Our collaboration with Juilliard continues to grow strong

This year, we have been delighted to welcome back our in-person visits from Juilliard curriculum specialists, who are instrumental to the development of Performing Arts teaching and learning here at BIS.

On February 24 and 25, we welcomed our first visitor, Tania Hakkim, a Drama specialist from New York. 

Tania worked with students in Year 3, who have experienced Drama in their curriculum for the first time this year, in their storytelling Drama lesson, What is Your Gift?. She also taught a workshop for Year 7 from the new interdisciplinary unit at Juilliard's Creative Classroom, Ellis Island. Students responded with creativity and attentive curiosity to these sessions and were shining examples of the imaginative and open-minded learners we foster at our school. Tania also worked closely with Drama teachers, Ms. Somerville and Ms. Macdonald, to develop their teaching practices and support them in finding new, innovative ways to engage our students in the benefits of Drama education. The whole Performing Arts department also took part in a professional development workshop on student-centered learning, which was so successful that it will be built on further and shared with the rest of the BIS staff in a follow-up session with our music specialist later this year.

On March 14th and 15th, we were delighted to welcome Ashley Brown and Salla Saarikangas, Dance specialists from the Juilliard School in New York City. Performing Arts teachers had the pleasure of observing Ashley teach two demo lessons to our students. Year 10 and Year 9 BISC Dance students took part in a workshop on how to use expressive phrasing as an important tool for performance. It was wonderful to see the students collaborating and performing together with improved confidence and expressive skills. The following day, Year 3 students were introduced to the idea of groupings in dance and thrived with their raw creative energy during the workshop.

Performing Arts Staff were also given the opportunity to showcase their own teaching and received valuable and insightful feedback on how to provide high quality dance and Performing Arts education. Ashley then led the Performing Arts team in a workshop on multiple and engaging ways to harness deep student reflection. We all left the session with a bank of resources and ideas to use in our lessons.

Finally, Ashley led an inspiring workshop for parents to highlight the Juilliard approach to teaching. Parents learned more about the philosophy of Performing Arts education and the power it holds in a fully-bright curriculum. Parents got to sample learning activities that our students do in lessons and got to share their thoughts and feelings about their experience. They also had the opportunity to discuss the Dance curriculum here at BIS Hanoi and hopefully left with a passion for the subject’s place in their child’s development.

Our continued collaboration with Juilliard alongside our curriculum specialists is what makes Performing Arts a pleasure to teach and learn here at BIS Hanoi.

Ms. Catherine Somerville

Head of Whole School Performing Arts