Students at a Hempfield Area elementary school are the inspiration behind a new virtual field trip produced by a Lawrenceville-based dance group.

Third graders at Stanwood Elementary School heavily influenced the virtual field trip produced by Attack Theatre that features dances reflecting artwork displayed at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art locations in Ligonier Township and Loretto in Cambria County. The project utilizes student input and movement in relation to the artwork.

According to Allison Popieski, arts education manager at Attack Theatre, members of the organization would present artwork and music to the students and then begin a conversation about what they saw and heard in the pieces. Based on the students’ responses, members would then ask them to express their thoughts in movement.

For example, if a student noticed shapes in a painting, members of Attack would ask the student to show them what a circle looks like with their body. Those movements were then incorporated into 10 short movement vignettes produced and performed by members of the theater that are placed alongside the artwork they represent in the final video.

“It was a conversation of sharing ideas and, then, we would turn these ideas into movement,” Popieski said. “So, we would ask ourselves, ‘how can we express these ideas through our bodies?’ and then we would sequence those movements together into kind of a one-of-a-kind movement sequence.”

Once the dance was choreographed, a musician came in to create songs for each video.

The idea for the project stems from a three-year relationship between Attack Theatre and Wendy Milne, art teacher at the New Stanton elementary school, who have worked together in the past to teach students about architecture in Greensburg while also visiting the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

Submitted by Wendy Milne Artwork by third grade student Aiden Uhrinek after discussing a painting with members of Attack Theatre.  

When the covid-19 pandemic affected the current school year, the project was changed to account for the possibility of remote learning and mitigation orders like social distancing. In changing how the project was completed, Milne said they also changed it to focus on emotions.

“Sometimes they struggle with having a language to say what they’re feeling,” Milne said. “So, they were able to take their bodies and say it with their bodies what they were feeling.”

The project started in December when the district went fully remote because of a spike in coronavirus cases. Members of Attack Theatre joined students’ virtual lessons during art class with Milne and music class with teacher Natalie Williams and had them moving, dancing and drawing.

When students returned to the classroom in January, Attack still attended virtually and began showing artwork from the two museums.

The dance company went back to the students for one last session in March, where they premiered the video.

“I think the teachers were really moved by it and the kids were. It’s what keeps me teaching, doing these kinds of collaborations,” Milne said. “I’ve been teaching for 31 years and it gets me excited, it makes me want to come back. It lets me get to know the kids in a totally different way.”

The video can be viewed on Attack Theatre’s website, attacktheatre.com.

The project is funded through a grant from the Southern Alleghenies Museum, which falls under the Arts-In-Education Partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. This year, the grant totaled around $10,000, along with additional funding from Hempfield Area School District.

“That was kind of the magic of this program because the students became the creators, the students were the choreographers, so they were empowered,” Popieski said. “Their ideas became the direction the dancers then took to implement into this professional video.”

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