TopicClub

Puppets, an effective educational and therapeutic resource

The Topic holds on the 3rd of July a course about ‘Art and Therapy’ and another one on the 4th of July, in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country (EHU-UPV), about the importance of puppets within school education


The Tolosa Puppets International Center, Topic, prepares two courses during July, one of them in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country, where it will hold a wider vision of the world of puppets in comparison with the usual one, relating it with therapies focused on people with disabilities and also within the education in general of children aged between pre-school and secondary school.

The first of the two courses, ‘Art and Therapy’, will take place on the 3rd of July, from 16.30 until 19.30 hours, within the activities organized by the Summer School that the Worldwide Puppetry Organization (Unima) and the Topic. It will be a conference, illustrated with images, hold by Mila Iglesias and Isabel Verdini. This course is free of charge, but having a limited capacity of 250 people a previous enrolment is required. In order to enrol simply make a call to the following number (34) 943650414 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (34) 943650414      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or fill out this form.



Mila Iglesias, an expert in dance and plastic arts, has been working for the past thirty years with children affected by cerebral palsy and soon she discovered the importance that art can have as a method to improve the life quality of these people. “I was surprised observing that in their integration and rehabilitation the benefits the art world could offer were not used. This way it was born the idea of creating a theatre group having in mind that the oral limitation these people have thus it could not be traditional theatre”. That was the reason why Mila Iglesias used the technique of ‘Black Theatre’, where the visual stimulus has a paramount importance and allows playing an effective game with the imagination. “The discipline and the constant work of the whole group, gave some results that enriched and dynamized the day to day of all participants”, comments the professor.

Currently Mila Iglesias is the director of the Dance School Igor Yebra and she is away from this kind of activity. Despite this fact she recognizes that she is pleased having the chance to transmit her experience and knowledge “and can be used by others”. In the conference on the 4th of July she will put forward before the audience her personal experience within the artistic work carried out with children affected with cerebral palsy. The therapeutic benefits contributed by working in groups, the artistic incentive and the mobility demanded by the staging to the children that took part in this experience resulted astonishing. Therefore and for serving as inspiration for other people from the world of art as well as to personnel dedicated to the rehabilitation and social insertion of these children, the speaker will present the used working method and the discoveries she made.

The other lecturer is Isabel Verdini, creator of the dance group Verdini Dantza Taldea (pictured, an image of the company), where the dancers are people with Down syndrome. The group aroused in 1992 noticing the existing emptiness when it came to formation and development of the artistic capacities of people with disabilities. “Since then – explains Verdini – it have been years of uninterrupted labour, of serious work, rigorous and constant. We work by and for the development and integration of people with disabilities. The aim is to bring up people allowing them to manage in a satisfactory way in the environment they must live in. Achieving all that through the dance and more precisely through contemporary dance. Demonstrating to the society the artistic capacities of this collective and finding career opportunities away from conventional channels for employment occupation. Apart from the intelligence level, everyone has a series of inherent values that can be developed and increased if limitations are not imposed on them and the opportunity to achieve that is given to them”. Isabel Verdini will illustrate her lecture with a public rehearsal on the Topic’s stage.

The Summer Course of the University of the Basque Country moves to the Topic

The heads of the Tolosa Puppet International Center, Idoya Otegui and Miguel Arreche, conduct the course “Puppet Theatre: and educational resource”, that is included as part of the XXX Summer Courses of the University of the Basque Country.

The aim of this workshop, that will take place at the Topic on the 4th of July, is to demonstrate that the puppet theatre is an educational resource with a significant potential to motivate, to reinforce and to strengthen the traineeship of the student in all the areas of the curriculum starting from preschool up to secondary school. The registration fees amount to 42 Euros, having an academic value of 10 hours. More information by calling the following telephone number 943219511.

They will also deal with the opportunities that the puppet facilitates in order to strengthen the oral and non-oral communication, as well as to reinforce the critical thinking and the capacity for problem-solving within a non-threatening environment that encourages the personal expression of each child and their creativity, reinforcing at the same time the cooperation and team work. Another objective of this course is to see discovering how the educational puppet is a unique tool to fill the needs of shy children and/or to profit with different learning techniques, including those that cannot be learned within a typical educational framework.

There will be taught three lectures. The first one is titled “The puppets within education in the Basque Country”, by Encarni Genua, Philosophy and Letters Graduate and also the founder of the puppet company Txotxongillo. The “Introduction” part of this lecture will be conducted by Carol Sterling, Arts in Education Director, Brooklyn Arts Council, New York. She will give an end to the workshop with a talk named “Activity – break the ice”.

Currently Carol Sterling is the Director of Art in Education of the Brooklyn Art Council in Brooklyn, New York. From her position, she designs, develops and supervises the artistic education programs of more than 100 public schools of New York reaching 27.000 students each year. Her responsibilities include the hiring and supervision of more than 125 artists that teach visual, scenic and literary arts - including puppets - , as well as art and technology. She has received the Arts in Educations Award, awarded by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C.   
 
More information about ‘Art and Therapy’

More information about ‘Puppet Theatre: and educational resource’