PURCHASE, NY, May 1 – Manhattanville College dance students Jessica Bessler, Danielle Chu, Alexa Rivera, and Paije Pasols, in addition to Professor and Program Director Shawn Bible, recently had the opportunity to develop an educational segment for the PBS program “Let’s Learn.”
Professor Bible was approached to work on a segment for the show and put together content for a pitch script and test footage. He soon heard back from PBS that the segment was approved, at which point he recruited a small, diverse group of four dance students to represent the college and the program.
The group worked together in the on-campus dance studio during January and filmed footage to educate kids aged three to five on the connection between spatial awareness and math. This was new territory, especially for Bible, who has taught college-aged students for his entire career as an educator. Senior dance student Jessica Bessler says the experience was “was very different, especially given our younger audience. It was an interesting process learning how your mannerisms, the colors you wear, and the way you speak effect our younger viewers as well as the simple and steady process in which they learn.”
While this was a new experience for the students, they were prepared for the process after taking courses tailored to dance outside of the theatre space, most notably “Dance on Camera.” Senior Lexie Rivera took this course, as well as several digital media production courses through the communications and media program. She felt “the process was like what we experienced in the classroom. This project took it to the next level, but it helped to have that background to understand how everything works and what we needed to do to get great footage.”
Bible felt it was “such a wonderful opportunity working with PBS. It was even more incredible working with our students in a different professional capacity. Our dance majors are so professional, prepared, and represent Manhattanville to the highest caliber.”
For dance student Paije Pasols, it felt like a full circle moment. Pasols watched PBS frequently as a child and now believes “when you’re that young, your mind is so sculptable. It so cool that the roles are reversed and I, along with the rest of the dancers, get to be the ones who hopefully spark something for at least one kid.”
The most significant part of this opportunity to Bible, however, was the opportunity to live the college’s social justice-based mission outside of campus life and give back to the community. “I always believe that we have to give something back,” Bible says. “These students have been blessed with a gift and a passion for this art form, and now they get to share it with young kids who will have the opportunity to fall in love with it and want to be like them.”
Dance student Danielle Chu is also a Clark Scholar on-campus and volunteers with several programs that work with youth groups in the community by participating in games and educational activities. Chu sees a natural connection between movement and education, and she is “grateful to be using dance to help educate my community… [it] provides a universal language for everyone to learn.”
The segment will air as part of episode 1211 (“There’s a Silent ‘e’ in Kite!”) on Thursday, May 25 in the WNET viewing area. The episode will also be available online at https://www.letslearn.org/episodes/ by May 5. To learn more about dance at Manhattanville, visit https://www.mville.edu/programs/dance.php.
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