Inside The NYC Classroom: Memorable Past Moments with Our New Victory Teaching Artists Part 1

Welcome to Inside The NYC Classroom, a blog series spotlighting New Victory Teaching Artists' experiences visiting NYC classrooms. In this first installment, our Teaching Artists Ana Cantorán Viramontes, Sofiya Cheyenne and Alberto Denis reflect on past Classroom Workshops and the impact of connecting students to the arts beyond their class visit to the New Victory Theater.

New Victory Classroom Workshops feature curriculum built to enrich students' theatergoing experiences by actively engaging them in the arts, including exploring art forms and topics themed to a show currently on the New Victory stage. By learning about the various art forms in a tactile way, students have a rich experience viewing the show.

Classroom workshops take place across the five boroughs, are taught by a pair of multi-talented and artistically trained New Victory Teaching Artists, and are available to New Victory Education Partners before or after a school performance free of charge.

Meet Ana, Sofiya and Alberto!

How does your work as a New Victory Teaching Artist (TA) help impact students' peer-to-peer relationships and themselves?

Ana Cantorán Viramontes: The New Victory Education Guiding Pillars: Play, Create, Discovery, Community, Arts for All and Art Form are at the center of our lesson plans and curriculum. When we visit schools and classrooms, I hope students have the opportunity to re-discover each other through play and art making, collaborate with each other in new ways they aren't used to and strengthen their relationships.

Sofiya Cheyenne: Working with the students as a TA is such a fun opportunity for them to learn through play. Learning how to work as a team or in pairs while creating a piece of art always brings about a new togetherness within the classroom.

Alberto Denis: Our lesson plans and activities always incorporate activities that encourage or require students to work together in ways that promote camaraderie and community.

Pick one of your most memorable workshops around a New Victory show. How did students respond to the themes around that New Victory show?

Ana Cantorán Viramontes: We began the lesson plan for Ajijaak on Turtle Island by sharing some cedarwood essential oil with the students. This sensory experience allowed us all to calm our nervous systems and prepared us to follow the migratory journey of Ajijaak, a young whooping crane. During this lesson plan, we also reflected on our responsibilities as caretakers of the land we live on through storytelling and puppet making. The students loved making puppets where they could write and draw their reflections about the themes of the show and their personal commitments to take good care of the environment.

Sofiya Cheyenne: It's always fun for me when we bring in a show geared towards the high school students. We can work on devised pieces that come from their own questions or experiences, and building a story from something personal can help with confidence and just bring a smile to their faces.

Alberto Denis: A memorable workshop [was] working on lesson material from Zephyr last season and watching students work to help one another in leveling up their circus skills in supportive and encouraging actions and words, especially at Queens Explorers in Ozone Park. My Co-Teaching Artist and I watched as young artists emerged from states of quiet ambivalence to genuine joy and excitement around the material. It was memorable to notice how they quickly worked to help one another out with learning skills and leveling up, always encouraging one another.

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