Explore! Create! Perform!
The PACE Program provides K-8 students with free creative movement and creative drama residencies that spark imagination and personal expression. PACE residencies teach students the elements of the selected art form, emphasize artistic exploration and the creative process, and celebrate the students’ own creative work. The program pairs professional EFA Teaching Artists with partnering educators to create a unique experience tailored to meet the needs of each class.
Through hands-on, inquiry-based workshops, students learn the elements of the discipline. For example, creative movement students might learn about tempo, personal vs. general space, high-medium-low levels, and using the body to convey a feeling, image, or idea. Creative drama students might learn about creative expression through voice and movement, develop characters and settings, and explore improvisation, mime/pantomime, and tableaus.
Teaching Artists guide students in experimenting with these elements and making their own artistic choices to develop original work. Throughout the creative process, students build skills in teamwork, group problem solving, and accepting and incorporating the ideas of their peers. All residencies culminate with an opportunity for students to share their creative work through a performance in their own schools. Because residencies focus on exploration and learning more than on a polished final product, the performances tend to be brief and informal.
Teaching Artists typically work with students eight to sixteen times for 30-60 minutes per session, but other scheduling options are available. The program is presented through regular classroom settings, specials classes, after-school programs, and more. The PACE Program is flexible to meet the needs of each school and has minimal requirements. See the Reminders for Successful Residencies for more information.
Started as a small after-school program in Spring 1998, the PACE Program now provides residencies for more than 5,000 students annually. The program is available to K-8 public and private schools within the Kalamazoo RESA service area.
Performing Arts Field Trips
To deepen the students’ understanding of the art form and inspire their own creative work, schools have the option of attending a high-quality professional performance from the EFA Rep. PACE students receive free admission to the semester’s dance or theater work of art, depending on the discipline they are studying. For example, Fall creative drama students are invited to the Fall theater performance. Schools also receive a bus rebate to assist with transportation expenses.
Program Objectives
The objectives of the PACE Program are as follows:
- Develop knowledge and understanding of the elements of dance/theater;
- Develop physical and/or verbal expression skills through dance/theater techniques and activities;
- Develop student creativity and artmaking processes through experimentation with choreography/dramatic ideas, choices, patterns, and sequences;
- Enhance social skills and group working processes through ensemble-building activities;
- Enhance reflection, critical analysis, and editing skills, as well as the ability to verbalize dance/theater terminology through constructive critiquing of student works in progress;
- Enhance performance skills, self-confidence, and teamwork through sharing of artistic work;
- Experience and respond to dance/theater performances by acclaimed professional artists;
- Establish a creative classroom environment and enhance the teaching strategies of Teachers through the active collaboration of professional Teaching Artists.
PACE helped me learn it does not matter what is on the outside, it is what is on the inside, take a risk, don’t be shy, be yourself… – 4th grade student
Thank You!
This activity is supported in part by the Marvin and Rosalie Okun Foundation and the Michigan Arts and Culture Council.
Image: PACE residency at Kalamazoo Academically Talented Program. Photo (detail) by Mary Whalen.
Image: PACE residency at Tobey Elementary. Photo (detail) courtesy of Vicksburg Community Schools.
