The Denton Avenue School was transformed last week into an international pavilion of exotic arts and crafts and dances that students of all ethnic groups had an opportunity to experience.
It was the school’s second annual Heritage Week, celebrating the differences and the similarities in the native cultures of all the students who populate the elementary school.
“Whether it’s through art or dance or music, the kids are involved,” said Beth Rosenman, lead teacher at Denton Avenue, who oversees the week’s activities that are planned with the collaboration of teachers and parents.
In the gym on Tuesday morning, a group of grade schoolers were wearing white caps askew, striking hip hop poses and gleefully following the break-dance steps their teacher Jenna Grieco was showing them.
“They love to dance and it’s nice to teach them how to do a few moves,” she said.
Meanwhile, in a nearby classroom, Dr. Nancy Ho was taking time out from her practice as a pediatrician to teach her daughter Caitlin’s classmates how to make Chinese lanterns.
Caitlin, dressed in bright blue traditional Chinese garb, demonstrated her expertise.
“I made it before, but it was so big it was hard,” she said.
The children were working on small lanterns and visibly enjoying the experience of watching their folded red paper parts take shape. Dr. Ho was enjoying it too.
“I love it. They’re great. I teach them about the culture so they understand a little bit,” she said.
And that’s the whole point of Heritage Week: to open a window for the children on each other’s culture, and inspire a sense of pride about it.
In the school auditorium, a presenter named Roni Yari was teaching an attentive groups of third and fourth graders the fine points of Bhangra. It’s a northern Indian dance form that gave the kids a chance to express themselves, spinning around gracefully and jumping up and down to the expressive mellifluous tones and beat of Indian tempos.
Kaitlin, a young Chinese girl, who was smiling and laughing through it all, said afterward, “It was fun because we got to do a lot of stuff.”
And there was still a full day of more stuff ahead, including Rangooli, Indian sand painting, a primer in playing cricket, Polish folk art lessons, Latin dance, American jazz, yoga and Chinese brush painting.
“It’s been a wonderfully enriching experience for the children. We all eat, we all dance, we all celebrate,” said Andrea Bittman, teacher, gifted and talented, at the Denton Avenue School. “It builds tolerance and respect. We build it right into the curriculum.”
