Curricula

Destiny Arts Center has offered programs to youth since 1988 and during that time has trained youth and instructors in two important curricula. Both are available for purchase.

FIVE FINGERS OF VIOLENCE PREVENTION
A Peacemaking Curriculum for Youth of All Ages!

This user-friendly curriculum includes classroom skits and interactive games to help educators implement effective, fun, and engaging violence prevention skills training into their classrooms.

Our commitment at Destiny is to transmit core values of peace and violence prevention to all of our students, in the martial arts, dance and performance, and youth leadership programs. Our violence prevention curriculum is rooted in five principles that can apply to all types of potentially violent situations: the Five Fingers of Violence Prevention.

Finger #1 USE YOUR HEAD

Students learn to…

· Identify their natural senses
· Understand what awareness means
· Develop keen observation skills
· Understand the concept of intuition as a way to receive information
· Understand how to breath and relax

Finger #2 USE YOUR MOUTH

Students learn to…

· Develop their voice as a powerful tool for communication
· Understand nonverbal communication
· Understand boundary setting
· Differentiate between passive, aggressive and assertive behavior
· Develop positive communication and problem solving strategies
· Develop the capacity to use the 7 Steps to Conflict Resolution in conflict situations

Finger #3 USE YOUR FEET

Students learn to…

· Understand the concept of safe spaces
· Develop decision-making skills
· Practice physical agility in escape techniques
· Understand the social pressures related to walking away from conflicts or using verbal skills to resolve differences

Finger #4 USE YOUR FIGHTING SKILLS, BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE TO

Students learn…

· Basic self-defense skills and an understanding of the difference between an “anger situation” and a “danger situation”

Finger #5 TELL SOMEBODY WHAT HAPPENED

Students learn to…

· Identify a trusted adult to whom they can report tough situations or any time they had to employ any of the first four fingers

YOUTH ON THE MOVE!
Inspired by the Destiny Arts Center Youth Performance Company!

Youth on the Move is an exciting, innovative teacher’s guidebook to co-creating original movement/theater performances with teens based on work with the acclaimed Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC). The package includes 2 DVDs.

The work of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) inspired this guidebook. The DAYPC is a multicultural group of teens that have auditioned annually since 1993 to create original performances, in collaboration with professional artists, that combine hip-hop, modern and aerial dance, theater, martial arts, song and rap. The productions are a dynamic, creative forum for young people to express their fears, hopes and strategies for confronting challenging personal and social issues, including racism, sexism, homophobia, violence, poverty, and the environment. The DAYPC gives youth opportunities to bear witness to the crucial power of art and culture as mediums for self-expression, agents of solidarity and means of working toward peace.

“Youth on the Move!" is an easy-to-use, comprehensive curriculum guide. It follows DAYPC’s collaborative model for putting together an original movement/theater performance from start to finish. Each chapter represents a distinct phase of the DAYPC's 5-month process for forming a group, creating and producing a show, and debriefing the experience. It is also designed in a way that allows readers to easily pick out the elements most useful to them.

The guide includes:
· Detailed recommendations for each stage of the collaborative process, from auditions to “debriefing” after the final performance.
· Sample materials – rehearsal schedules, audition flyers, press releases, production schedules.
· The full script (with production and lighting notes) from a DAYPC show.
· A comprehensive appendix of group exercises – theater exercises, dance & choreography exercises, guided meditations and group bonding/community building exercises.
·“Journal notes” providing insights and lessons learned from DAYPC director Sarah Crowell’s years of experience working with youth in collaborative creation.
· Two DVDs showing DAYPC in action.

Click here to read Youth on the Move Introductory Pages.
Click here to read Sample Lesson Plans linked to the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards.

The DVD’s included in the guidebook package:

A Place Named Destiny (70 MINUTE DOCUMENTARY)

We highly recommend that you and your students watch this documentary as it gives a personal context in which to understand the various exercises and lessons in this guidebook, and inspires both teacher and student to begin the creative process. It follows the process of creating the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company show, Soul Dust, which was performed in the spring of 2001.The film premiered in June 2002 at the Mill Valley Film Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. Watching it offers insight into the lives of some of the company youth and demonstrates their personal journeys as they work together to create the show. Watching the film makes this curriculum come to life.

Vision to Action (12 MINUTE VIDEO)

This short piece features current Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company members and professional artists and educators talking about how the performing arts are an important instrument for personal transformation and social change. The interviews are combined with exciting footage of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company in rehearsals and performances.

ORDERING INFORMATION

To order one or both of Destiny's curricula:

1. Download order form

2. Print and fill out order form

3. Mail order form with check or credit card info.