Sunday Morning News

Alvin Ailey American Dance Company Looks to Educate Students Through Movement

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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Educators are trying a new method of making reading, writing and arithmetic more interesting to students.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's a pilot program that hopes to move students to learn through dance.

CNN's Gina London has the details.

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GINA LONDON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Alvin Ailey American Dance Company is world renowned for its commitment to preserving black culture through modern dance. In more than 40 years, the troupe has performed in 48 states and 68 countries.

(on camera): But now Alvin Ailey is moving its dance steps from the stage to the schools with a new program that's designed to help teach students reading, writing, even history and math, through choreography.

(voice-over): Students at Inman Middle School in Atlanta were the first to put this national pilot program to the test.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I was kind of skeptical, am I going to like it, am I not going to like it?

LONDON: But the instructors say physicalizing education can make it come alive.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I liked it, yeah. It was, you know, mobility, my pre-algebra teacher says, is a good way to learn.

LONDON: Like when these two ordinary teachers dance the concept of symmetry.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: You have to work on shapes that are symmetrical and keep that symmetry.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: It teaches you how to be disciplined when you do something. So it makes you a harder worker.

LONDON: And, of course, students are more likely to work hard if they're also enjoying themselves. UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Usually in language arts class it's a really boring class. So for once we got to come and do something fun.

LONDON: When the instructors leave, schools can keep the fun going with a curriculum guide on how to move kids to learn. The Alvin Ailey troupe has plans to launch the program in several others states and the dancers say they'll come back to Atlanta later this year to make sure these students are keeping in step.

Gina London, CNN, Atlanta.

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