Phoenix High School Film – Fall 2019

[KGVID width=”640″ height=”360″]https://sparcinla.org/videos/SPARC-PhoenixHS-Winter2019.mp4[/KGVID]

Students at Phoenix High School in Venice, CA worked with SPARC Teaching Artists in Baile Folklórico where they created videos about their personal and academic experiences in an alternative school. Led by Rayven Armijo, Urban Folklórico Choreographer/Performer and UCLA WAC/D MFA Graduate in Choreography, and supported by Emilia Shaffer-del-Valle, Phoenix students explored zapateado and choreographed their own footwork. They considered the way art – from dance to film – can tell their own stories. The story they wanted to share was about their individual and collective experience as students in an alternative high school. Using tablets, students created original short films infused with zapateado. Footage shot by Phoenix students have been integrated into one video that reflects the conversations and insights that emerged during this 10-week course on folklórico as a form of expression.

Click on each link to see a short film by Phoenix High School students:


SPARC’s arts programming combines contemporary events with student experiences and technology to advance conventional forms of expression. Students develop critical arts practices alongside practicing interdisciplinary artists and mentors whose own work intersects with activism and critical scholarship.

SPARC’s Arts Education Program is made possible in partnership with LAUSD’s Arts Education Branch as part of the Arts Community Network. For more information on SPARC’s Arts Education Program, contact our Programs Manager, Davida Persaud.