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Art-full collaboration: Chinese forms and motions.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Two programs designed in collaboration with a Chinese-American dance company for New Jersey students revolved around cultural themes embedded in traditional Chinese calligraphy and dance. The programs took place in two different settings. The first was in an elementary public school that adopted an integrated world curriculum to include Chinese language and culture, and the second was at The City Museum in Trenton, which hosted a workshop titled "Forms in Motion," combining both Chinese calligraphy and dance scheduled during Black History Month for fifth graders.

Introduction

In an interview with Bill Moyers, the Confucian scholar Tu Wei-ming, identified two seemingly contradictory forces in operation in the global village at the dawn of the twenty-first century: interdependence or interconnectedness, along with a strong desire for individual roots. At the same time, there is no single global culture. Instead, there are various global cultures, with their own languages, codes, and world-views (Bradford, 2000). If community can be defined "by modes of participation and engagement, through local gatherings in a specific physical space or through the electronic media of the World Wide Web, then though there is not a single global culture,"(Pitman, 1999) it could be said that there is a New World Community.

As educators in the twenty-first century, the challenge will not only be how to prepare our students for the borderless Electronic--marketplace, but to instruct on humanity, both of the individual and of community which will be vital in forming a "global consciousness." American values stress individual autonomy, personal success in a competitive free-enterprise system. However, the American competitiveness paradigm has created widespread distrust abroad about this country's motives and practices which has resulted in trust barriers. Seen as an important core competence, trust is not only important among individuals, but within and among organizations from education institutions to governments. The competitiveness paradigm tends to reinforce a survivor mentality that is present-time oriented, whereas international and intercultural education stands clearly for change that should be future oriented. In one way, product quality can be less important than trust. For the New World Community to survive and thrive, a new consciousness will need to be nurtured in students in order to gain the higher order thinking and behaving.

Arts Collaborations

In the United States, partnerships and collaborations between arts organizations and educational institutions are a key for connecting arts standards to national goals. For example, museum-school collaborations have formed in major cities with museums and galleries that house permanent Asian collections and host special temporary exhibits. Collaborative ventures between professional arts institutions and arts professionals introduce techniques that energize school curricula, enhance teacher professionalism, and engage students in imaginative projects and hands on learning. (Piro, 1997)...

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