BDAAC Newsletter - January 2009
Holidays Around the World Thrill Local Students
BDAAC hosted a special holiday program designed to teach students about holidays celebrated in December by different cultures and religions. The program was presented in the Aronoff Center's Fifth Third Bank Theater to an audience of fourth and fifth grade students from Rothenberg Elementary and St. Francis DeSales School on December 15, 2008.
A special feature of the program was performances by students from the Academy of Multilingual Immersion Studies and ballet tech cincinnati. One of BDAAC's goals was to highlight student performances as a means of encouraging other children to pursue their interests in the arts.
The program was hosted by magician and CAA Artist on Tour artist David Hennig, who took the students on a magical train ride to other parts of the world as he taught them about Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Diwali and the winter solstice. Students were invited to assist Mr. Hennig as he explained the various holidays with the use of magic.
At the conclusion the students were treated to lunch in the theater and left with a bag of goodies to make their own holidays a little more enjoyable.
Future plans for this program include the establishment of a competition where participating schools will present performances designed to explain how different cultures and religions celebrate the holidays. The student performers would compete for prizes and a trophy to take back to their school. Early indications are that with the success of this first program some students are already eager to take the stage themselves.
