Kindur MAR 19—22 BAM Fisher

Compagnia TPO Artistic Direction by Francesco Gandi and Davide Venturini A co-production with Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscana

Study Guide written by Nicole Kempskie with excerpts from Compagnia TPO

BAM PETER JAY SHARP BUILDING 30 LAFAYETTE AVE. BROOKLYN, NY 11217 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEAR EDUCATOR YOUR VISIT TO BAM Welcome to the Study Guide for the The BAM program includes: this study Page 3: The Production production of Kindur that you and guide, a pre-performance workshop in Page 4: Scene-by-Scene your students will be attending as your classroom led by a BAM teaching Page 5: : A Magical Land part of BAM Education’s School Time artist, and the performance (March 19- Performance Series. This magical tale 22; 90 minutes) immediately followed by Page 6: Iceland: Its Magical follows the travels of three sheep as a post-show discussion (30-40 minutes). Creatures they make their annual journey through Page 7: Classroom Activities the Icelandic landscape. Three dancers Please arrange for your students to stay bring these adventurous sheep to life and participate in this unique question- accompanied by massive screens filled and-answer session. with gorgeous projections depicting the vast beauty of Iceland’s landscape. At this performance, students will not only sit back and watch the story unfold, they will also participate in the story, at times being invited onto the stage in order to trigger and co-create the sounds, images, music, and colors that make up this world. In addition, this performance provides a wonderful opportunity to explore the natural wonders and culture of Iceland in the classroom; its fairy-tale landscape of glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, and Northern Lights, as well as its mysterious and troublesome trolls.

“Great fun on multiple levels, and a love letter to the gift of our bodies’ senses, Kindur offers insights to participants of all ages.”

—Michelle Wang, Time Out Chicago

Introduction2 HOW TO USE THE PRODUCTION THIS GUIDE WHAT TO EXPECT THE COMPANY Arts experiences resonate most strongly Each student will be given a special for students when themes and ideas Compagnia TPO is a visual theater heart as they enter the theater. It is a from the performance can be aligned to company based in Prato, Italy. The woolen heart that lights up when it’s your current curriculum. This resource company has been devising original time for them to take an active part in guide has been created to provide visual theater works devoted to the performance. In some cases a few you with background information to children’s audiences since it was hearts will light up and those children help you prepare your students to see founded in 1981. By using interactive will be invited on stage in small groups, Kindur. Depending on your needs, you technology every show is transformed at other times all the hearts light up at may choose to use certain sections into a “sensitive” environment where the the same time and the entire audience that directly pertain to your curriculum, thin border between art and play can be will stand and interact with the dancers or use the guide in its entirety. We experienced. Dancers, performers, and from their seats. encourage you to photocopy and share the audience itself interact with each pages of this guide with your students. other and explore new expressive forms THE CREATIVE TEAM In addition, at the end of this guide you that go beyond language and cultural will find suggested classroom activities barriers. TPO’s shows are renowned Directed by: that you can implement before or after for using vibrant visual sceneries which Davide Venturini and Francesco Gandi attending the performance. transform into interactive theatrical Choreographed by: spaces, thanks to the use of sensors and Anna Balducci, Paola Lattanzi, The overall goals of this guide are to: digital technologies. Erika Faccini Connect to your curriculum Written by: with standards-based information HOW TECHNOLOGY IS USED Stefania Zamiga and activities; TPO’s shows are created by a team of Digital Design: Reinforce and encourage your artists who use different forms (mainly Elsa Mersi students to exercise their critical and theater, dance, and visual arts), as well analytical thinking skills; as images projected onto large surfaces, Computer Design: and interactive technology. The stage Rossano Monti and, provide you and your students space is considered to be a dynamic and with the necessary tools to have responsive environment, and by using Sound Design: an engaging, educational, and sensors (infrared video cameras, lights, Spartaco Cortesi inspiring experience at BAM. and microphones) the audience is able Computer Engineering: to interact with it in the same way we Martin von Guten interact with computers, smart phones, and tablets—through movement and Costumes: voice. In Kindur, the dancers ‘paint’ and Fiamma Ciotti Farulli ‘play music’ on stage using their bodies. Scenery/Props: In addition, the children in the audience Livia Cortesi get to enter the playing space and Sound/Light/Video: explore it, experimenting with the way Massimiliano Fierli and Andrea Fincato the environment responds to their own voices, bodies, and movements.

