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| directory of teaching artists: WENDY de la HARPE |
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Wendy de la Harpe is a qualified and registered teacher of the Royal Academy of Dance holding the Advanced Teaching Diploma. She is also an international choreographer.
She trained in London at the Arts Educational Trust, where she was awarded the Student of the Year Award. During this time she obtained her Advanced Certificate in National and Character dance (Folk Dance). Wendy has also studied jazz dance with Gillian Lynne (choreographer of Cats), Luigi, Matt Mattox and Anne Reinkin.
As a member of the Natoinal Ballet Company of Zimbabwe, Wendy has performed in the ballets Les Sylphides, Coppelia and Pineapple Poll with Royal Ballet principals. Wendy has choreographed some of the biggest and most spectacular stage and television shows in South Africa. She has worked with Broadway Directors as an Assistant Choreographer and Director on international productions of West Side Story, Applause and Little Shop of Horrors. In 1999 she directed, choreographed and produced the largest musical production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “African Experience” received a five star rating from the critics of the London Times and the Edinburgh Festival List. For the last eight years Wendy has worked with Ballet Idaho and is currently the Education Director. Describe a transformative process that has occurred in your own practice as an artist or in a past residency as a teaching artist. When I started a residency at a school in Nampa, the teachers were very resistant. The Principal wanted the residency and the teachers felt they did not have the time for it and were asking the Principal to cancel the residency. The residency was for ten weeks, at the end of ten weeks the teachers were asking if it could be continued longer! They had seen such a difference in the students, particularly those who were typically challenged in the school environment. As fairly young teachers they had not had much experience with kinesthetic learning and this was a breakthrough for them. The children’s change in behavior with regard to discipline and their grasp of academic concepts was remarkable to them. How do you identify when learning is taking place? I know the students are learning when I see them focused and engaged particularly when they are working on co-operative projects. I also have a series of pre and post tests to evaluate the learning. What excites your imagination and in turn how does your work excite imagination for your audience? I love to watch a creative movement take shape and when children are given an opportunity to create movement shapes patterns and forms, they become excited too. What characteristics mark a successful collaboration for you? When the teachers are just as engaged as the students. When parents come to observe the class because their child has talked so much about it. How do you foster creativity, both in your own work and as a teaching artist? By being flexible and constantly open to new ways of doing things Three key understandings in this discipline are:
List three Idaho Humanities Content Standards that
correlate with the each of the core concepts you have identified above.:
Plie, eleve, sauté, grand jete, pirouette, ballet Subject areas outside of the fine arts that relate to potential residency work include: Language arts: verbs, nouns, creating a story Math: symbols and equations Science: Solar System, Maps Three States of Matter, Simple machines References:
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 Discipline: Dance Phone: (208) 343-0556 Email: wdelaharpe@balletidaho.org Website: www.balletidaho.org 
ICA Artists by Disciplines Music Ken Harris Dance Wendy de la Harpe Joy Esplin LiAnne Hunt Norma Pintar Rachel Swenson Theater/Storytelling Joy Steiner Teresa Clark Language Arts Malia Collins Judy Sobeloff Visual Arts Deana Attebery Tom Bennick Judith Brand Sue Rooke Lizette Fife Helen Grainger Wilson Terrie Kralik Jeanne Leffingwell Benjamin Love Linda Wolfe Video/Media Arts Peppershock Media |
 Phone: 208/334-2119 or 800/278-3863 Fax: 208/334-2488 Mailing address: P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0008 Street address: 2410 North Old Penitentiary Rd., Boise, ID 83712 |