Teaching points: The dance classroom has standards:  Make good decisions. Show respect. Solve problems. [These are school-wide standards.]

Targets:

• Understand & practice the nitty gritty: standards, routines & procedures for dance class;
• Get moving!

Context: Just now it’s no longer the first week of school, but the first week of school comes along every year, so let’s pretend we’re back there & get it down.  At the beginning, there are some necessary basics that have to be covered: clothing requirements, safety issues, fire & earthquake drills & expectations.

Lesson 1 :  Dancers make good decisions, with safety first.

• Assign each student a home spot [I use "color groups," with 4-5 student locations on each of six imaginary colored lines, the ends of which are marked by colored rectangles on opposite walls; each student has a position within a color group, and at the start of each week the front person rotates to the back of the line].

Red & orange rectangles mark the north ends of 2 invisible lines

Red, orange & yellow rectangles mark the opposite ends of invisible lines

• Create a t-chart (what do safe decisions look like & sound like?).
• Outline basic safety rules, including clothing issues (shoes, sox, long saggy pants) & dancing without physical contact (aim for the empty space!).
• Choose 3-5 locomotor/nonlocomotor cards from 15 posted on the white board & make a sequence, 8 counts each… perform safely [adapt for primary & intermediate by varying the number of cards].
• Individual students create their own phrase by changing 1 or more of the movements from the modeled sequence… perform safely.
• 5th grade: Learn self space moves for PataPata or another line dance with a repetitive pattern (e.g., The Hustle)
• Outline procedures for sitting together by the document camera (choose your neighbors wisely, focus on learning).
• Review safety points; outline safe dismissal & lining up.

Details for "Make good decisions"

Lesson 2: Dancers show respect, verbally & non-verbally.

• Post an “Instant Activity” at the door.  Primary: Do a sitting “hook-up.”  Intermediate: Do the phrase stretch, run, skip (8 counts each) three times, keeping space between yourself & other dancers & sit down.
• Define verbally & non-verbally.  Do a t-chart on showing respect during both listening & dancing. Non-verbally is what it looks like; verbally is what it sounds like.
• Respect the cues while dancing… As a class, choose 4 new locomotor/nonlocomotor word cards & put them in sequence. Practice with drum cues; practice with musical starts & pauses.
• Intermediate: Learn PataPata & alternate the basic moves with the practiced sequence.
• Review aspects of showing respect.

Details for "Show Respect"

Lesson 3: Dancers solve problems.

• “Instant Activity”… primary students do a lying-down hook-up; intermediate students take their places.
• Talk through solving problems on the behavioral level: solutions for when someone is talking to you, when you want the same prop as another dancer, when people bump…
• Solve some dance problems.  Primary –  Problem 1: Control your body in self & general space, using a range of movements in both. Problem 2: Think of some new ways to move [mirror the teacher in self space, alternate by creating never-before moves in general space individually]. Problem 3: Can you return to a partner in 16 counts & take turns? One partner holds a location, while the other partner travels & returns.   Intermediate — Solve some dance problems. Problem 1: Control your body in self & general space, using a range of movements both on location & traveling. Problem 2: Choreograph a sequence in a duet [choose 4 moves, put them in order, 8 counts each, include both self & general space].  Problem 3: Use your own phrase in alternation with the PataPata moves (do PataPata sequence 4 times; alternate with 32-count choreographed unison duet).

Details for "Solve Problems"

Lesson 4: Emergency Drill procedures have to be inserted somewhere during the first week.  Cover them, practice them & then repeat whatever dance structure was most fun & successful — the one they’re asking for!

An aside: As the year begins, safety & management guidelines are the first priority. I teach students from kindergarten through 5th grade, so many have already been with me. However, every class has kids who are totally new to the school & dance, so expectations need to be clearly stated. By using word cards, it’s easy & quick to get moving, I can assess locomotor/nonlocomotor ability, the kids are doing the choosing, & choreograhy — making up their own sequences & dances — starts right away.

Everything has to start at once though, and all classes need to proceed steadily in the creative process. The first 3 weeks are a rush, as I try to scope out the pieces, pull the kids on board, and help them sketch out their dances for refinement and rehearsal. I’ve rarely done the same thing twice; each piece grows out of the personalities in a class, what they’ve studied, and what they need.  This year in the process of starting, I had a very close call and very narrowly escaped disaster…

Talking to teachers before spring break, I had decided that one set of 1st & 2nd graders would do a dance on weather — severe weather!  Kids are always interested in tornados… blizzards… hail.  And indeed, they were hooked. We spent the week talking about severe weather, defined the varieties of bad weather, talked about what to do in each instance, and voted on our favorite 3 for inclusion in the dance: tornados, hurricanes, and lightning. We had a name: “Weather Alert!”   We’d explored free and bound flow, and we’d reviewed leaps and chasses…

But somehow, after 4 days, I realized I’d been avoiding actually letting them loose as tornados and hurricanes. A structure for the dance was eluding me, and we weren’t getting started. At 4 am on Friday, I had a flash of insight — these are NOT the students to do a dance about severe weather. An onstage tornado with these kids will have the same effect as a real tornado — they’ll be swept away. I’ll have a Level 5 Hurricane on my hands. These kids are all ENERGY on the quietest day, and I haven’t the energy to contain them. What’s needed here is some focus on SPACE!

In class on Friday, I gathered them around me in a circle and admitted that I was troubled about our dance. The thing is, I said, we have such wonderful props that we aren’t using, and no one else in the school is using them. I just think, said I, that we ought to be using some of our props. But in order to use them, we’ll need to change our topic… to GEOMETRY! Will you experiment with me today, and see if you like the idea?  So we used stretchy bands, body bags, hula hoops, and by the end of class when I asked for a vote, they all agreed.

This week has been a breeze. Every day’s been productive, their dance is clear, and today they choreographed an entire section.  4-sided polygons with stretchy bands.

Whew.

I reminded her — and the class — about some of our agreements (nixing unexpected physical contact and outdoor voices). Then, we changed course — to using our focus and moving safely in the space together.

On Tuesday we were 20 minutes into the class before another bloodcurdling shriek from Rasheedah brought us to another abrupt stop. This time, nerves rattled, I asked her to sit down and collect herself.

What I must remember is that this is an improvement for Rasheedah over last year.  New to our school mid-year, she would develop mysterious, can’t-dance ailments daily and insist on sitting out. This year she’s actively involved! Perhaps we’ll find a middle ground soon…

When he arrived in my class two years ago, he was in 4th grade and surly. New school, new classmates, new teacher… and dance?!? His pants were low and long — and he didn’t join in. Face withdrawn, angry, resentful. Even later, after he changed, he arrived with a daily attitude: “Prove to me I want to be here!”

It wasn’t hard. He wanted to be there. Front row in the Chinese ribbon dance, tracing clear circles and figure eights. Leader in his group of four in Pata Pata. Front row in the warm-up assessment. Director of his rhythm section. One of the finest in the 5th grade composition for the end of the year.

More than his daily about-faces and more than his full-out dancing spirit, though, I’m going to miss his astonishing sportsmanship — modeling a good heart and encouraging other kids. Asked to demonstrate a field day race of putting on and taking off ridiculous clothes, he sped through t-shirt, pants, shoes, and raced to the end while his opponent struggled with an inside-out shirt and lost her head in a sleeve. Jamal waited patiently in order to pull her sharply across the tug-of-war line — and immediately reached out to shake her hand with a genuine congratulatory smile on a race well run.

I’m going to miss Jamal. I hope they can see through his defiant swagger in middle school.

*The name here isn’t really his, but the spirit is.