Introduction3 SCENE BY SCENE

See the Classroom Activities on page SCENE 6: Spring 7 for an Introductory Activity that uses Spring has come and the sheep can leave these scene descriptions. All words their pen. Now there is light and there is in CAPS are defined in more detail on sun. There are many busy bees buzzing the next two pages. around and lots of puddles to jump in as the RAVENS fly about. SCENE 1: Rèttir It is September in ICELAND. The sound SCENE 7: The Journey of scampering around and shuffling in It’s time to leave, time to go away. Our the mud can be heard. On stage there is sheep’s journey through Iceland begins. a round space. In Icelandic it is called On stage you can see valleys, mountains, RÈTTIR, and it’s the sheep’s meeting and rivers. The weather keeps changing. point after their long summer journeys. Near a beach there’s a desert of stones.

SCENE 2: The Breathing Pen SCENE 8: Trolls It is getting dark and the sun is setting. It The sheep meet up with stone giants that is autumn! There is some wind moving are very ugly. Sometimes they do funny the grass. The sheep start breathing and dances because. They are TROLLS and as they do, the turf houses behind them they might be the guardians of a volcano. start to “breathe,” too! These turf houses are the pens the sheep will spend the SCENE 9: The Volcano winter in. During their long journey, the sheep also have to face a VOLCANO spitting fire like SCENE 3: The Wind is a Wolf a dragon. The sheep have to run from Now it is winter. All the sheep are inside one place to another to avoid being burnt. the pen because outside there is a bitter No part of the ground seems safe. The wind coming straight from the GLACIERS. volcano is always ready to attack. But The sheep move here and there, afraid of fire and ice live together in Iceland. Water their own shadows in the middle of this stops fire and fire warms water, and in windy night. the end, a white cloud rises and hides everything. SCENE 4: The Sheep’s Dream When the winds die down, it begins to SCENE 10: Waterfalls snow. It would be impossible for the We hear a big noise. The ground vibrates. sheep to be outside. The only thing they Magnificent WATERFALLS appear and can do is lie down, sleep, and dream. But resound like a big musical instrument. in their dreams they are outside playing, The water leaps high and falls on the becoming as light as snowflakes. round.

SCENE 5: Northern Lights SCENE 11: The Elves’ Party The sheep are still fast asleep. They The journey of the sheep is almost over. dream of painting with their bodies. As But why have they traveled all this way? they move they leave streaks of colors all To meet the ELVES and join their party! around the stage, just like the NORTHERN The elves are magical creatures hidden LIGHTS that appear in the sky during the among the grass blades, but the sheep long winter nights in Iceland. know just how to find them: you have to look around and see if there are hairy flowers called COTTON GRASS. Where there are hairy flowers, there are elves!

Curriculum4 Connections ICELAND: A MAGICAL LAND

ICELAND is an island in the North WINTER nights in Iceland are very long. WATERFALLS can be found in various Atlantic Ocean, just below the Arctic On the Winter Solstice (December 21), parts of Iceland during the summer, Circle, between and the rest the shortest day of the year, night skies especially the north and west, when the of Europe. It is a small country but it has begin to darken around three o’clock in the enormous glaciers formed during the cold many natural wonders: meadows and afternoon and the sun doesn’t rise the next winters begin to melt. deserts, glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, day until around noon. *Discuss waterfalls with students. Has and magical colored lights called *Discuss with students what it would be anyone ever seen one? Swam in one? “Northern Lights,” that fill the sky in the like here if we only had a few hours of Where might we find waterfalls in New winter. During the winter, the nights are daylight in the winter. York? very long and in the summer, the days seem to be never-ending. It is also said NORTHERN LIGHTS, also called aurora COTTON GRASS is a kind of flower that that Iceland is the land where magical borealis, are beautiful streaks of color looks like white fuzzy hair. It can be found creatures like trolls and elves live. that fill the night sky during the winter in Icelandic meadows near marshes and in countries near the North Pole. These bogs. *As a class, look at Iceland on a map. lights are produced by the sun and its *Share the following photograph of Cotton Which continents and countries are near winds. The sun sends particles called Grass with students: it? What do you think the weather is like ions that are charged with electricity into http://photography.nationalgeographic. there? How long do you think it takes to our solar system. These particles travel com/photography/photo-of-the-day/cotton- travel to Iceland from the United States? millions of miles per hour and when they grass-iceland/ encounter the Earth’s magnetic field, the RÈTTIR means ‘round up’ in Icelandic, Earth bounces them back. But some of and this is a special time in September these particles are able to make it into the when the sheep who have been wandering atmosphere in areas near the poles, and all summer are rounded up and taken when they do they clash with the atoms in back to the valley. Men on horseback, or the air creating beautiful ribbons of color in sometimes jeep and helicopter, look for the the sky. sheep for three or four days and take them *Share the following NASA video about the back to the round fence (also called rèttir) Northern Lights with students: http://www. where they are collected. The villagers nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index. hold a big festival to celebrate this event html?media_id=97423582 and then find and group the sheep that they will be taking care of over the winter VOLCANOS can be found all over Iceland, and bring them to their pen. often inside glaciers. There are 130 *Learn more about Icelandic sheep here: volcanoes in Iceland, mainly because http://www.isbona.com/icelandicsheep. Iceland lies on an ocean fault. A fault is a html very deep breach that separates enormous pieces of land, and in this case, two GLACIERS make up close to 11% of continents—Eurasia and North America. Iceland. Glaciers begin to form when snow As these pieces of land separate, they remains in the same area year-round and throw out lava causing volcanic eruptions. transforms into ice. New layers of snow Over time that lava slowly becomes new bury and compress the previous layers, land. That is how Iceland was formed. causing the icy snow to re-crystallize, and The most famous Icelandic volcano is form tiny grains the size and shape of Ejafjallajökull. sugar crystals. Over time, the grains grow *Explore volcanoes further with this lesson larger and the pockets of air between them plan from PBS Nature: get smaller and more packed, creating a http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/lessons/ dense mass of ice. Vatnajökull, the fourth vibrant-volcanoes/lesson-overview/5159/ biggest glacier in the world, can be found in Iceland. This glacier covers more than 8% of the country. *Share the photos of Vatnajökull found here: http://www.vatnajokulsthjodgardur. is/english Curriculum Connections5 ICELAND: ITS MAGICAL CREATURES

