Singing the familiar tune of the ABCs becomes more challenging when faced with a live audience, but the Redhouse Art Center’s upcoming summer workshop helps kids gain the confidence of being onstage, which also helps them offstage.
Children like Lilly Kneeskern say even just a weeklong workshop in April helped her rebuild social skills hindered by months of remote learning during the pandemic.
“It’s made me more fluid into speaking stuff because I don’t stutter as much as I used to," said Kneeskern.
Kneeskern spent spring break creating an original play and performed it with her peers in front of a live audience.
"It’s made me more outgoing and helped me make more friends," she said of the program.
Redhouse Arts Center is now welcoming sign-ups for its summer session.
Choreographer Nahahme Howard says the Redhouse program gives students a sense of freedom they often don’t get in the classroom.
“It is very strict with we need to learn this at this, at this time and there isn’t really a lot of room for the kids to have fun and just be themselves and be creative. So Redhouse gives them that space and that opportunity to collaborate and be with their peers and be creative while still learning,” said Howard.
Howard knows this first hand because she herself is a graduate of the program. Students ages 6 to 17 years old are eligible for its summer session that begins in July.