Learning to Move with Abandon

For 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds who are new to movement, a creative dance class can be an intimidating and scary place. Because of this, I have seen many students cling to "dance moves" they already know, because they're more comfortable, or because they might deflect pressure by making others laugh. This can be a challenge when trying to establish an open, risk-taking creative community.

One of the strategies I've learned is to help these students get out of their heads and into their bodies as quickly as possible. I have not seen a faster way to do this than with the "Scarf Puppet" dance. One partner manipulates a scarf in different ways, and the other partner embodies the movements of the scarf, as if their partner is controlling them. This activity is widely used in the creative dance community, and the combination of copying an object and working with a partner to do so is usually very grounding for older beginners and alleviates fear within minutes.

I tried this work most recently with one of our fourth grade classes. At first, some students were still trying to use familiar dance moves (the Dab makes an appearance, then is modified), but they quickly found that there were many interesting new ways to make partners move, using the natural movements of a scarf in space. You can enjoy watching this evolution in the video below.

Beginning Audiation

To me, on of the most mysterious skills in music is audiation, the ability to accurately hear music in your head. It can feel a bit nebulous as an instructor because, without a brain scan, you can't actually see the sense-making happening for students during practice. Luckily, music educators have been grappling with this for ages so I was able to borrow from their great work to get started.

One of the ways we have practiced audiation is by tapping the beat while "singing" a known song in our head, stopping the beat at the end of the song. This gives me a clear indication as to who is really following the song, and who is just tapping along, absent-mindedly.

Another activity we have tried is singing the song "Bingo" and practicing hiding letters from the pup's name and clapping instead of singing those letters. Many students are challenged and invigorated by this task! Some students are unable to silently sing the song in pieces, and continue to sing B-I-N-G-O with all letters. Others catch on to the rhythmic pattern, but then continue to say the letters, even through the end of the song.

These activities have helped me to better isolate the skill of audiation and differentiate instruction and support for them. Bingo has also made for a fun rhythm activity for our older students, mixing up different combinations of hidden letters. Our second graders love it!

It Takes a Village

I am feeling a deep sense of gratitude today, as I received two generous donations of circle spots for our performing arts room. These are especially helpful as our younger movers get accustomed to a wide-open, slippery space!


Thank you so much to those who have donated. We are still in need of everything from mic stands to a Swiffer! If you would like to help, our Amazon wish list is here.

2nd Graders using circle spots in Shadow Dances

Beginning Mirror Dances

Today, our second grade artists tired "mirror dancing" for the first time, while listening to Le Carnaval des Animaux (l'aquarium) by Camille Saint-Saens. Students took turns being leaders and slowly moving so that their partner could copy what they saw in front of them.

It was beautiful to watch these energetic dancers sharply focus their physical attention and communicate non-verbally as they explored new ways to move their body with a partner. I noticed that, in this class and others, students continued to mirror as they lined up to leave the room. Two students were even spotted mirroring as they lined up from recess later in the week!