Feb. 6, 2024 -- 21st Century Oxford HUB partnered with the Center for Arts Inspired Learning (CAL) for a “Night at the Theater” family event featuring themes of Community, Identity, and Kindness. The eight-week adventure started with movement and performance lessons with CAL artist Kristi Little. She tirelessly worked with HUB as a whole group, which inspired teamwork among the forty 1st through 5th graders. “Ms. Kristi” also lovingly led students in self-identity and expression, exploring feelings and emotions through movement and facial expressions. 

The ancient art of Origami was explored with CAL artist James Peake of FoldSpace Studios. HUB students are lucky enough to have worked with “Mr. James” in previous years. This time was special, as James supplied six-foot bamboo sticks for the HUB club to attach their large-scale Origami butterflies and fish. The end product was a beautiful performance which involved storytelling, performance art and dance along with choreographed (butterflies and fish) and unchoreographed (puppy dance party) movements. You can follow Oxford HUB and see all their adventures on IG: @Oxford_Hub_Tigers

“The origami workshops with Oxford HUB were a blast to instruct! The kids were very enthusiastic about the folding," said James. "Students learned how to fold a handful of origami models, including a puppy dog, a fish, and a butterfly. Students began by mastering those models on a smaller scale, and then recreated those models on a much larger scale to be used as giant puppets. The large-scale origami models were folded from paper that was 2ft x 2ft square! The paper was decorated with markers and then attached to bamboo poles so they could come to life on stage. The kids accomplished a lot in a short period of time!”

“Working with this incredible group of creative HUB artists is a joy! Our exploration of story structure, especially during our Halloween session, was awesome as we added dynamic character actions to our spooky group tale," said Ms. Kristi. "Magical moments always occurred when we would breathe life and emotion into objects, creating stories with our own choreography, transforming ourselves into actors, dancers and puppeteers. Seeing the students evolve into a collaborative ensemble during rehearsals and the final performance was heartwarming.”