Curriculum Overview
The Dreamland Academy of Performing and Communication Arts provides a variety of arts-based experiences for its students. Beginning with the registration process, students are screened to determine their experience and exposure to a variety of art forms and are categorized into groups representing arts components as well as their respective grade levels. In this regard, then, students have two main groups: (1) their regularly assigned classroom that is filled with students in the same grade and (2) a multi-age, multi-grade group that is so assembled because of their interest in the arts. The latter group comprises the Dreamland Performing Company and will serve as the primary mechanism for student performances and communication projects. In addition to the above, students receive instruction in their classrooms in the standards and objectives of the fine arts that have been identified by the Arkansas Department of Education Benchmark standards in music, dance, and art. These comprise the during school elements of the Dreamland Academy arts-based program.
For extra curricular development in the arts, students can elect to participate in after school programming that combines academics and arts as well as a Saturday arts camp that provides immersion experience in a preferred art form for interested students. Below are specific explanations that offer additional information about the Dreamland Academy of Performing and Communication Arts’ programs of study and instruction in music, drama, art, and dance.
Registration: Screen Students for Student Talents During Registration
During the registration process, all students are screened for talents, exposure to arts, and experience using arts in performances and productions. The screening comprises a checklist that parents use to identify the arts-based experience of their elementary aged children. For example, the checklist will require parents to identify the array of talents and performing experience from the following list:
Enrollment: Place Students in Multi-Age/Multi-Grade Talent Groups:
The Dreamland Performance Company
The Dreamland Performance Company is the student population in their talent groups; these groups are multi-age and multi-grade and represent the following departments: (1) Art Department, (2) Music Department, (3) Dance Company, (4) Theater Company, (5) The Promotions Department, (6) Technical Development & Assistance Department, and (7) Business Department. Within each department or company are other divisions; for example, in the Music department are vocalists and instrumentalists or in the art department are painters, drawers, graphic artists, etc. All student performances are coordinated through the Dreamland Performance Company.
School Performances: Coordinate Performances via the Dreamland Performance Company
The Dreamland Performance Company will coordinate all arts-based performances and provide students with arts-based experiences that parallel real life in the arts and that taps into the initial set of talents and skills students bring with them to Dreamland.
In School Exploration of the Arts: Provide in school arts-based experiences that teach the standards of the Arkansas Benchmark Framework.
Students participate in a 2 hours arts-block each day where they receive instruction in the fine arts standards in music, art, and dance of the Arkansas Benchmark Framework.
After School Exploration of the Arts: Provide an after school program that offers arts-based exposure and lessons.
Students may participate in after school programming that is arts-based and that is taught by artists, actors, writers, musicians, or certified music, art, and dance teachers.
Dreamland Performance Company: Art Department
This department of the Dreamland Performance Company is comprised of students in grades K-5 who have talent or experience in creating drawings, paintings, or sketches. These students will assist with all productions by creating the art, the advertisements, and all art-based promotions of the school programs and productions. Along with their teacher mentor and the curriculum coordinator, these students will be responsible for all art-work related to all productions at the Academy.
Dreamland Performance Company: Music Department
Students assigned to the music department of the Dreamland Performance Company are the students with experience, aptitude, or interest in music, either vocals or instruments. In this group are the students with choir experience, those who have taken voice or musical instrument lessons as well as those interested in learning a musical instrument. These students provide the nucleus of the music performances for all Dreamland productions.
Dreamland Performance Company: Dance Company
Students assigned to the dance department of the Dreamland Performance Company are the students with experience, aptitude, or interest in dance, either classical, contemporary, or pop culture. These include students with experience in dramas, dancing in productions, taking dance lessons, baton twirling, rapping, stepping, cheering on cheerleading squad or pom-pom squad, singing in groups or in solo performances, modeling, reciting poetry, or creating routines for dance groups. These students provide the nucleus of dancers for all Dreamland productions.
Dreamland Performance Company: Theater Company
Students assigned to the theater department of the Dreamland Performance Company are the students with experience, aptitude, or interest in drama, either musicals or comedies or they have interest or experience in public speaking, poetry recitals, or debates. Their experience might mirror that of the music and dance students in that they have participated in recitals or plays and performed as singers and dancers or musicians. These students provide the actors and actresses for all Dreamland productions.
Dreamland Performance Company: Promotions Department
Students assigned to the promotions department of the Dreamland Performance Company are the students with experience, aptitude, or interest in word processing, painting or drawing pictures; these are the good writers, editors, technologists, advertisers and graphic artists; these are students who like creating art to advertise events and like working on projects in group settings. These students will provide the advertising and promotions for all Dreamland productions.
Dreamland Performance Company: Technical Development & Assistance Department
Students assigned to the promotions department of the Dreamland Performance Company are the students with experience, aptitude, or interest in structure; they are skilled in word processing, painting or drawing and know how to use their talents in groups to complete large scale projects; they are students who create projects that are challenging, creative, and reflective of given themes and messages. These students will provide the technical assistance for all sets, scenery, and stage related concerns.
Dreamland Performance Company: Business Department
Students assigned to the business department of the Dreamland Performance Company are the students with experience, aptitude, or interest in mathematics, record keeping and planning; they are students who plan all productions, ensure their cost-effectiveness, and maintain the records of the Dreamland Performance Company. These students will provide the oversight of all arts-based projects and performances.
Dreamland Academy of Performing & Communication Arts:
Classrooms As Talent Agencies
Students are assigned to grade level classrooms that have undertaken the guise of Talent Agency. The intent is for each teacher to recognize that his or her goal is the talent development of the students enrolled in his or her agency (classroom). Student talent areas include the Arkansas Benchmark Framework Standards and objectives for each respective grade of students in the following content areas: (1) English language arts, (2) mathematics, (3) science, (4) social studies, (5) health and physical education, (6) music, (7) art, and (8) dance.
Each teacher has a mission: to exploit student talent in the above areas to the highest degree possible; to ensure that all students within his or her agency meet the core curriculum standards in the areas above at the proper grade level, and to represent as the talent agent of the students within his or her class.
Dreamland Academy of Performing & Communication Arts: Talent Agencies
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