ArtsBridge’s second core high school partnership was with the Santa Monica High School (SAMO). ArtsBridge helped to inaugurate the Santa Monica/Malibu Unified School District’s (SMMUSD) first dance education endowment by teaching dance at SAMO. This partnership began at the district level in conversation with the administration. The core ArtsBridge partner in this collaboration was “For The Arts,” a campaign of the Education Foundation of Santa Monica-Malibu. “The aim of this community-wide effort is to ensure that every student in our public schools receives a broad introduction to the arts, including music, visual arts, dance and drama, through the creation of a permanent endowment fund.” In addition, SMMUSD aims to develop a strong enough program in dance to offer UC acceptable preparatory courses to satisfy California’s arts requirement for admission to the University of California.
During 2005-2006, Vanessa Verdoodt (World Arts and Cultures) led a residency in world dance (including yoga, West African dance, and old school hip hop), and Jolieba Jackson (WAC) instructed students in dances of the African Diaspora. Both UCLA movement artists offered standards based dance studies to the youth. Verdoodt and Jackson taught students enrolled in physical education with classroom teachers Norm Lacy (PE Director) and Brenda Armstrong.
This collaboration will extend beyond the young dancers who studied with Jackson and Verdoodt this year because the district is interested in providing standards based dance for all youth in the years to come. In addition, SAMO High was so impressed by the program that it has decided to designate its physical education faculty hire for 2006-2007 to a credentialed candidate with expertise in dance.
