Kids with special needs were shown the marvel of dance through Samsung’s Dance Discovery program, a multi-sensory education experience recently held at the Sydney Opera House.
Samsung Australia hosted workshops for special needs children at the Sydney Opera House giving them the chance to engage physically and virtually with the arts.
Samsung supports programs like Dance Discovery that continue to innovate and use technology to enhance education experiences - an important, practical example of how technology can integrate with traditional educational programs to benefit students and create equal education opportunities.
Tess Ariotti, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Samsung, said, “Samsung Dance Discovery integrates technology into the heart of the workshops to enhance learning outcomes and produce an interactive workshop that special needs students could fully engage in.”
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All aspects of the activity were created through consultation with the student’s teachers to ensure the workshops were easily accessible for students of all levels. It ensured the program was relevant and accessible to special needs students. It included critical and creative thinking which encouraged communication and teamwork to solve problems. It revealed that repetition and reinforcement of the messages throughout the zones enabled the children to make connections across the zones and take more away from the overall workshop.
The consultative sessions also helped Samsung to understand how the children would interact with various pieces of technology. Samsung Dance Discovery was divided into three separate zones which enabled students to go on a pre-show journey and experience the steps leading up to a performance.
Zone 1, The Rehearsal Studio
Gear VR technology was used to present visuals of dance class and a ballet barre, helping students to virtually experience a day in the life of a ballet student.
Zone 2, The Orchestra Pit
Level On Headphones were used to listen to orchestral music, as well as experiment with the different orchestra instruments and the sounds they make.
Zone 3, Backstage
Tab S tablets were used to match fabrics work best for different costumes - different textures, colours, and weights. Students were encouraged to work in teams to create a costume for another student – a particularly powerful way to encourage creative and critical thinking.
In its eleventh year, “Out There” offers a fun, engaging introduction to ballet. In a series of workshops and performances which foster movement skills, promote fitness and encourage curricular engagement in students aged five to 18 years. Fun and informative, Out There, is taught by a specially trained Dance Education Ensemble from The Australian Ballet and utilises Samsung technology to assist and enhance learning experiences.
Over the past decade, Out There has given more than 100,000 children across Australia the opportunity to experience dance, with a strong focus on schools and communities in regional areas and outer metropolitan areas.
Samsung is passionate about helping to provide a well-rounded educational experience. Its support has meant that in 2015, Out There travelled to 107 schools around Australia.