Creating a permanent place for the arts in public education requires some adjustment between the two in order to create a fit — a whittling process that usually affects the art more than the public institution within which it’s finding a home. Given the current trends in educational reform, with emphasis on standardized testing, accountability, and data-driven funding, any maneuvers to maintain the arts in education bring up some good questions:

What are students actually learning? How do we know they’re learning it? How does arts instruction support other or lifelong learning? What kinds of data can we develop to prove learning and transfer?

The process of answering these questions – of assessing student learning – is one of the steps toward shaping the round peg of arts education into the square holes of public education. However, it’s essential to answer them without sacrificing the core qualities that humans gain from their artistic endeavors: expression of self, creativity, passion, and vision.

Which is to say it’s April, and I’m thinking hard about teaching and learning in a comprehensive, sequential dance program – because it’s assessment time in dance class! I need to gather data on what my students know and can do, without them feeling the discomfort of having their creativity squeezed and shaped to fit a particular mold.

This week, for spring vacation, I scored students’ performance assessments. Our dance program includes all students from kindergarten through fifth grade, at a rate of about one hour per week. Instruction consists of lots of creative movement, improvisation using the basic vocabulary of movement (categories of space, time, energy, body), choreography, and cultural dances from around the world. The performance assessment that students complete in fifth grade asks them to choreograph a solo dance based on either a poem or a piece of visual art, perform it for videotaping, and write briefly about their movement choices. The assessments are scored in three categories of Creating (choreographing a beginning, three different movement phrases, and an ending), Performing (performing their dance without interruption, with clear energy and space choices, and maintaining their focus), and Responding (explaining movement choices for three ideas or images from the poem or art).

The kids generate ideas collaboratively

Results from these assessments provide plenty of data concerning the first two questions above: “What are students actually learning?” and “How do we know they’re learning it?” I know it because a performance assessment asks them to do it: translate ideas into choreographed movement, perform their dance with confidence, and explain their ideas. And I know they’re learning because the results are generally good. But the results also provide plenty of fuel for reflection.

In one 5th grade class:
~25% of students (7 out of 27) met all criteria perfectly (including four boys and three girls; one African-American student, one African student, four students from SE Asian heritage, and one Caucasian). It’s a relief when I see students of various backgrounds succeeding!
~81% of students (22 out of 27) achieved levels of either competent or proficient.

So… many kids are learning in this class, but what about the 19% (5 students out of 27) that scored as emerging rather than competent dancers (an average of under 3 points on a 4-point scale)? They indicate plenty of room for instructional improvement. Looking at them individually, I notice two (a boy and a girl) who began dancing just this year, one boy whose religion disapproves of dance, and two other boys who should have done better – but didn’t. These last two boys are particularly troubling, providing plenty of food for thought in the months to come, as I reflect on ways to improve what they learn.

And what about trends visible as weaknesses throughout the class?
~9 students were either missing a third movement phrase in their choreography or their third phrase was too short. Note to self: keep teaching them how to build movement phrases with more than one movement!

~10 students didn’t understand about making their beginnings and endings express the ideas in their dance; instead they created beginnings that said “I’m ready!” and endings that said “OK, I’m done now!” Note to self: start working on stronger beginnings and endings in third grade, at the point when I’m really emphasizing the beginning-middle-ending sequence.

~3 couldn’t explain their movement choices. Note to self: check over the response sheets quickly and collect verbal responses if there’s an English-language-learning or writing problem.

~5 students performed with limp energy and minimal use of space. Note to self: get started early in the year on self- and peer-assessments, so they understand how their movements are coming across.

Reflection will continue, even though assessments are finished for this year. And there are questions that these assessments don’t answer, including the effect of arts instruction on other learning. For this, we’ll need new and different measures. But for now, while thinking about ways to do better next year, these students and I return to the exciting work of making art and another excellent question:

Can 380 students collaborate to put on an end-of-year performance for families and friends?!

Yes, most likely. Starting Monday. And happily, building a performance is not at all about making disparate parts fit – it’s at the core of dance, with excitement building daily!

The lesson is based on “Dream Variations” by Langston Hughes.

