Discover the magic of artistic creation with the help of magicians Penn & Teller, who take you behind the scenes to explore the elements of music and other arts. Sparkling with humor and imagination, these 30-minute DVDs distill the essence of the arts with the help of singer Bobby McFerrin, composer Allen Toussaint, jazz percussionist Max Roach, dancer David Parsons, conductor JoAnn Falletta, director Julie Taymor (The Lion King), and others. This PBS series is immensely entertaining and is a valuable resource for all ages-elementary and up. Purchase includes public performance rights
Downloadabled PDF Teachers's Guides (below) offers a brief introduction to each video in the series and provides a "jumping off" activity to alert students to the concept they will be watching. After viewing, the follow-up activities reinforce the exploration started in the video.
Choose from these options:
- Vol. 1: THE ILLUSION OF DEPTH
with David Hockey (5272)
Penn and Teller demonstrate how artists, like magicians, create "illusions". Bobby McFerrin improvises a "sound track" to an amusing animated sequence illustrating flatness and depth.
- Vol. 2: COLOR with Robert Gil de Montes (5275)
How color creates mood and feelings, and can even trick the eye or control your focus, as a magician does with his bag of tricks.
- Vol. 3: BALANCE with Nancy Graves (5298)
Sculptors work with balance, often defying gravity, to create works of art. Enjoy Graves' witty and colorful demonstrations, plus a high wire acrobatic demonstration of how weight affects balance.
- Vol. 4: FRAMING with Carrie Mae Weems (5301)
Composition, focal point, point of view, and "framing" (choosing what to include in a photograph) make all the difference!
- Vol. 5: LINE with Wayne Thiebaud (5305)
When is a line not a line? When it is volume, shape, movement, and feeling. Thiebaud's drawing gradually reveals the complex portrait of an ice cream cone! Cartoonist Matt Groening (The Simpsons) shows how the simple use of lines suggests movement in comic strips.
- Vol. 6: MELODY with Allen Toussaint (5316)
The composer demonstrates with children how melodies are made and how they form one of the building blocks of musical form. Bobby McFerrin adds his vocal and rhythmic gymnastics to drive home the point!
- Vol. 7: RHYTHM with percussionist Max Roach (5317)
This jazz percussionist introduces rhythm, the element that makes music move. Children learn to equate different movement patterns with different rhythm patterns. Using the 4 "limbs" of his drum set, Roach shows how rhythmic patterns can be layered to create a composition.
- Vol. 8: TEXTURE with JoAnn Falletta (5318)
Children discover how a symphony orchestra builds layers of sound to make music, how sounds can relate as melody and accompaniment or as more than one melody played together. Watch an orchestra of painted hands (to look like musicians) perform with classical precision, and see Falletta conduct an orchestra to show how the instruments combine to create the musical texture.
- Vol. 9: PATTERN with David Parsons (5321)
Dance is based on natural movements combined into repeated and varied patterns. Choreographer David Parsons begins with the movements of sleep and organizes these movements into a new dance composition.
- Vol. 10: SETTING A SCENE with Julie Taymor
(The Lion King) (5322)
Visual magic through puppets, masks and music. Director Taymor's imaginary world brings alive a scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest.
- SAVE with the Complete Set Vols. 1-10 (5327)
