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Do you have any comments? Please send us an e-mail at:
Trinidad_Hernandez@gisd.org
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Ball High Theatre Recognized
GISD Website
June/July 2004 Ball High School's Theatre Arts Department recently received the Educational Theatre Association's Innovative Educational Theatre Fellowship. During the 2003-2004 school year, the department's status as a finalist for this fellowship was a result of its implementation of Performance Studies (PS) in secondary education. Ball High School houses the first PS program at the secondary school level. PS programs have traditionally been present only in prestigious, forward-thinking institutions of higher education. The class is taught by Trinidad Hernandez. Thank you for doing all that you can to ensure the success of this program, its participants, and Ball High School. Your support has not only enabled this program to get the attention of the Educational Theatre Association but also the Fulbright Memorial Fund (FMF) Teacher Program and Performance Studies International (PSI) The Educational Theatre Association will present Galveston's Ball High School Theatre Arts Department with a plaque this summer at a July 30 Awards Ceremony in Cincinnati, Ohio. EdTA will also be providing the department with a monetary award and recognition in future EdTA publications.
German student trades in skates for ballet
By Ted Streuli
The Daily News
Published May 28, 2004
GALVESTON - Alexander Genauck may have left his figure skates in Germany, but the 17-year-old exchange student has discovered that ballet slippers are also a pretty good fit.
Genauck's home is Dresden, about 120 miles south of Berlin, but the Ball High School student has been living in Galveston since August. Almost by accident, he found a social and artistic home with the Galveston Ballet, and will dance the role of a young peasant this weekend in the comedic "La Fille mal Gardee."
Genauck started figure skating at age 4, but gave it up nine years later when knee and foot problems became persistent. Before he unlaced the skates, he won the state championship and placed sixth in Germany's national competition.
"When I was figure skating we had some ballet classes," Genauck said. "But when I came here - to the ballet - there was a lot of stuff I didn't know. It was hard to catch up."
Genauck might have brought little ballet experience with him, but he had athletic and theatrical experience. The skater/gymnast/actor found that several of his interests melded at the ballet studio.
"It's a great balance between sport and art," he said. "Unlike competitive figure skating, ballet is about the art, plus there's an acting element to it."
Break-dancing Craze Makes Comeback
By Carla Gillogly-Torres, The Galveston County Daily News
Published December 29, 2002
GALVESTON -- Break-dancings origin is in dispute with credit being given to youth in the Bronx or possibly to James Browns dance moves in 1968. It is thought to most hip-hop historians that break dancing began as a form of street battle for New York youths. As the 70s disco dance scene began to take hold, more dance moves included arm movement. A California dance group introduced a move, based on the New York youth influence, called pop-locking a moving the arms in a mechanical way. New Yorkers blended their moves with the mechanical moves in a smoother way to create more waves and break dancing was born.
The first hip-hop documentary was filmed in 1982 and featured the Rock Steady Crew, one of the most elite break dancing groups, in the Bronx. The movie Flashdance was released in 1983 and featured the RSCs moves and propelled the dance into the mainstream.
Break dancing has faded in the United States, but for other countries, the craze is still there.
Lev Shishov, a Russian exchange student living in Galveston, is teaching some middle school children how break dancing is done in his country. Shishov is a member of the Russian break dancing team which won fourth place in an international competition. He and Trinidad Hernandez, a Ball High teacher, are trying to get middle school students interested in the art of the dance.
About 10 kids, including one girl, are currently taking the Wednesday afternoon break dance class at Central Middle School. The class is open to middle and high school students.
Shishov presents the lesson in levels. When children learn how to do the first level move, they progress to the next level. He said the first few levels are for everyone, but not everyone will be able to progress to the more difficult moves.
Donnis Charles, a Central eighth-grader, said he took the class because he wanted to learn how to do what his brother could. By Charles third class, he was on the second level the Baby Freeze. This move involves being able to do a handstand for several seconds.
Rebecca Adcox, the only girl in the class, is working her way through the first level.
Ive seen people doing it, so I wanted to learn. After the first class, I was sore, said Adcox.
Shes trying to convince more girls to take the class.
Break dancing isnt necessarily making a mainstream comeback, but Hernandez wants to expand students dance skills. He wants the middle school kids to take an interest in the dance and continue it through high school. Eventually he plans to begin a performance studies class at Ball High.
Hernandez said although breakdancing began as a gang competition and then went out of mainstream, there is still a whole culture of people continuing it.
In Brazil, I saw break dancing at a bus stop, he said.
Hernandez, who is a Ball High graduate, spent some time abroad and has just recently returned to Galveston to teach. He is the host family for 16-year-old Shishov who is from St. Petersburg, Russia.
Shishov enjoys teaching others how to break dance. Its like a tree of skills, he said about the way he teaches in levels.
And how did he learn?
Three years ago, it was not very popular in Russia, but we see it on MTV and learned, he said.
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