The Virtual Stage

Arts teachers are integrating computer software with traditional instruction in dance, music, theater, and visual arts to spark students' creativity.

Raleigh, N.C.

Jacob Besigel shows off some impressive dance moves—extreme twists, rapid spins, and skybound leaps—all by simply tapping his right index finger. With the click of a computer mouse, the 8th grader straightens the animated dancer he has created on-screen, adjusts his timing, adds a deep lunge to the routine and begins the simulation again. As music echoes through Jacob’s dance class at Moore Square Museums Magnet Middle School here, the teenager continues to choreograph a “virtual” routine that he’ll have to synchronize with a live performance on the dance floor later in the school year.

At Moore Square—where educators are blending technology more heavily into the teaching of arts and music than most other schools—even the most inhibited students can “bust” a virtual move with grace and prowess using a software program that allows them to build, pose, and animate a figure—or group of figures—in time.

“You’re almost dancing with the computer,” says teacher Cindy Hoban, a former professional dancer who introduced the students to the computerized dance program, called Poser. Hoban, 52, uses the technology as a supplement in her elective dance classes to familiarize her students with dance concepts and genres, and to help them visualize moves,...