a Dancer’s Life" and what it takes to
  become a professional dancer, question and answer segment and an opportunity to
  learn and practice ballet/dance movements at the conclusion
• Access to performances in neighboring schools and counties

To date, Dancers in Schools has enlightened over 57,000 students in 284 schools throughout 67 North Carolina Counties

For an in-depth profile of the Dancers In Schools Program, click here.

To download the Dancers In Schools Teacher and Student Resource Guide,
click here.

The guides are in Adobe Acrobat format.
You can download a free Adobe Acrobat Reader here.

To explore the Dancers in Schools interactive CD-ROM online click on the link below. Program will load in a new window in approximately 5 minutes.

Dancers in Schools Interactive CD-ROM

You will need Adobe Flash Player 6.0 or higher.
You can download a free Adobe Flash Player here.

Counties Served by cARTwheels and Dancers in Schools since 2003

Student Performances
Periodically, area Elementary, Middle and High school students are invited to performances that offer students the opportunity to experience live music and dance. These engaging in-theatre performances are designed to introduce students to dance as a theatre art.

In-Theatre Performances
Carolina Ballet strives to educate and capture the minds of our young patrons by bringing them imaginative, thought provoking performances. Join us in the theater as we introduce youth to the classical ballets of the great masters and inspire our audience with refreshing new choreography.

Each year Carolina Ballet offers nearly 5,000 students an invitation to experience the joy and excitement of a complimentary 60-minute program. Offered during the school day, this cultural opportunity includes a pre-performance lecture and demonstration followed by fully produced works, which often includes live music and features company artists. Teachers may choose to utilize preparatory materials that will help inspire exploration to help build on a youth's cultural experience.

This season Carolina Ballet offers student performances of one of the holiday favorites, Nutcracker. With choreography by Robert Weiss, the performance will offer surprising magic and wonder that entertains youth and captures the charm of this nostalgic story.

For Teachers and Students going to Nutcracker at DPAC, click here.

For Teachers and Students going to Nutcracker at the Progress Energy Center of Performing Arts, click here.

Click here to access the preparatory materials for youth.

Ballet Talks
Providing informational “Ballet Talks” for groups before performances and/or at Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Organization (PTO) meetings. These talks include some information on the Company, the ballet or current performance they are about to see, the music, costumes or history of the production. Questions are welcome and normally these talks are given one hour prior to the performance in the upstairs balcony of the auditorium. For a PTA or PTO meeting, our one- hour Ballet Talk is provided at the school and will also include the benefits of exposing children to the arts.

For additional information contact:
Laurie Tollerton
Administrative and Education Director
Carolina Ballet
3401 – 131 Atlantic Ave.
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919) 747-8458