BB™ 2006

This year, Beyond Broadcast™ partners with THE PERFORMANCE LAB, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that uses interactive technology in innovative ways to coach the performing arts. Called "Interactive Residencies," TPL exchanges adapt traditional "distance"  technology to bring master teachers and great works of the performing arts into classrooms in schools and arts academies (pre-professional students). Founded in 1996, TPL benefits from the extensive experience in media, broadcast technologies and arts programming of its founders.

In 2006, BB™ joins long-time collaborator, New Jersey State Depatment of Education/Office of Standards and Professional Development, and other adventuresome arts organizations to carry forward our mission of exploration in interactive arts residencies.

We aim to (1) increase the number of teachers in arts education who know how to coach The Performing Arts using interactive technology and The TPL Model, thereby extending the network of interactive studios in arts organizations across America; and (2) refine The TPL Model itself, making it an ever more flexible tool for coaching The Performing Arts and an active force in the preservation of American masterpieces in dance, drama, music and interdisciplinary media.

The first goal is the subject of a project presently under consideration by The DANA Foundation:

DANA 2006
INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY AS A TOOL IN DANCE EDUCATION

ACTIVITY We will train pre-service arts specialists at three universities to develop curriculum and lesson plans for both elementary and secondary students. In the content area of Dance, we will address National Arts Standards 1 (elements of technique and style), 2 (choreography and structure) and 5 (cultural and historical context). For the first time, interactive technologies will be integral to project design and the vehicle for much that is taught.

OVERALL PURPOSE Through interactivity, we aim to make great choreographers accessible to as many students as possible, engaging students at many levels.

SPECIFIC AIMS Developing curricula resources will give pre-service arts specialists practice in:

(1) artistic and teaching observations

(2) assessing choreographic values and intent necessary to passing on legacy true to a choreographer or dance tradition

(3) lesson and unit planning

(4) making interdisciplinary connections

(5) experimenting and testing pedagogical ideas

(6) working with practical cutting-edge classroom technologies

(7) exchanging ideas with artists, other teachers, and students across time and space

(8) actual trials in an action research process (TPL "Interactive Residencies.")

Evaluation is integral to project development at all stages.

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In 2006, we are privileged also to partner with TPL, the National Dance Education Association, José Limón Institute, the Dance Notation Bureau, Ballet Arts SPRINGBOARD DANCE, and the New World School of the Arts.

This collaborative project is under consideration at the National Endowment for the Arts and adresses BB™'s second goal.

NEA 2006
Teaching and  Coaching Technique and Style
for Reconstruction of an Historic Masterwork

The subject area  is DANCE. Our aim is to show the mutual compatibility of two differing methods used in reconstruction of the historic repertoire. Aspects of Limón Technique© will be taught using The TPL Model and Labanotation.

Approach to Interactivity It is our thought that both The Dance Notation Bureau and THE PERFORMANCE LAB will benefit from strengths in each other’s coaching model. We do not intend to promote the efficacy of one methodology over another. Instead, we will use multiple approaches to reconstruction in order to obtain the best results. Fortuitously, DNB is presently designing web-based modules to teach elements of notation to novices. They have yet, however, to incorporate real-time interactivity in their model.  TPL has identified interactive technology as an important collaborative tool for coaching performing artists and has developed techniques that 1) increase focus and therefore retention of basic concepts; 2) objectify movement in performance; and 3) combine aural and kinesthetic channels of learning in a multidisciplinary approach. TPL and partners have documented the cumulative positive effect of multiple interactive sessions over time. 

Goals TEACHING/COACHING/RECONSTRUCTION utilizes State and National Standards in Dance Education as a means to provide common language and understanding among the partnering organizations. Additionally they are the basis on which to assess student competencies (skills acquisition), and deepen students’ aesthetic appreciation of dance equipping students with tools for critique and providing a social/historical context for dance and dance forms – that is, our shared cultural legacy.

It is also the goal of this project to access existing and emerging technologies to further student understanding of dance and more specifically Limón Technique®. We endorse the following summary statement drafted over a decade ago by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations:

For the arts, technology … offers means to accomplish
artistic, scholarly, production, and performance goals.
But the mere availability of technology cannot ensure a specific artistic result:
the pencil in a student's hand
ensures neither drawing competency nor a competent drawing.
Nor, by itself, will exchanging the pencil for an airbrush
or a computer graphics program create a change in the student.
What can happen is that interesting and engaging technologies
can attract and motivate students to engage the arts.
In the end, however, the use of technology in arts instruction
is meaningful only to the degree that it contributes to competence,
and that contribution comes through instruction and study.
Used appropriately,
technology can extend the reach
of both the art form and that of the learner.

Other projects awaiting funding are:

• Everyday Ethics a series of radio essays that answer the questions we ordinary mortals sometimes forget to ask.
• Eyewitness to Discovery dramatic re-enactments of famous archeological discoveries, from Brian Fagan's best-selling book.
• Syrian Renaissance a celebration of the richness of the Syrian countryside and the warmth of its people.
• The Karen Brown Experience™ bringing America's premiere travel expert to radio and to film.
• Interactive Action conflict resolution for Arab and American school kids played out on an international stage.