iLuminate

overture.org /onstage

2018 19

OnStage Resource Guide

ABOUT OVERTURE CENTER

FOR THE ARTS

Overture Center for the Arts fills a city block in downtown Madison with world-class venues for the performing and visual arts. Made possible by an extraordinary gift from Madison businessman W. Jerome Frautschi, the center presents the highest-quality arts and entertainment programming in a wide variety of disciplines for diverse audiences. Offerings include performances by acclaimed classical, jazz, pop, and folk performers; touring Broadway musicals; quality children’s entertainment; and world-class ballet, modern and jazz dance. Overture Center’s extensive outreach and educational programs serve thousands of Madison-area residents annually, including youth, older adults, people with limited financial resources and people with disabilities. The center is also home to ten independent resident organizations.

RESIDENT ORGANIZATIONS

Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society Children's Theater of Madison

Forward Theater Company Kanopy Dance Company

Li Chiao-Ping Dance Company Madison Ballet

Madison Opera Madison Symphony Orchestra

Wisconsin Academy’s James Watrous Gallery Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra

Internationally renowned architect Cesar Pelli designed the center to provide the best possible environment for artists and audiences, as well as to complement Madison’s urban environment. Performance spaces range from the spectacular 2,250-seat Overture Hall to the casual and intimate Rotunda Stage. The renovated Capitol Theater seats approximately 1,110, and The Playhouse seats 350. In addition, three multi-purpose spaces provide flexible performance, meeting and rehearsal facilities. Overture Center also features several art exhibit spaces. Overture Galleries I, II and III display works by Dane County artists. The Playhouse Gallery features regional artists with an emphasis on collaborations with local organizations. The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters’ Watrous Gallery displays works by Wisconsin artists, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art offers works by national and international artists.

RESOURCE GUIDE CREDITS

Executive Editor Writer/Designer

Meri Rose Ekberg Danielle Dresden

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Dear Teachers,

In this resource guide you will find valuable information that will help you apply your academic goals to your students’ performance experience. We have included suggestions for activities which can help you prepare students to see this performance, ideas for follow-up activities, and additional resources you can access on the web. Along with these activities and resources, we’ve also included the applicable Wisconsin Academic Standards in order to help you align the experience with your curriculum requirements.

This Educator’s Resource Guide for this OnStage presentation of iLuminate is designed to:

• Extend the scholastic impact of the performance by providing discussion ideas, activities and further reading which promote learning across the curriculum;

• Promote arts literacy by expanding students’ knowledge of music, science, storytelling and theatre;

• Illustrate that the arts are a legacy reflecting the values, custom, beliefs, expressions and reflections of a culture;

• Use the arts to teach about the cultures of other people and to celebrate students’ own heritage through self-reflection;

• Maximize students’ enjoyment and appreciation of the performance.

We hope this performance and the suggestions in this resource guide will provide you and your students opportunities to apply art learning in your curricula, expanding it in new and enriching ways.

Enjoy the Show!

Arts

Table of Contents

About iLuminate ..................................... 2

Miral Kotb, Expressive Movement, and What’s a Choreographer ..................................... 3

Dance Styles: Hip Hop and Ballet ..............4

Dance Styles: Breakdancing, Popping & Locking, Modern/Contemporary ...............5

Discussion & Activities .............................6

Resources ............................................... 7

Arts Education Lesson Plan: K-3rd Grade ....8

Arts Education Lesson Plan: 5th Grade+ .....9

Academic Standards .............................. 10

About Live Performance .........................11

Social Emotional

Language Arts Science

Curriculum Categories

We Want Your Feedback!

OnStage performances can be evaluated on-line! Evaluations are vital to the future and funding of this program. Your feedback educates us about the ways the program is utilized and we often implement your suggestions.

Survey: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4318898/OnStage-Post-Show-Survey

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About iLuminateYou could say iLuminate uses technology, dance, and light to tell stories and bring characters to life. But that doesn’t really capture their performances. Imagine Transformers decorated with holiday lights, exploding in fireworks, and dancing to a hip hop beat.

In an iLuminate performance, robots fall to pieces on stage, ballerinas sprout wings and fly away, villains grow super-human limbs as needed, and more. Their work is a hyper-kinetic kaleidoscope of light-based illusions.

