Community Arts Partner – The Creative Advantage

Participant Details

Individual Bio or Organizational Statement: As a teaching artist and a deviser, performer, and director of movement theatre, Sarah Liane Foster specializes in movement, ensemble, circus skills, physical comedy, mask, and clown. Sarah has taught for many years in the Pacific Northwest in public and private schools, grades K-12. Her work includes story drama courses for pre-school through elementary school; physical theatre and circus arts residencies for 2^nd-8^th grade; and ensemble devising, movement, mask, and clown intensives for 7^th-12^th grade. Sarah’s teaching places a strong emphasis on collaboration, communication, ensemble-building, student voice, and physical awareness/ expression. As a teaching artist in the schools, Sarah's work incorporates 21st Century Skills and Habits of Mind. A graduate of the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Sarah went on to study movement theatre pedagogy at the Helikos International School of Theatre Creation. She is a graduate of the WA State Teaching Artist Training Lab, and continues to learn more every day from her students, her collaborators, her artistic practice, and the world.

Type: Theatre: Story Drama, Creative Movement, Ensemble-Devised Theatre, Physical Theatre, Clown, Mime, Mask, Neutral Mask, Commedia dell'Arte, Lecoq-based Movement Techniques, Games, Team-Building. Circus Arts: Stilt Walking, Juggling, Diabolo, Acrobatic Balancing, Plate Spinning, Feather Balancing, Ribbon Spinning, Clown.

Previous School Partnerships: Bright Water Waldorf School, Olympic View Elementary, Family Learning Program, Cascadia Elementary, Montlake Elementary, King's School, Pathfinder K-8.

Other Trainings or Certifications: Movement Theatre Pedagogic Training: Scuola Internazionale di Creazione Teatrale Helikos. Physical Theatre: Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. CPR & First Aid certified.

Teaching Philosophy + Approach: My mission as a teaching artist is to guide students to discover their own voices and learn about the world through movement, vocal technique, ensemble listening, devising, mask, clown, and circus skills. I believe that through the practice of theatre together in a safe environment, students can express aspects of themselves; gain tools for communication; engage playfully in learning; and develop confidence, kinaesthetic awareness, critical thinking, perseverance, and collaboration skills. I approach planning with a classroom teacher with as much clear communication as possible about mutual expectations, goals for student learning, budget, materials, schedule, space, connections between the residency and other work the class is doing, and any student needs I should know about. During the residency I check in regularly with classroom teachers about how things are going, if expectations are being met, if any plans need to be modified, etc. Afterward I like to debrief with teachers about successes, challenges, observations, and take-aways.

Curriculum Integration Possibilities: Curriculum integration is very interesting and exciting to me, and I am always open to exploring new possibilities of subject areas to integrate with theatre/ circus. Subjects I have paired with in the past: - Reading, literature (devising movements, characters, and scenes based on text) - Physics (balance, motion, momentum, gravity) - Earth science - Physical education - English language learning (playful use of English through theatre characters and scenes)

Special Skills and Areas of Expertise

ELL: Through teaching in the Pacific Northwest as well as internationally (in Italy, France, Turkey, Southern Africa, Colombia, and Haiti), I have a wide range of experience teaching groups who are not fluent in English or with whom I don't share a common language. I have found that movement theatre and circus skills can be powerful, engaging tools to transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries, and am very interested both in teaching theatre/ circus to English Language Learners and teaching English through theatre and circus. I am conversational in American Sign Language, French, and Italian, and know some Spanish and Haitian Creole.

Testimonials from Schools: "That was our best circus yet. There was some very important learning that happened there." -- A faculty member at Bright Water Waldorf School