To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me–
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening . . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

Warm-up
A word-driven improvisational warm-up
This is an improvisational structure I learned from Thom Cobb during an NDEO National Conference session (was it in Providence, Rhode Island?) – Thank you, Tom! It’s served my students & myself very well over the years!
Teach a sequence of words for students to respond to in succession, discussing elements of movement to focus each response. For example:
“Space” – students make a shape using full extension in whatever direction they choose
“Time” – students either run in place or move in sloooooooow motion
“Energy” – students either punch or float in self space
“4 shapes” – students make shapes from high to low with 4 percussive drum beats
“Balloons” – students rise from low to high with delicate, floating energy
“Locomotor high & low” – students travel in general space for 8 counts
“Forest picture snap” – students take any frozen shape that would be part of a forest scene (rock, bush, tree, animal, whatever!)
“Wind” – only the boys swirl, twist, & turn through general space while girls hold their shape
“Lightning” – only the girls move sharply, with angular shapes & electric moves among the frozen shapes of the boys
“Mud” – everyone moves with slow, strong, smooth moves as if stuck in the mud
“Popcorn” – everyone explodes once
“Sneak back home” – everyone moves back to their starting place with quick sneaky focus
“Melting ice cream” – slowly sinking downward
“Exclamation point!” – explode into a frozen ending shape
Use whatever words evoke the qualities of movement you want…

Exploration
Examining the first stanza of “Dance Variations” by Langston Hughes for words that suggest movement:
1. Read the poem
2. Check for unfamiliar vocabulary & clarify new vocabulary with synonyms
3. Highlight words that suggest movement
4. Students explore various ways to express the words, individually, on cue
5. Choose a favorite three words or phrases & create a phrase (as a whole class or individually, or not at all, depending on the time)

Skill Development
Teach a phrase of choreography built on 3 words or images from the second stanza, modeling with an explanation of how the movements were chosen to express the words. Create a sequence appropriate for your students; how specific you are on details of the choreography will depend on your students.
For example,
Model of a choreography sequence from “Dream Variations”
Music: “Spring Rain” by Michael Powers ~30 seconds
“Quick day” – “For quick day, I use focuses with sharp & sustained energy to express the way African Americans were watchful & careful during the day.”
8 counts: sharp focus 1, focus 2, hold 3, sharp focus 4, slowly scan for danger 5, 6, 7, 8
8 counts: repeat
“Rest” – “To show resting, I take 8 counts to change from a fearful outward focus to a more relaxed shape with an inward focus.”
8 counts: turn with a slow focus & arm gesture
8 counts: rest head on arms to one side
“Night coming tenderly” – “For night coming tenderly, I trace an arc over my head with my arm, thinking about how the sky looks at sunset, and then I sink gently to the floor.”
8 counts: arc with arm over the head for sunset
8 counts: sink gently to the floor
Practice & repeat to cement the sequence of the phrase, with smooth transitions. Rehearse with the words as cues, or not.

Choreography
Now it’s their turn… with a partner, students choose 3 words, images, or phrases from the first stanza, create a movement phrase to express each image or phrase, and practice their phrase. If you have time, they can add the choreographed phrase you taught them as an ending to their own.

Cool-down
Have students watch each other’s choreography. Several pairs can perform at once; if they add the learned choreography, each pair will do that second, and it will probably be performed in a kind of canon, with each pair doing the same final moves at different times.
Ask the audience to watch for & identify words or phrases they see from the poem.
Or else have the dancers identify one of their images & explain how they chose to express it with movement (either verbally or in writing).

*Langston Hughes 1902-1967     Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968     Alvin Ailey 1931-1989

I’m filing it here, so I can use it next year to show them that dancing their own way doesn’t require R-rated music!

Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma

We were using the musical Character Matters, by Ron Fink & John Heath at the Bad Wolf Press. It’s a great resource: script, teacher’s guide, CD with songs & intrumental accompaniment. A fun play, with jokes (many of which I had to explain to my ELL kids, which was a good lesson too!). Lively music, with great lyrics — and we could search for the rhyming words to help us memorize.

Of course students had their worries…

“What if we can’t remember our lines?!”

“Who’s going to play the characters?!”

