Basha Alperin, Theatre Artist, Musician
Basha Alperin (M.A.) is a multi-faceted artist and teacher who has devoted much of her lifework to promoting the intersection of arts and education. Her arts expertise includes storytelling, creative writing, creative movement, African and African-Caribbean dance and drumming, theatre, visual arts, film making, yoga dance and yoga therapy. As the director of ZEYBRAH (Zest for Education of Youth brings Rhythm Arts and Humanities), she has served the community for over 30 years, overseeing, researching, directing, developing and performing in multi-cultural arts festivals. As part of her goal to reach more children in schools to “make a difference,” Basha recently completely the advanced certificate program in gifted education at Hunter College and was designated most outstanding student of her class. Previously, she received her BA from Stanford University and her MA from NYU. Her passion for education and the arts has resulted in a long history of achievements in: instruction, performances, plays (writing, directing, producing) and organizing multi-cultural arts festivals.
TATIP Work
Basha has been interning at PS 132 in Washington Heights with CWP Mentor Teaching Artists Elizabeth Leonard and Sheldon Best.
Most Memorable TATIP Moment
“As the TATIP training year comes to a close, I reflect on many months of outstanding and insightful workshops and trainings that encompass many art genres. One highlight was the presentation of my culminating event of my residency program at PS 132, the Pablo Duarte School. The lesson’s theme was “personification,” designed for a third grade theatre and poetry residency, led by Elizabeth Leonard and Sheldon Best. We engaged the students through movement, metaphor building games, verbal cues, and scene improvisation. After the students successfully presented their poetry/theatre tableaux, the whole class was treated to the singing improvisation of my co-teacher, Janet, who fashioned a jazz lyrical version of the group poems just created. Another highpoint of the training and part of the advanced track requirement was my presentation with Anna Z. of our 10 week lesson plan that combined poetry and dance. I am very happy to have had the opportunity, through Community-Word Project, to fine tune my Teaching Artist skills and to share the training with so many other inspiring artists.”
Find out more about Basha here:
Check out Basha’s Teaching Path she created with her partner Anna Zastrow.
Interested in TATIP? Find out more about our 2016-17 Program!
See more of our 2015-16 Graduates in the 2016 TATIP Anthology!