ICELANDIC SHEEP TROLLS While we may not think of sheep as being Many Icelandic people believe that trolls magical, the Icelandic sheep in Kindur really exist. According to most legends, truly are. (“Kindur” is the Icelandic word trolls were magical creatures who lived for sheep.) Sheep arrived in Iceland inside rocks and volcanoes. They were with its first inhabitants, who came from human-like in form, but inhumanly Denmark over a thousand years ago. strong, huge, and ugly. They often The Icelandic sheep is one of the world’s guarded treasures and were good at oldest and purest breeds of sheep. The metal-working. While there were many average ewe weighs 130-160 pounds, different types of trolls, one thing they and the average ram weighs 180-220 all had in common was that they could pounds. Icelandic sheep sometimes have only travel by night. If they were exposed a special gene called the “Thoka gene” to sunlight they would immediately turn that results in them giving birth to triplets, to stone. quadruplets, quintuplets, and sextuplets regularly. As a breed Icelandic sheep ELVES are very resilient when it comes to cold According to the Icelandic sagas and weather and they have strong immune (ancient Icelandic myths) elves systems. Unlike most sheep, they do were originally a race of minor gods not have a shepherd: they stay together associated with nature and fertility. It is inside pens during the winter and then believed that there are thirteen different travel and roam in the summer, types of elves living in Iceland and they surviving on pasture. can be the same size as humans or very tiny. Elves are usually invisible, but they can be seen if they choose to. They can RAVENS be helpful and kind to those who do Ravens are very important in Icelandic them no harm, and they will repay favors culture and mythology. In the legends with favors. On the other hand, they can about Icelandic gods it is said that the also be malicious and take revenge if powerful God Odin always had two mistreated. Iceland has an School ravens named Huginn and Muninn on where Icelandic people and visitors his shoulders that served as his eyes can go to learn more about these tiny and ears. Each day the ravens would fly mythological creatures. out into the world, and each night they would return with news for Odin. That is why Odin is also called “The Raven God.” In another important story, Floki, an explorer looking for new lands through the northern seas, reached Iceland by following a flock of ravens. It was Floki who gave Iceland its name, meaning “land of ice.”