“I’ll be scared! What if we forget our lines?!”

“We’ll never be able to learn all the words to the songs!”

And I had answers:

“Yes, you will. You can do this! Each character only has a few lines…”

“Everyone’s going to have a special character, and I’ll ask you for your favorites.  Oh, and it’s OK if boys play girl-characters & girls play boys-characters!”

“Eeew!” Eyes rolling…

“You won’t be scared cause there’ll be 2 or 3 people playing every role, so you’ll have company.  And if you forget your lines, someone else will remember them & help you out.”

“We’re going to practice.  You learn all kinds of things, so you can learn these songs!”

Of course, I had my own worries… how to get the lines & songs learned & still have time for the dancing! The third leg of any musical is the dancing, and I’m a dance specialist… but how to get it all done?!

And I have to say I was even more worried when I read the teacher’s guide, cause it reflects a bit of dance-phobia — not surprising in our society, but nonetheless!  The teacher’s guide says, “Don’t have the students “dance” while they are singing. Making music of any kind while moving is extremely difficult for anyone of any age to do. Moreover, the students are likely to turn away from the audience during their dance, and that, you will remember, is a no-no.” And then there’s an explanation of why the teacher’s guide never includes the word dance without “quotes.”

Oh well. I’m a dance specialist, dancing is what we do all year & musicals are meant to dance. So off we went, worries & all.

The play has 10 scenes. My 2nd graders learned scenes 1, 2 & 3. My 3rd graders learned 4, 5 & 6. My 4th graders learn 7 through 10. Following suggestions in the teacher’s guide, I didn’t assign parts til about 10 days before our performance, but I did tell kids they could go ahead & learn their favorite part. Some chose & learned a part within a week or so, while others only learned their parts after they’d been in their character group for awhile. Everyone had a special character part & there were lots of kids singing all the lines in the music. Having large clumps of kids sing all the parts helped make the lyrics audible during the occasional dancing turn!

It took a lot of time to get the lines & lyrics down. It was valuable time as we analyzed & memorized the script — really aiming for comprehension, seeking out rhymes & repeats, learning how to practice not only our own lines but the cue lines — but even mid-way through I was wondering how am I going to fit the dancing in?!

But the dancing happened…

• There were 2nd graders who came in at recess a lot, just to dance to the music. This little recess group — all girls — became a dancing chorus during the Goldilocks song. One day Carlos showed up, doing his own favorite hiphop moves on the side, so as we staged the piece, his improv took center stage at the end of Goldilocks.
• During rehearsals, I encouraged them all to move while they were singing — we didn’t do much sitting-down rehearsal & there was no seated singing. As they moved, I encouraged them to watch each other,  copy the best moves & repeat what worked. Pretty soon, some of the songs had a complete set of gestures — lots of mime, acting out the words. But then, an amazing thing happened… as rehearsals progressed, a number of the mime-ish gestures started becoming exaggerated & abstracted. Precisely the process I would use to have them build dance from gesture! We never took the time to talk about what happened, cause we were way too busy, but it was a beautiful process — and so natural!
• For a few songs, I worked with a small group of volunteers (willing to give up recess for a day) to create interactive dances.
• And for a few songs, we choreographed movements for the whole group.

Towards the end, teachers jumped in to help by doing some extra line-rehearsals in the classroom & singing the songs each day. For costumes, I did my usual — telling the kids to wear whatever seemed appropriate for their character without buying anything new. One 2nd grader — Anna — arrived at school on the day of the performance with costumes that she & her mother had more for her whole class: ears for the bears, ears & noses for the wolves! Teachers gave the kids supplies for tiaras…

By the end, all the elements were there. They remembered their lines. They spoke clearly & expressively. They were scared, but they supported each other.  Everyone had a character to play. Oh yes, there were boys playing girl-characters & girls playing boy-characters — by choice. And there was dancing!

What will I do differently next time? I’ll start using the songs for accompaniment to our dance warm-ups earlier in the year, so we’re all familiar with the music sooner — and already dancing to it! But there will definitely be a next time…

If you think of any other tips for me, do let me know!

