News

2010

The Adult Chamber Players Club continues monthly meetings with 25 musicians active in reading music together and playing recitals. In March, Harriet Harris, Alexander Technique instructor, presented a workshop to help participants improve playing through posture, breathing, and reducing stress while playing.

Recreative Art Center provided funding for the Arizona Flute Society to commission a piece by flutist and composer Gary Schocker, which he named “Ikebana.” The piece premiered for the composer, whom we hosted in Phoenix, and at the National Flute Convention.

Recreative Art Center continued weekly adult tai chi and yoga classes in 2010 and six-week classes for youth with mental and behavioral health issues and in group homes. We taught a successful series of tai chi classes for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix’s Warner A. Gabel Branch Teen Center. A group of very active boys who attend an out-patient treatment center showed amazing interest, focus, and strength during their six-week introduction to yoga at our partner studio Desert Song Yoga. Immigrant youths benefited from the stabilizing effect of yoga in the midst of their unsettled lives.

Free Arts of Arizona continues to help us bring our classes to youth in group homes and residential treatment centers. Classes in social dance engaged girls at behavioral health facilities and residential homes. Dance was a big hit for teens at a week-long camp that ended in a performance that allows youths to tell their stories and enhances their self-esteem.

Recreative Art Center provided social dance instruction to all juniors and seniors at Florence Crittendon Academy in preparation for their prom.

Sensei Carol coached ikebana students and together they prepared and showed large outdoor installations at the first annual ikebana exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden on January 30 and 31, including a large group installation. Three students created arrangements for Arts and Flowers at the Phoenix Art Museum. Carol’s arrangement was awarded first place for floral interpretation. Carol taught four monthly ikebana classes for our partner Weehawken in Ouray, Colorado, and Recreative Art Center sponsored scholarships for underprivileged youth to attend dance classes there.