A Mime is Worth a Thousand Words

At Helen O’ Grady we love miming and teaching our students the art of miming.

What is mime and why do we teach it?

Mime is not simply mimicking, it’s recreation

When we mime we get to create illusions.

Mime challenges us to imagine a new world and create a new world for us as the performer as well as for our audience.

During mime students are learning to use their bodies and facial expressions.

They learn to communicate effectively without using sounds and words.

A Mime to Music is a sequence of miming to create and tell a story. It’s one of the favourite activities for our students to do and for teachers to show.

Paarl students performing The Marionettes

Rainbow Montessori students performing The Marionettes

Last week our students enjoyed a Mime to Music called The Marionettes. During this item students are paired together as operators and their beloved marionettes. This gave students a further challenge to move together as partners WITHOUT SPEAKING! Oh what a challenge, but oh what fun.

They rose to the occasion and we might just have to save this one for Parent Day ;)

Make a Dramatic Difference at School

Helen O’ Grady offers drama classes at a number of studios across the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town as well as the Winelands areas.

We also offer drama as an after school programme at a number of schools.
While some may question the merits of a drama programme at a school with an already full extra-curricular programme, we offer these answers:

Drama at school stimulates CREATIVITY IN PROBLEM SOLVING
Drama activities can CHALLENGE STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS about their world and about themselves.
Dramatic exploration as seen in our lessons can provide students with an outlet for EMOTIONS, THOUGHTS and DREAMS, that they might not otherwise have a platform to EXPRESS.
With our improvisations students can BECOME ANOTHER, explore a new role, try out and experiment with various personal choices and solutions to very real problems- or problems faced by characters in literature or historical figures.

De Tyger's Primary Group doing an Improv

Of course, at the core of Helen O’ Grady is COMMUNICATION, CONFIDENCE and CREATIVITY.

In this way drama REINFORCES the rest of the school curriculum giving students the all-round development they need. 

Drama Drama Everywhere

The best part about being with Helen O' Grady is our local, national and international footprint.
Everywhere you go, you'll find us at a studio or school.
Should a family have to move during a term, its so easy for that student to continue their drama lessons and their learning development at another studio with a teacher with the qualifications, training and enthusiasm as previously.

But don't take our word for it...Take a look at the links below:

http://dramaafrica.com/
http://www.helenogrady.com.au/
http://www.helenogrady.co.uk/
http://www.helenogrady.co.in/website/
http://helenogradyasia.blogspot.co.za/   

and that's not even the half of it!

We hope that if you're with us already you'll chat to us and let us know if there's anything more we can do for your child. We're gearing up for a new, exciting season so if you're not with us yet... Get in on the ACTion!

Speak Out!

As we build up to our Parent Day presentations our Lower and Upper Primary classes have been working hard towards their speech showcases.

For the Lower Primary groups this will take the form of a group poem. Our students in grades 1 through to 3 have been learning and will be performing a new poem specially written to show the skills they have acquired throughout their speech activities this term and this year.

In the Upper Primary classes students have enthusiastically been learning and rehearsing a Verbal Dynamics piece. This work uses poetry and drama to bring to life group speech activities.

Either group will do their best to show their parents the skills they have been taught throughout their time with Helen O’ Grady. These skills include projection, exclamation, volume control, resonance, to name a few.

We cannot wait to host our ever supportive parents at this term’s Parent Day.

Be sure to check out our Facebook page to make sure you don’t miss out.

Bring A Friend

Every term Helen O' Grady offers our students the opportunity to bring a friend to class and share in the drama and fun. This is a great way for those who do not know about the programme to get a hands on introduction to the curriculum and dynamic teaching. Friends are welcomed as part of the class and are included in all activities throughout the lesson.

This is also a unique opportunity for students to share with their friends what they do at their weekly drama classes and what they have learnt.

When students join us for a Bring a Friend day they often return to enrol in the programme. Once they are exposed to the high energy, the warmth and the skills taught they simply cannot stay away.

If you are at one of our studios, ask your teacher for your Bring a Friend day voucher and invite your friends to join you at drama. If you would like to visit one of our studios, remember, trial lessons are free and in the same way we welcome the friends invited by our students, we cannot wait to welcome you!

Improv is key at Helen O'Grady

Teaching ad-lib and improv skills is central to Helen O Grady curriculum. Improv has proved to be a vital component in the development of communication skills. Learning to improvise equips learners to be responsive, think and react quickly, change mistakes into useful moments and even build and develop the script and story. Our learners are exposed to this from their first lesson with Helen O' Grady and will take it with them to the stages throughout their careers.

Below we see the De Tyger Primary students performing an Improv, The Mine Disaster.

If you would like your children or students to learn these skills and many more get in touch with us.

There is a Helen O' Grady class for every age group and we are all around the Cape.

Visit www.helenogrady.co.za for more information. Or take a look at our Facebook and Twitter pages.

We can't wait to hear from YOU!

The Helen O'Grady drama programme at Hebron Christian Academy.

The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy runs extra mural drama classes at many schools throughout Cape Town and the Winelands area. Schools have seen the positive impact that this highly educational and proactive programme achieves.

Here you can see our Lower Primary students from Hebron Christian Academy, where we have been running the programme for many years, in action performing an improvisation called the Chef's Magic Pot.

If you would like to know more about our schools' programmes or you would like to find out about our after school classes, please contact us on: 021 913 3635 or go to our website www.helenogrady.co.za