Help Us Distribute Our Documentary: Toe the Line
Donation protected
We’re raising money for our documentary film, Toe the Line: Arts Education for Life. We have been self-funded for ten years. We began filming in 2009, and now, we have finally finished production and are almost ready to release our 76-minute film. We are raising $5,000 to apply to film festivals, stage a Spring 2020 premiere showing, and find a distributor. Your donation will help us spread our message about the benefits of public arts education far and wide.
Toe the Line follows a dance teacher and her students in the public Burncoat School in Worcester, Massachusetts. The teacher, Joan Sheary, is a former Radio City Rockette. Her dancers are too often at-risk students who would otherwise be dropouts: 68% of them are minority students, and 31% live below the poverty line. Our story follows six students through the program and beyond. They face bullying, perilous home-life situations, peer pressure, competition for parts and losses. But every schoolday they show up in Room H15 to train; every spring they take the stage at Hanover Theatre for a glorious performance; and every June, 100% of their seniors graduate. This is arts education in action.
There is a zero budget for this underfunded program in a beat-up, old school with cracked mirrors, broken stage lights and warped floors. The students raise the money for their ballet barres, mirrors, sound system and dancewear. If they cannot afford to pay for their dance or performance attire, their classmates help them earn the money. The program is not about creating dancers, it is about preparing students for success in life, by teaching them teamwork, problem solving, thinking outside the box, perseverance, self-discipline and focus.
Why are we sharing this story? Because Toe the Line focuses on a zero-budget, public-school arts program that works. In most public schools, the arts have been pushed aside and trivialized. But programs like Burmcoat’s Dance Program increase students’ passion for learning. Looking forward to their art period—whether it be music, theatre, visual arts or dance—is the fuel that powers kids through the schoolday and keeps them engaged.
Every child deserves to feel special and to excel. For some, finding areas of excellence means looking beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic. The confidence these students gain from their art can carry over to the areas where they feel deficient.
Toe the Line follows a dance teacher and her students in the public Burncoat School in Worcester, Massachusetts. The teacher, Joan Sheary, is a former Radio City Rockette. Her dancers are too often at-risk students who would otherwise be dropouts: 68% of them are minority students, and 31% live below the poverty line. Our story follows six students through the program and beyond. They face bullying, perilous home-life situations, peer pressure, competition for parts and losses. But every schoolday they show up in Room H15 to train; every spring they take the stage at Hanover Theatre for a glorious performance; and every June, 100% of their seniors graduate. This is arts education in action.
There is a zero budget for this underfunded program in a beat-up, old school with cracked mirrors, broken stage lights and warped floors. The students raise the money for their ballet barres, mirrors, sound system and dancewear. If they cannot afford to pay for their dance or performance attire, their classmates help them earn the money. The program is not about creating dancers, it is about preparing students for success in life, by teaching them teamwork, problem solving, thinking outside the box, perseverance, self-discipline and focus.
Why are we sharing this story? Because Toe the Line focuses on a zero-budget, public-school arts program that works. In most public schools, the arts have been pushed aside and trivialized. But programs like Burmcoat’s Dance Program increase students’ passion for learning. Looking forward to their art period—whether it be music, theatre, visual arts or dance—is the fuel that powers kids through the schoolday and keeps them engaged.
Every child deserves to feel special and to excel. For some, finding areas of excellence means looking beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic. The confidence these students gain from their art can carry over to the areas where they feel deficient.
Organizer
Barbara Copithorne
Organizer
Glendale, CA
