FREE - Under the Sea Environmental Theatre ZOOM - a conversation with tips and tricks with DanceKids and Take Flight Education director Sue Jones

 

21 September 4PM - Special event for SeaWeek 2020 - FREE - Under the Sea Environmental Theatre ZOOM - a conversation with tips and tricks with DanceKids and Take Flight Education director, 2020 ACT Environmental Educator of the Year, Sue Jones. 

RSVP essential - send an email to aaeeact@gmail.com

Why 'environmental theatre'? 

For thousands of years, indigenous cultures throughout the world have used the creative arts to pass down knowledge and culture. Despite this, the creative arts are still just emerging as a popular pedagogy in non-indigenous contemporary science and sustainability education in Australia. As a champion and innovator of 'Environmental theatre' in Australia, Sue wants to see all the arts part of powerful environmental education, and wants you to be part of it!

So, when every year, SeaWeek reminds us of the distance to the sea imposed by the vastness of our island continent, we do wonder ... can we help educators build good ocean knowledge and boost ocean care and stewardship skills, especially for students who live far from the sea?

DanceKids approach

ACT’s DanceKids environmental discovery program ‘Life Under the Sea’ is one fun and effective way to do just that. Using beautiful pictures, imaginative playful costumes, expressive high-quality music, simple 'nature' movements, plus everyday props like colourful sheets!! Sue and the teachers she works with inspire knowledgeable, inquiring and caring ocean-savvy learners. 

In a 5-week DanceKids Under the Sea program, children learn the principles of how life in the ocean is like all life - with needs for survival - and yet different, and how caring for the ocean is caring for the homes of those living 'under the sea'. 

Sessions progress like a story with four chapters. 

• Whales - starting with a focus on whales, their global migration, feeding, unique identification and their song.
• Jellyfish - their movement and what animals are their relatives
• Stingrays - their unique flying movement, camouflage and their food
• Fish and rock lobsters - how and why fish ‘school’ and lobster anatomy, movements and how they shelter from predation.

Session five sees children donning costumes and acting out all the movement and behaviour that they have learned in a memorable and musical 'Life Under the Sea' story for their families and the rest of their school.

"In the first session students are introduced visually to different animals that live 'under the sea'. The children sit around a big piece of blue material that represents 'the ocean’ and listen to carefully selected music, sounds of the sea, birds and songs of the whales. We then move the ‘ocean’, making waves, and the children peep underneath it and ‘sing’ like whales."

It's for everyone! 

Any conversation with Sue is peppered with stories of her life onboard yachts and on tropical islands, as well as being a part of the university team that first observed and discovered coral spawning at the Great Barrier Reef!! However, Sue is adamant that the DanceKids Under the Sea program she developed and has now run in real classrooms for more than a decade is so simple that anyone can do it, with no need for ballet, or dance or science expertise - just a love of nature and a sense of fun … and, perhaps, some flair with a piece of blue satin...

DanceKids was established by and is run by Sue Jones, the 2020 ACT Chapter Environmental Educator of the Year in the Open category. Read Sue’s AAEE EE nomination here. Interested to develop environmental theatre strategies for learning in your class? Why not join Sue for an online conversation and ‘how-to’ in SeaWeek 2020 - hosted by ACT AAEE Chapter: September 21st, 4pm, for zoom details email, aaeeact@gmail.com. Sue, nicknamed “Migaloo” by her indigenous friends in the 90’s, lives and breathes the natural world through dance, and wants to help teachers help students learn to care for all life through small theatrical stories that build empathy, with music, movement and simple props.