By Caitlin Williams, Educational Outreach Intern
As an intern in Educational Outreach, my favorite part of the job is organizing events. ABTKids, one of our family-oriented events, was the most fun by far. Each spring, ABT hosts a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House solely for children and their families. An opera house full of 2500+ three to six-year-olds and their families sounds crazy! It was a blast!
Prior to the performance, comprised of excerpts from kid-friendly ballets, we held a workshop downstairs in the rehearsal studios. The kids began by playing ballet-themed games like “Draw a Dancer”, and “Tractor Driver Jeté”. Then, our wonderful teaching artists led the kids in a warm-up followed by a short routine modeled after some of the variations they would see in the performance. We also added a new component to the event this year called, the VIP Experience. Families had the option to pay a little extra and receive an all-access pass to the event. It included a gift bag full of goodies and a pair of either pointe shoes or flat slippers to be signed by a company member, a chance to meet ABT company members on stage after the performance, and a post-performance workshop much like the pre-performance workshop.
As entertaining as ABTKids was, the planning phase was even more fun. We spent hours in the office coming up with games (and testing them out, of course), making giant face-in-hole cutouts, printing workbooks, designing sticker sheets, etc. I love my job!
Caitlin, creating a Firebird with children at the ABTKids Workshop
abtinterns 
Leave a Reply