Booker T. Washington HSPVA—INTEGRATION OF ABILITIES

Syllabus

Course Description

Integration of Abilities is based on our founder, Dr. Paul Baker’s acclaimed exercises for creative growth. This course directs the students to analyze their own creative process and guides them through exercises for personal investigation and growth. The students explore dance, music, theatre and visual arts, using a common vocabulary to unify their discoveries. In this process, students discover an arts centered language to verbalize and communicate the essence of their own work in dialogue with themselves and others. Students create studies in each of the elements of the arts—line, texture, rhythm, space, shape, sound/silence and color. Students are required to work outside their comfort zones, developing new means of connecting ideas and enlarging personal and collaborative communication. Students create a uniquely distinctive cross discipline work and are able to communicate its process of development through a unified arts oriented vocabulary.

Course Requirements

Students will:

  1. be on time and prepared for class; punctuality and attendance are mandatory for success in this course.
  2. dress appropriately for class; the ability to move in an unrestricted manner is necessary for success in this course
  3. present the best work they are capable of producing
  4. give close attention to classmates and other performers and expect that same attention for their performances
  5. practice appropriate audience decorum for all performances and presentations

Course Objectives

Students will:

  1. identify and analyze the differences between working for process and working for result;
  2. identify and analyze personal resistances to work;
  3. understand and discuss individual levels of growth and the meaning of deep learning;
  4. collaborate on creative projects;
  5. understand and use the elements of form (space, line, rhythm, texture and color, shape and silhouette, sound and silence) to create works that convey an idea, a feeling, or a personal meaning;
  6. create a project incorporating at least two of the four fine art disciplines using the elements of form;
  7. analyze creative process as it relates to each individual student and art discipline;
  8. work as a dynamic member of a culturally diverse small group;
  9. research the work processes of diverse well-known artists;
  10. develop an awareness of personal cultural heritage through writing an autobiography;
  11. analyze the elements of form and determine ways to use these elements in creative work;
  12. discuss creative work using the elements of form both verbally and in writing;
  13. perform a group project incorporating at least two arts disciplines.

Evaluation

Classwork/Homework:40%

Tests:25%

Project:20%

Presentation of work

Six-Week Test Grade:15%

Course Syllabus

Weeks 1-6:

  • Write an autobiography
  • Create and perform comic/tragic walk
  • Create rhythm study

Weeks: 7-12

  • Study the element of shape
  • Study the element of color
  • Study the element of sound and silence

Weeks: 12-18

  • Inanimate object study
  • Presentation of final project.