Gillie, accomplished poet, percussionist, singer, dancer, pianist, and historian is a CCT master teaching artist, VSA artist; and a Young Audiences of CT artist educator since 1983.
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Performances
Song, Dance and the Possibilities (Grade K-6)
Brian’s anyone-can-write-a-song and anyone-can-invent-a-dance experience! Though it takes practice to be creative and courage to be funky, students learn to think outside the box by daring to break the rules to create the extraordinary. Sing a ragtime classic in doo-wop style, add rap rhythms to a jazz tune, do a hip-hop dance to a Mozart piece, add original moves to a Charleston dance. There’s no wrong way, only infinite ways to test the possibilities and become wiser in the process. Length: 55 minutes
Song, Dance and the Possibilities-the Holiday Version (Grades K – 6, families)
Flying reindeer? Dancing snowmen? Students invent outrageous new versions of some old, holiday song favorites and then create a hip, holiday dance to a funky seasonal tune; all this while exploring language, poetry, music and pop culture. Ho Ho Ho! Length: 55 minutes
Video: Brian Gillie Choreographs a Merengue. Working through Young Audiences of CT, Brian Gillie teaches a Latin dance routine to 4th graders.
Dance in America (Grade K-6)
Salute to Song in America (Grades K-6)
Early Rock & Roll: The First Fifteen Years (Grades 4-12)
History, humor, costumes, props, original sound bites, standup piano playing, radio commercials and impersonations serve to reveal rock’s evolution from blues to doo-wop, Elvis to Chuck Berry, Motown to Beatles and more. Brian is a multi-talented rock “n” roll song, dance and piano performer sh-BOOM! Length: 60 minutes
Rhythm and Music (Family and Community Program)
Parents and kids share in the radiant joy of song and dance. Brian’s original music and clever pop choices require audience participation to create new lyrics and funky new dance moves. FUN! Length: 55 minutes
Workshops and Residencies
Brian Gillie
Never Too Small to Boogie… and Learn (grades PK – 3)
Research demonstrates the important bridge between movement and learning. Add dance to the equation and learning has a clear and solid pathway. Brian puts movement, touch, body sculpture, sound and fun into connections with the alphabet, reading, science, art and other curriculum challenges. By moving the body to music, words, numbers or nature, and in ways low, large, in reverse, with a partner, as a jellyfish, to a beat, to tell a story or to express an emotion, students in the early grades experience an interactive world that opens the mind to new possibilities and to stronger neural connections.
Swing Dance with a Hip Hop Twist (grades 3-8)
Dance styles need a high energy boost to gain your students’ attention. Brian is a long-time dance instructor, swing dance choreographer and hip hop practitioner who connects with students to make dancing doable and cool. Brian guides students as they alter the structure and stylings of time-honored dances to arrive at their own funky hybrids, and perform them to a favorite contemporary tune. Disco, Swing or Merengue can become hip hop, pop rock or line dance. The workshop empowers students to exercise their inner vision and outward cool as they collaborate, evaluate, apply and trust their efforts.
Connecting Poetry, Rhythms and Dance (grades 3-8)
Brian’s multi-media residency combines music, math, literacy and movement. As a trained musician, poet, drummer and dancer, Brian successfully employs today’s music and moves as the perfect catalyst for exploring elements of creative writing, the math of rhythms and the science of dance, and importance of nutrition and environment, all in the language of contemporary youth. As a final performance piece, each student gets to recite, drum and dance at each of three stations. Younger students paraphrase fables, rewrite stories and create poems; older students explore the elements of nutritional health and environmental concerns. All then create poems from their outline of ideas, then develop hip, notated drum patterns (we use buckets and sticks) to accompany their new poems; and design original solo, partnered and group dance phrases and choreography. Students learn poetic devices, the math of drumming, the anatomy of movement and enhanced emotional and literary vocabulary for assessing their class results. Students create, collaborate, evaluate and apply their ideas. Residencies address state standards for music and dance.
FEES:
Single Performance: $550
Back to Back Performances: $775
Evening Family Performance $670
CCT FUNDING AVAILABLE
Curriculum Links:
Social Studies, Music, Dance, Physical Education, Language Arts
Study Guides:
Study Guide 1 – Song and Dance
Study Guide 2 – Raps Rhythms and Moves
Study Guide 3 – Social Dance
Study Guide – Hip Hop
WEBSITE: www.BrianGillie.com