Artist’s Statement: NHDI
NHDI 2010 Performance
The New Hampshire Dance Institute is an in school program, where teachers work with elementary and middle school children to create a dance based on a different theme each year. The mission of NHDI is to awaken children to the transformative power of the arts, and to make art, through dance, a vital part of their education. We believe that all children should have the opportunity to experience the arts, and that youngsters who participate at an early age remain involved in the arts for the rest of their lives. Education can and must give children a sense of the possibilities that exist in the present and in their future. By setting the minds and bodies of children in motion, NHDI gives children the tools and experiences that help them better negotiate their way through the complex journey of life.
NHDI has been bringing the magic of dance to thousands of children in the Monadnock Region since 1988. In an active, joyful setting, students are helped to strengthen their sense of self-worth while developing respect and appreciation for particularly the performing arts. Using a dance form that is challenging, yet accessible to all children, NHDI now brings active, participatory dance experiences to over 1,500 New Hampshire children each year.
Annually, students in NHDI classes focus on the “Event of the Year,” an original musical theater production for which the entire organization prepares for an entire school year. This Event is presented with a live, professional orchestra and vocalists, as well as top-notch lighting and technical support at the beautiful Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College. There are four performances over Memorial Day Weekend.
Roy G. Biv is a Real, Live Person!
NHDI’s 2012 Event of the Year performance is a celebration of color and diversity and the important role those play in creating the kind of community that sustains humans as individuals as well as bringing them together! Our leading character, Roy G. Biv (an acronym for the colors of the rainbow) tells the story of a house on a street where all the houses look the same. It takes its theme from the children’s storybook The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater. One fateful day, a seagull drops a bucket of orange paint on the roof on one of the houses. This event inspires the neighborhood to be more creative with their home’s exteriors which leads the families of said neighborhood to come to know each other better, appreciate their different backgrounds and celebrate the new look of their colorful street!