It takes precise timing, placement, and color to make these illusions work, not to mention athletic, engaged performers, patented technology, and a virtually non-stop sound bed mixing original tunes and popular music.

The company was founded in 2009 by Miral Kotb, born out of her passion for technology and arts. After their, pardon the expression, electrifying performance on

America’s Got Talent in 2011, the group called “the best new act in America” began performing all over the world, plus on television and in award ceremonies.

iLuminate has performed in Cairo, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Malaysia, as well as off-Broadway in New York City and across the United States. They’ve also performed with a number of musical celebrities, including the Black Eyed Peas, Christina Aguilera, Death Cab for Cutie, and Chris Brown.

iLuminate takes spreading the light seriously. The company is committed to education, striving to show young people what can happen when the arts and technology come together, and noting “The real value comes from understanding our techniques and allowing what we’ve created to inspire young minds.”

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What’s a choreographer? A choreographer is the individual who decides how the dancers move and where they go in a dance, just as a composer decides on the notes and rhythms you hear in a piece of music.

About Miral Kotb Miral Kotb is the founder and driving force behind iLuminate. She is also proof that the arts, science, and technology can do more than merely co-exist – they can compliment each other to spectacular effect. Kotb has two interests, software engineering and dance, and iLuminate is the result of their creative fusion.

A native of Houston, Texas, Kotb wrote her first piece of software in BASIC when she was nine years old, and she’s “been hooked ever since!” She studied Computer Science at Columbia University and dance at Barnard College in New York City. After graduating from Columbia, she was developing applications for the iPhone as a senior financial software engineer at Bloomberg L.P when she “had a vision of dancers wearing costumes that illuminated wirelessly to compliment the music and choreography.”

It took a lot of hard work, along with input from hardware and software engineers and putting everything she had on the line to bring her ideas to life but, as she said, “when you have a passion, you don’t have a choice anymore and you just have to go for it.” Kotb continues to be inspired by technology and the process of discovering new ideas and incorporating art into innovation. Expressive Movement

When we think of stories, we tend to think of words, sometimes even specific words, like “Once upon a time.”

But stories can also be told without any words at all. The things characters do, the way they move their bodies, hold their heads, and the expressions on their faces tell audiences everything they need to know about what’s going on.

This can be called expressive movement. It’s what’s behind many different art forms, from mimes to puppet shows and classical ballets like The Nutcracker. It’s a big part of what iLuminate does.

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Dance StylesAll the performers in iLuminate are highly accomplished in several forms of dance. They have to be, to execute all the complicated moves you’ll see in the show, and to do it with perfect accuracy, in the dark, and while wearing a light suit. These are some of the different dance styles you’ll see in this show:

Ballet In origins, ballet is about as different from hip hop as you can get. Instead of starting out on the streets, ballet was born in the courts of kings. It is very precise, with most ballets linking back to basic moves and positions for the feet and arms.

Hip HopHip hop is more than just a dance style. In fact, some people might say it’s a way of life. From its roots in African-American and Latino street culture in New York City, hip hop has grown into a worldwide sensation, inspiring countless recordings, movies, visual art installations, and, of course, the multiple award-winning musical, Hamilton. The birth of hip hop is frequently traced back to August 11, 1973, when DJ Kool Herc hosted a back-to-school party for his sister. As a DJ, he started isolating and repeating the instrumental breaks, which drove the crowd wild, and then his friend, Coke La Rock, grabbed the microphone and began to rap over the music. DJ-ing and rapping became two of the core elements of hip hop, along with graffiti and breakdancing.

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Dance Styles Continued

BreakdancingBreakdancing has been part of popular culture ever since the 1970s, but as a combative, percussive dance form, its roots are much older than that, stretching back to the challenge dances of tap dancers, and even further back, to African tribal dance. Legend has it that street gangs sometimes used breakdancing to settle their disputes, instead of fighting. Today’s breakdancers include moves from many different movement practices, including capoeira, the lindy hop, kung fu, and anything else that can work with a beat. A typical routine in this aggressive and rhythmic, hyper-athletic form of acrobatics might start with a flashy series of standing steps called toprock, move into downrock with hands and feet on the floor, followed by power moves, such as headspins, swipes, and flairs, and then wrap up with a freeze.

