Celebrating 50 Years By Kristen DiMatteo 05-Apr-16
From across the Junior, Middle, and Senior Schools, members of the Munich International School community—including students, teachers, staff, parents, and our board chair—were moved and moving at our annual Arts Day. For this year’s celebration of cross-curricular, whole-school arts and learning, MIS hosted professional dancer and choreographer Alan Brooks, who worked with MIS students and adults to guide, engage, and build community through the art of movement. As MIS leads into its 50th anniversary, the Arts, IT, and PE Departments, with support from the MIS Foundation, were eager to collaborate on this year’s event, “Come, Walk With Me” Arts Day, which had a community theme and celebrated the beautiful Bavarian snow, lakes, mountains, and skies that surround our stunning rural campus. In preparation for Arts Day, professional dancer and choreographer Alan Brooks, who has worked on school dance projects for more than 15 years, came to the MIS campus to share his knowledge and passion with the students and community. In the month of October, Mr. Brooks visited our campus to train students, faculty, staff, and parent volunteers to be Movement Workshop Leaders. On the morning of Arts Day, the challenge began. Students from Early Childhood to Grade 12 worked together to develop small-group movement pieces. The newly trained Workshop Leaders facilitated, but the students were easily motivated. Creative energy flowed as students brainstormed movements to represent erupting mountains, gently falling snow, glimmering lakes, and serene blues skies. Students from the Senior School Film class worked in pairs to find camera angles that highlighted both the coordinated movement of the student groups and the beauty of the MIS campus. Starting at the entrance to campus—the MIS tunnel—moving through campus, and then heading toward the brand new Languages, Arts, and Design Centre (LADC), students shot video of 62 homerooms from seventeen locations. In the afternoon, more than 1400 students, teachers, and staff members came together to perform a movement piece at the school’s recently opened track and field. Our youngest students mixed with our oldest to grab and pass the energy of the moment. The event was filmed from as many perspectives as possible with the aim of showing the sense of community at MIS, which included aerial shots from a student-driven drone. The editing and final copy of the film was created by Max Weis, an MIS Alumni. Munich International School would like to genuinely express its gratitude to the MIS Foundation for their continued support, as well as Ms. Erin Belefski, Dr. Jo Riley, and members of the Arts, IT, and PE Departments who collaborated in making “Walk With Me” and all aspects of Arts Day a creative, inclusive, and inspirational event for cross-curricular learning. Kristen DiMatteo is Deputy Head at Munich International School.
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