The Inwa School for Performing Arts
Immersive training for aspiring artists taught by master teachers in Mandalay
Immersive training for aspiring artists taught by master teachers in Mandalay
What is the Inwa School of Performing Arts? The Inwa School of Performing Arts is a cultural high school in Mandalay that prepares young artists to perform Myanmar classical dance and music to professional standards. Inwa School was established in 2015 by Arts Mandalay Foundation in collaboration with Mandalay artists, to provide continuity for excellence in classical arts and to extend their reach to world audiences. The school connects master teachers with students in their teens who aspire to careers onstage. Our thanks to the Suu Foundation and David Heath for providing a grant which helped to launch the school. The Inwa School operates the Mintha Theater, where students and professional artists present spectacular dance repertoires nightly in central Mandalay. The Mintha Theater is a social enterprise that maintains quality and authenticity of the arts in a contemporary setting while preparing students for live stage careers. Proceeds from the theater benefit the school. Why was it founded now? The Inwa School is a response to disruption in traditional training and funding sources brought on by rapid social and economic change. Government funds once supported at least 35 live arts graduates a year, and their teachers, but funding has plummeted. Arts Mandalay Foundation is working with the Pantra School and other national and municipal arts institutions to put arts training back on track and prevent collapse of the arts training pipeline. Students have always depended on scholarships because proper training is very demanding of both skills and time. Disappearance of traditional scholarship funds quickly leads to loss in quality as well as quantity of artists. Timing is critical because losing a generation of teachers would mean loss of irreplaceable cultural treasures. Course materials are important too, but transmitting the full set of skills relies on the living knowledge of master teachers. By filling a gap now, we aim to see opportunities for artists to continue, and to see the grand traditions of Myanmar artists carried forward. Is the Inwa School just like a traditional one? We work with a wide network of Mandalay artists and teachers to preserve traditional approaches while we augment methods and materials. We are traditional in the way we offer opportunities for low-income students from the countryside, teach the students when they are young and flexible, and provide an immersive training experience. The Inwa School aims to explore modern teaching, performance and entrepreneurial ideas for the classical arts. For example, the flexible dates of lunar calendar and late-night performance schedules prevent most visitors from experiencing genuine Myanmar arts. Too often, efforts to meet tourist schedules at hotels result in inauthentic performance. The Mintha Theater will play nightly at specific times, so that more people will see the real arts of Myanmar. Over time, we aim to stimulate new kinds of arts collaborations, generate more jobs and income for artists, and serve a thriving arts community in Mandalay. What is the Curriculum? The dance curriculum is modified from a course of study comprised of 125 set piece exercises, each of precisely 5 minutes in length. It was developed for the Pantra in 1953-4 by the famous teacher Daw Oba Thaung. In 2017 the school began a partnership with the Phaung Daw Oo school for an academic curriculum that includes English language, core math, and critical thinking skills. We teach dance, singing, music proficiency in classical instruments, and classical Myanmar theater. This includes tales from the Ramayana, folkloric stories from the Nat culture, and morality plays of great antiquity. We will teach the many different styles of dance including some from particular regions and minority peoples in Myanmar. The stories encapsulate more than 1,000 years of Burmese culture, and deserve to be shared with future generations. What is the status of the Inwa School now? We are expanding the curriculum and recruiting for next year. We're pleased that a number of past students have found jobs in Mandalay performance troupes. Your support helps to preserve Myanmar's cultural treasures for the world -- and for future generations of young people in Myanmar. *** |
Goals of the Inwa School of Performing Arts
Read Why We Need an Arts School by master U Ohn Maung... Your donation supports continuity for the magnificent performing arts of Myanmar. 
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