Background66 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES BEFORE THE SHOW…. AFTER THE SHOW…. AND…FREEZE! INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY The dancers in Kindur use their bodies MAGICAL LIGHTS One of the unique aspects of Kindur is the and voices to become the Icelandic sheep Native and indigenous cultures used visual art element—large projections that whose journey we follow. At times, the legends and myths to try and explain comprise the “set” and backdrop for the students will also be asked to use their the Northern Lights. In Finland they journey of the sheep. This activity will bodies and voices in different ways to believed that the lights were caused by introduce students to the story elements express emotion, to become creatures, a magical fox that swept his tail across in Kindur and activate their imaginations and to interact with the environment. the snow and sprayed it up into the sky. by allowing them to think about the visual The following activity will give them believed the lights were the aspects of the show. the opportunity to explore this prior to spirits of old maids dancing in the sky Each student will need a blank sheet performance. and waving. The Inuit believed that the of paper, a pencil, and markers/ lights were the spirits of animals and sea crayons for this activity. Arrange the desks in the classroom creatures, and the Algonquian Indians of Canada believed that the lights were Using the Scene-by-Scene so that you have a large open space. reflections from a huge fire build by the breakdown on page four of this Have everyone find his or her own “Great Spirit.” guide, assign students a number 1 spot in the space. through 11. Tell students that they As a class, explore some of the myths are going to design a “backdrop,” an Explain to the students that you are associated with the Northern Lights. image that could be the background going to give them an emotion, and Share images of them with students for the scene that that corresponds to they are going to become a statue and have them create or write their own their number. of that emotion using their bodies. legends about the Northern Lights. Remind them that statues don’t CCR K-5 Writing 1-9; Speaking and Listening 1-6; Read each scene description, and move or talk. Examples of emotions Language 1-6; Blueprint: Making Connections have students listen closely and think that can be used are: happy, sad, of ideas for their backdrops. They exhausted, excited, scared, and PHYSICAL STORYTELLING can even start sketching. confused. There are many ways to tell a story, and After all the scene descriptions some of the most engaging ones don’t Tell students that you will say the use words at all. In Kindur, the story is have been read, provide students emotion and then count to three. By with a written copy of their scene told through movement, visual images, the time you get to three they should and sound. The following activity will give description and let them create their be frozen in their statue. images using pencil and markers/ students the opportunity to experiment crayons. Say the emotion and count to three. with non-verbal storytelling. As a class, read the Norwegian Walk around the space and tap a Have students share their images folktale The Billy Goats Gruff found few students who have made great with the class. here: http://americanfolklore.net/ statues and ask them to remain folklore/2010/10/three_billy_goats_ Look at photographs of Iceland and frozen. Ask the other students to gruff.html compare them to the drawings the look and comment on what makes students made, or alternatively, those statues so great. (How are Put students into groups of four explore the first they using their facial expressions? or five and assign each group and then do the activity. How are they using gestures? How one section of the story. Working exaggerated are they? What might together, students must create a CCR K-5 Speaking and Listening 1-6; Language 1-6; Blueprint: Making Connections be happening for their “character” at one-minute movement sequence that moment?” that depicts their section of the story. Repeat the exercise with different This will entail deciding who is going emotions. In addition, you can to play which character, and creating repeat the activity using characters a pattern of movement that can be (sheep, troll, raven, elf) and repeated. geographical elements (glacier, Have students share their movement volcano, waterfall). sequences with the class in the order Blueprint: Making Theater and Dance they appear in the story. CCR K-5 Speaking and Listening 1-6; Language 1-6; Blueprint: Making Theater and Dance

In addition to these, you will find the following activities in the Student Guide that can be used before or after the performance:

ART ACTIVITY: NORTHERN LIGHTS ONCE UPON A TIME Background7 Major support for BAM Education programs provided by: The New York Community Trust; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; The Rockefeller Foundation New York City Cultural Your tax dollars make BAM programs possible through Innovation Fund; The Skirball Foundation; and Seth funding from: Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation

Education programs at BAM are supported by: Barclay’s Nets Community Alliance; Barker Welfare Foundation; Tiger Baron Foundation; BNY Mellon; The Kindur is supported with funds from the New York Bay and Paul Foundations; Constans Culver Foundation; BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the State Council on the Arts ArtWORKS for Young People Charles Hayden Foundation; Jaharis Family Foundation; New York State Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation Presenting & Touring Initiative Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation; David Leader; and New York Senate, Senator Velmanette and Susan Marcinek; Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation; Montgomery, Delegation Leader. Expansion of BAM’s Community and Education Programs National Grid; PennPAT: a program of the Mid Atlantic made possible by the support of the SHS Foundation. Arts Foundation; Tony Randall Theatrical Fund; The The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York Jerome Robbins Foundation, Inc.; May and Samuel Rudin and benefit from public funds provided through the New Kindur Leadership support for BAM Education programs is Family Foundation; Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation; York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support provided by Cheryl & Joe Della Rosa, The Irene Diamond Sills Family Foundation; Surdna Foundation; Michael from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; Cultural Affairs Fund, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Tuch Foundation; Turrell Fund; Joseph LeRoy and Ann C. Commissioner Kate D. Levin; the New York City Council Trust, and The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation. Warner Fund. including Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Finance Leadership support for school-time performances, Committee Chair Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., Cultural pre-show preparation workshops and educational film Education programs at BAM are endowed by: Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer, the Brooklyn screenings is provided by The Simon and Eva Colin Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund for Delegation of the Council, and Councilwoman Letitia Foundation and Lemberg Foundation. Community, Educational, & Public Affairs Programs; James; and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Development of new education and community initiatives Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin; William Randolph Hearst in the BAM Fisher supported by The Achelis Foundation; Endowment for Education and Humanities Programs; Irene Altman Foundation; Booth Ferris Foundation; Brooklyn Diamond Fund; and The Robert and Joan Catell Fund for Community Foundation; The Simon & Eve Colin Education Programs. Foundation; Ford Foundation; Lemberg Foundation;