Popping & Locking Inspired by robots, gangsters, and waves, popping and locking are distinctive dance moves, alternating very sharp, defined gestures with more fluid body movements. This dance had its origins in California.

Modern/ContemporaryThe term “modern dance” refers to a style of dance that emerged in opposition to the strict rules of ballet, and “contemporary dance” refers to more recent works which reflect the increasing diversity and blurred lines of the 21st century. While they may incorporate elements of popular, or street-based dance, these forms are more linked to institutions and university-trained dancers.

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Discussion Questions & ActivitiesPre-Show1. Describe (or show) the different ways people move and stand when they’re:

• Cold/ Hot• Scared/Curious• Shy/ Proud• Trying to boss someone around/Trying to hide something

2. Ask students to describe how they think iLuminate might use these techniques.

3. Ask students to write down five words that describe what they think of when they think of dance. Explain you will collect the papers, but not read them.

Post-Show1. Describe (or show) the different ways performers used their bodies to tell the story in the performance.

2. Ask students to write down five words that describe what he performance made them think about. Return the earlier papers to the students and ask for volunteers to read their “Before” and “After” writings. Discuss as a class, noting if their ideas changed and if so, how and why. Were there any times you were confused?

3. Which movements/actions did you think were most helpful in telling the story? Why?

4. Discuss how the different colors on the light suits affected students’ ability to understand the action of the show, what the characters were like, and what they were feeling.

5. Ask students to use terms from ballet and breakdancing to describe the different moves the dancers performed.

6. Discuss the different kinds of music heard throughout the performance. How did it change? How did those changes affect their feelings?

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ResourcesArticles & Websites

• A different take on the form The Healing Power of Hip Hop.

• Background on Breakdancing History.

• Basic ballet information.

• Other articles about ballet.

• The history of popping.

• Locking and a description of key moves.

• Information on contemporary dance.

Video

• Archival footage of the History of Hip Hop.

• Background with historic and instructional videos of Breakdancing.

• Popping moves, plus a video of the Electric Boogaloos, the form’s originators.

• Modern and contemporary dance, with videos of work by Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey, two key choreographers of modern dance.

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Dance to the Story LessonBy Susan Riley, founder and President of EducationCloset.com Developed for struggling or new readers

Grade Level: K-3

Objectives

1. Students can manipulate their bodies to fluently share a story through movement.

2. Students can understand summary, plot, character development, author perspective, and inference.

Materials

• Story of your choice.

• Large paper, pencils.

• Tape or thumbtacks for paper.

Activities

1. Read or ask students to read a short story relating to a current subject area.

2. Divide students in 3 groups. Ask each group to summarize part of the story, the beginning, middle or end.

3. Give each group a sheet of paper and a pencil to write out a 3-sentence summary of their section.

4. Post the summaries where students can see them. Ask students to read through them for accuracy and see if anything needs to be changed.

5. Explain to students that they will work together in their groups to come up with a sequence of movements that show the meaning of each sentence. One person will be the narrator and read each sentence, while the other students demonstrate the 3 movement sentences in a sequence.

6. Provide 5 minutes for each group to create and practice their sequence sentence dance.

7. Ask the “beginning” group to perform their dance. After they are finished, ask the rest of the class to provide feedback. Repeat with the “middle” group and the “end” group.

8. Divide the classroom space into 3 separate areas. Tell students that they will now perform the whole summarized story dance from beginning through the middle to the end without stopping.

Assessment

1. Perform the summarized story dance as a class using a narrator to tell the story.

2. Have the class reflect on their dance and if it accurately conveyed a summary of the story. How can it be improved? What works well, and why?

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A “Living” CircuitBy Jordan School District, Utah

Grade Level: 5

Objectives

1. Students will perform the different parts of a working electrical circuit.

Materials

• A large area for students to move around in.

Activities

1. Review the basic concepts of static and current electricity. Explain how the flow of electrons around a circuit is what causes lights to turn on, toasters to toast, blenders to blend, etc.

2. Note the parts of a working electrical circuit:

• Load (light bulb, toaster, etc.)

• Pathway (wires)

• Power source (battery, outlet, generator)

• Switch

• Electrons moving along the circuit

3. Demonstrate the locomotor movements which move the body through space: walk, run, jump, hop, leap, skip, gallop, and slide.

