One of their dance teachers comes to First Program and spends two classes with the children, talking to them about ABT, ballet dancing and teaching them simple ballet steps and vocabulary, such as plier, glissade, entendre. This year the children learned about the ballet "Coppelia." They also learned to dance a small segment of the ballet, the scene in the Toy Shop. To culminate this activity the children had a day long trip to ABT's studios. They participated in four different workshops. They rehearsed their dance to live music, as would real dancers, they created scenery for the backdrops, learned about costume design by creating a costume for their individual paper doll dancer, they learned about the importance of costumes, and they were read a story about the ballet "Coppelia." The day ended with a short performance put on by young dancers from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, which is part of ABT. It was a wonderful, enjoyable day for the children and teachers.

Text submitted by Kathy Martin
Photos by Christine Mara, Camille Ehrenberg and Lisa Cohen