Contra Dance Residency

Four Schools in One Week with Teaching Artist Chrissy Fowler

Opera House Arts (OHA) recently invited Belfast Flying Shoes (BFS) to co-sponsore a week of contra dance residencies on Deer Isle and the Blue Hill Peninsula – an exciting first for BFS!

Chrissy Fowler, MAC Teaching Artist

At the core of the collaborative outreach project, dance leader Chrissy Fowler and OHA education director Joshua McCarey visited four schools: Deer Isle – Stonington Elementary School (DISES), The Bay School, Explorations Learning Center, and Brooklin Elementary School. Over five days, 190+ amazing K-8 students, educators, and community members experienced the magic of traditional New England social dance; at the end of the week, the Stonington Opera House rang with the music of Sassafras Stomp and the dane floor was full of children and adults swinging and stamping in celebration.

hrissy, from Belfast Flying Shoes, in action

The project helped connect Chrissy with Audrey Means, a music teacher at Blue Hill Consolidated School who attended a CDSS teacher training this summer and has been dancing with her students ever since.

Below is a video documentation of the collaboration. (Thanks to Morgan and Tom at WABI for visiting DISES, and to Brooklyn Elementary School staff for sharing via Facebook. BFS outreach programs are funded through a grant from an anonymous foundation and tax-deductible contributions from individuals.

The residency was covered by WABI – Students Get Lesson in Kindness through Interactive Dance.