4. Demonstrate non-locomotor movements which move the body, but don’t cause it to move through space: swing, twist, turn, shake, bend, stretch, wiggle, rock or sway.

5. Divide students into groups. Within each group, one student will take the part of the load (such as a light bulb), others take the parts of the wires, another takes the part of the power source, another takes the part of the switch, and several students take the parts of the electrons moving along the circuit.

6. Explain to students that each group will decide what their load and power source are, and then work to make a dance showing how electrons move through the circuit when everything is connected correctly. Explain they can use both locomotor and non-locomotor movements as appropriate.

7. Give students 5 minutes to make a dance that includes what happens when the switch is turned on and turned off.

8. Have each group share their dance and discuss their circuit.

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Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & LiteracySpeaking & Listening Standards K-5, 6 - 121. Engage effectively in collaborative discussion.2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a

presentation.3. Ask and answer questions about information from a

speaker.Science• SCI.CC4 Students use science and engineering

practices, disciplinary core ideas, and an understanding of systems and models to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.

• SCI.CC5: Students use science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and an understanding of energy and matter to make sense of phenomena and solve problems

• SCI.SEP2: Students develop and use models, in conjunction with using crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas, to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.

• SCI.PS3: Students use science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and an understanding of energy to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.

DanceCritical Thinking • E.4.1 Identify how dance movement is similar to and

different from ordinary movement.

• E.8.2 Demonstrate appropriate audience behavior while watching dance performances, and discuss their opinions about the dances with their peers in a supportive and constructive way.

• E.8.4 Identify possible criteria for evaluating dance (such as skill of performers, originality, visual and/or emotional impact, variety, and contrast).

Communication & Expression • F.4.4 Interpret and react to dance through discussion.

• F.8.4 Use and explain how different accompaniments (such as sound, music, and spoken text) can affect the meaning of a dance.

• F.8.5 Demonstrate and/or explain how lighting and costuming can contribute to the meaning of a dance.

Making Connections • H.4.4 Study dance from a particular culture and/or

time period.

Academic Standards

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About Live PerformanceTheater, unlike movies or television, is a LIVE performance. This means that the action unfolds right in front of an audience, and the performance is constantly evolving. The artists respond to the audience’s laughter, clapping, gasps and general reactions. Therefore, the audience is a critical part of the theater experience. In fact, without you in the audience, the artists would still be in rehearsal!

Remember, you are sharing this performance space with the artists and other audience members. Your considerate behavior allows everyone to enjoy a positive theater experience.

Prepare: Be sure to use the restroom before the show begins!

Find Your Seat: When the performance is about to begin, the lights will dim. This is a signal for the artists and the audience to put aside conversations. Settle into your seat and get ready to enjoy the show!

Look and Listen: There is so much to hear (dialogue, music, sound effects) and so much to see (costumes, props, set design, lighting) in this performance. Pay close attention to the artists onstage. Unlike videos, you cannot rewind if you miss something.

Energy and Focus: Artists use concentration to focus their energy during a performance. The audience gives energy to the artist, who uses that energy to give life to the performance. Help the artists focus that energy. They can feel that you are with them!

Talking to neighbors (even whispering) can easily distract the artists onstage. They approach their audiences with respect, and expect the same from you in return. Help the artists concentrate with your attention.

Laugh Out Loud: If something is funny, it’s good to laugh. If you like something a lot, applaud. Artists are thrilled when the audience is engaged and responsive. They want you to laugh, cheer, clap and really enjoy your time at the theater.

Discover New Worlds: Attending a live performance is a time to sit back and look inward, and question what is being presented to you. Be curious about new worlds, experience new ideas, and discover people and lives previously unknown to you. Your open mind, curiosity, and respect will allow a whole other world to unfold right before your eyes!

Please, don’t feed the audience: Food is not allowed in the theater. Soda and snacks are noisy and distracting to both the artists and audience.

Unplug: Please turn off all cell phones and other electronics before the performance. Photographs and recording devices are prohibited.

201 State Street, Madison, WI 53703

Overture Center’s mission is to support and elevate our community’s creative culture,

economy and quality of life through the arts.

overture.org /onstage

Additional Funding provided by: Wahlin Foundation on behalf of Stoughton Trailers, and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.