Ms Astley visits The Juilliard School New York
Ms Astley joined other Nord Anglia Education teachers from around the world to learn more about the Juilliard Drama Curriculum coming to the British International School, Ho Chi Minh City from August 2018.
Earlier this month, a group of Nord Anglia Education teachers from around the world came together in New York City for a professional development workshop at The Juilliard School. This training formed the foundation of the new Juilliard-Nord Anglia Drama curriculum which will be implemented at The British International School, Ho Chi Minh City from August 2018. Ms Astley, a member of our Drama department attended the training as she will be responsible for initiating and driving this exciting addition to our curriculum in the forthcoming 2018/19 academic year. Let’s find out more…
As I landed in JFK on a freezing March morning I had no idea what was ahead of me – all I knew was that I was attending The Juilliard School for a week of training, and, that I was very excited. It is every Performing Artist’s dream to walk the corridors of a school as prestigious as Juilliard and it did not disappoint. Even though the Juilliard students were on their Spring Break there was still a sense of purpose and creativity in the building and, as we soon discovered, Juilliard Alumni never really leave the school.
“I left New York full of excitement and so inspired by what I had seen and heard and, I cannot wait to bring back my learning to the students of BIS.”
So, why was I invited to fly 9,000 miles to visit The Juilliard School? As is evident across BIS HCMC we have embraced the music programme that is offered to us, through our collaboration with The Juilliard School, New York and it is now time for the next phase of this collaboration: the launch of the Juilliard-Nord Anglia Drama curriculum. BIS HCMC is one of the inaugural schools that will run the Drama curriculum from August 2018 therefore I was there, in New York, to find out what it was all about.
The week was jam-packed full of presentations, workshops led by Juilliard professors and the Drama curriculum specialists as well as performances from Juilliard students and Alumni. We met the current President, Dr Joseph Polisi, who talked us through his time at the school and how his views on ‘The Artist as Citizen’ has changed the way the students see themselves as performers within the wider community. We have just ordered his book, of the same name, for the school library.
“It is every Performing Artist’s dream to walk the corridors of a school as prestigious as Juilliard and it did not disappoint.”
I left New York full of excitement and so inspired by what I had seen and heard and I cannot wait to bring back my learning to the students of BIS. There are a range of ‘core works’ that will engage and challenge our students and I am certain they will love what we are going to be teaching them.
Anne-Marie Astley, Drama Teacher
#NAEJuilliard
