Upper St. Clair junior teaches classes on stop-motion animation
The art of stop-motion animation has been around since the 1800s, and Dina Leyzarovich is bringing it squarely into the century in which she was born, the 21st.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
From left, Sam and Luke An take a look at Luke’s project.
The Upper St. Clair High School junior, who just turned 17, is teaching Stop Motion With Dina workshops for students in third through sixth grades.
“It’s something I’m passionate about,” she explained, “and I wanted to share that with others.”
In the fall and again this spring, she has conducted three-part classes at Upper St. Clair Township Library, instructing youngsters about the fundamentals of a technique that dates back to an 1897 short called “The Humpty Dumpty Circus” and gained fame with feature films from the original “King Kong” in 1933 and Tim Burton’s “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” in 2016.
In Dina’s workshops, students use two apps on iPads. With StopMotion, they photograph still images of craft-friendly items such as pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, googly-eyes and shaped clay. PuppetMaster provides the means by which to animate the stills.

By Harry Funk
Staff writer
hfunk@thealmanac.net
Jordan Holleran, right, takes a look at how Himani Patel’s project is progressing.
With a longtime interest in both technology and art, Dina decided stop motion would be a good way to combine the two, and she attended a camp several years ago to learn more.
“I drew this little thing of spiders dancing,” she recalled. “I don’t know how I came up with it, but that’s how it started.”
In the meantime, Dina has discovered that she enjoys working with younger children, prompting her to look into teaching them her favorite form of expression.
“I wanted to do something a little more creative and unique, and really encourage their creativity,” she said. “In a world where everything is about technology so early on, it’s really important to use technology in a good way.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Benny Spatz shapes clay for his project.
Before taking her idea to the library, she asked teachers at Upper St. Clair elementary schools if they’d be interested in piloting the project. Barbara Helmeci at Baker Elementary took her up on the offer.
“She loved the idea, and she had me come in for a couple of weeks and show the kids stop motion. They just loved it. I saw all their creativity and collaboration, which is the entire goal of the project, and that’s what encouraged me to bring it here,” Dina said during a session at the library, “and keep it going for multiple semesters.”
Assisting her was Upper St. Clair sophomore and art student Jordan Holleran, who learned about Dina’s workshop through high school assistant principal Daniel Beck.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Matthew Holtschlag works on shaping clay for his project.
“It’s definitely interesting, because it’s something I’ve never really done,” Jordan said. “I’m more of a painter or someone who sketches.”
Colleen Miles, youth services librarian, is impressed with Dina’s initiative.
“We’ve had youngsters approach us in the past, but this is the first sort of fully fleshed-out STEM activity, especially one that is something my fellow staff members and I aren’t really well-versed in,” she said about programs focusing on the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
For more information and to see students’ stop-motion projects, visit www.stopmotionwithdina.com.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Watching an example of stop-motion animation are, from left, Matthew Holtschlag, Luke An, Sam An, Benny Spatz and Himani Patel.