About BAM Department of Education BAM Education also serves family audiences In September 2012, BAM launched On Truth & Humanities with BAMfamily concerts, the BAMfamily Book (and Lies), a series hosted by philosopher Simon Brunch, and the annual BAMkids Film Festival. Critchley that explores the ambiguity of reality with BAM Education is dedicated to bringing the In addition, BAM Education collaborates with prominent artists and thinkers, as a co-presentation most vibrant, exciting artists and their creations the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation with the Onassis Cultural Center NY. to student audiences. The department presents to provide an arts and humanities curriculum to performances and screenings of theater, dance, students who perform on stage in BAM’s Humanities at BAM also include year-round literary music, opera, and film in a variety of programs. DanceAfrica program. programs: Unbound, a new fall series presented In addition to the work on stage, programs take in partnership with Greenlight Bookstore that place both in school and at BAM that give context Humanities at BAM celebrates contemporary books and authors from for the performances, and include workshops with across the literary spectrum, and the ongoing Eat, artists and BAM staff members, study guides, and BAM presents a variety of programs to promote Drink & Be Literary series in partnership with the classes in art forms that young people may never creative thinking and ongoing learning. The National Book Awards, in the spring. have had access to before. These programs include Artist Talk series, in conjunction with mainstage Shakespeare Teaches, AfricanDanceBeat, Afri- programming, enriches audiences’ experience The department also hosts master classes, canMusicBeat, Dancing into the Future, Young during the Next Wave Festival and the Winter/ including the Backstage Seminar, a series of Critics, Young Film Critics, Brooklyn Reads, Arts Spring Season. The Iconic Artist Talk series, workshops on the process of theater-making & Justice, and our Screening programs, as well as launched as part of BAM’s 150th anniversary with BAM’s production staff and guest artists. topically diverse professional development work- celebrations, features iconic artists and companies shops for teachers and administrators. examining the evolution of their work at BAM over the years through on-screen projections of original footage and images from the BAM Hamm Archives.

Department of Education and Humanities Staff: Study Guide Writer: at NYU, was a contributing writer and professional Stephanie Hughley: VP Education & Humanities Nicole Kempskie is a playwright, lyricist and development leader for the DOE’s Moving Image Suzanne Youngerman, Ph.D.: Director of theatre and media educator. She currently man- Blueprint and served as a juror for the children’s Education & Family Programs ages the School & Family Programs at the Paley division of the International Emmy Awards. John P. Tighe, DMA: Assistant Director Center for Media, is a teaching artist for BAM, a Violaine Huisman: Humanities Director lead facilitator for the Broadway Teacher’s Lab, John S. Foster, Ph.D.: Education Manager and is an Adjunct professor in CCNY’s Education Gwendolyn Kelso: Program Manager Theatre program. She has worked as a consultant Images Courtesy of Compagnia TPO Eveline Chang: Program Manager and teaching artist for NYC DOE, Arts Connection, Shana Parker: Event Manager TADA, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Step-Up Drama, Copyright © 2013 by Brooklyn Academy of Music Jennifer Leeson: Administrative Coordinator the McCarter Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, All rights reserved. No part of this book may be Nathan Gelgud: Box Office Manager/Program Music Theatre International, Tams-Witmark, Dis- reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any Associate ney, TheatreworksUSA, Broadway Classroom, and means, electronic or mechanical, including photog- Tamar McKay: Administrative Assistant is the co-founder of Brooklyn Children’s Theatre. raphy, recording, or by any information storage and Molly Silberberg: Humanities Assistant Her most recent full-length musical, Helen on retrieval system, without permission in writing from Rebekah Gordon: Administrative Assistant 86th St., premiered Off-Broadway in the spring of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Hannah Max: Humanities Intern 2010. She holds an MA in Theatre and Sociology CreditsLulu Earle: Education Intern from the Gallatin School