Adiel is a 5th grader in one of our regular classrooms. I’ve been working with him since kindergarten & he’s always been a bit of a challenge. He spends most of his recesses inside, doing work that should have been done at home or in class — and sometimes in the office of the intervention specialist dealing with bad choices he’s made in his dealings with teachers & other students. Challenged about his work or behavior, he has a tendency to close his eyes & clam up… it’s like you’re talking to a turtle that’s pulled inside its shell. I noticed this year, however, that Adiel could take movement concepts — curvy & straight pathways, delicate & forceful energy, symmetrical or curriculum-inspired body shapes — and nail them using his own individual style… uprock with a lot of crumping, but totally clear at showing the movement concepts!

An aside: Most of the kids respond as though the concepts we explore demand something different from their favored style of movement… as in, “when are we going to do hiphop?” Not so, Adiel. He’s happy to explore his favorite moves with a new emphasis.

As is Daniel. Daniel’s also a 5th grader, but in a self-contained, special education classroom. Clearly, he’s been identified as needing some extra academic support, and in addition he could sure use some help getting to school! In a given year, he has 20-30 absences & 70+ tardies. He’s had some moments of poor choices & behavior difficulties over the years, but mostly he’s a pleasure to work with — if he’s there.  This year for the first time I was able to use the 5th Grade Classroom-Based Performance Assessment with my self-contained 5th graders.  [Logistical issue -- they've always been mainstreamed with 4th graders before, but this year they were mainstreamed with 5th graders.] Daniel’s the only student who’s ever taken a short poem (the “Poetry in Motion” assessment item) & expressed it with his breakdancing style. Totally nailed it — 3 images from the poem, 3 different breakdance moves that clearly showed the words he had chosen to express. Perfect score: choreographing, performing & explaining his moves.

So…

…I decided Daniel should have a chance to enjoy his strength by choreographing & performing not only with his own class, but also with the regular 5th grade classrooms. His teacher agreed to allow him extra time in dance class. Adiel & his group agreed to include him in their small group choreography, in rehearsal & performance. Daniel came to several rehearsals & this group of 5 boys got their moves sketched out, including a short “battle” between Adiel & Daniel.

Then Daniel didn’t come to school for 2 weeks. Every day when Adiel’s group rehearsed, they’d ask, “Where’s Daniel?” …and they continued to rehearse without him, perfecting their choreography with 4 rather than 5 dancers. Daniel had strep throat — a good excuse this time — but by the morning of the performance, he’d been out for 2 weeks, missing all the final rehearsals, including the development of a longer unison sequence the 5th graders made up by contributing segments of their small-group choreography to the combination. Morning of the performance, when we hadn’t seen Daniel in 2 weeks, I talked to his teacher & we decided Daniel had best just perform in the piece his own class choreographed.

I delivered the news to Adiel, so he could be prepared for how the performance was going to go. He looked downcast.

“Couldn’t we meet at recess & work him in?”

I returned to Daniel’s teacher, to let her know how much the group missed Daniel. She said Daniel had been disappointed but understood. She & I looked at each other with resignation.

I returned to Adiel.

“So… Adiel… do you think your whole group would be willing to show up at recess? If everyone can be there to work him in, he can hang back during the unison section & still join your group during the small group choreography…”

“Yeah,” he said, “we’ll be there!”

And they were. I overheard Daniel say quietly to Adiel, “Thanks, man!” before they all got to work.

~~~~~

During the afternoon performance, Daniel hung back during the unison section, following along as best he could. During the rotation of small groups, he came out & battled Adiel with confidence.

And at the evening performance? Daniel was right behind Adiel, move for move, during the unison section, looking like he’d never missed a single rehearsal.

And Adiel was leading the 5th graders, holding them in stillness to count them in for the beginning, keeping them on beat & together throughout.

~~~~~

This week, Adiel’s in for recess again, working on stuff that should have been done at home or in the classroom, and Daniel’s probably tardy most mornings, but it’s a pleasure to rerun their performances, both on & offstage, in my mind.

Onstage from Meg Mahoney on Vimeo.

On the days when I read my horoscope, my engagement with it lasts all of about 10 seconds, as I cast a thought toward whether it applies to my plan for the day.  Then I forget it.

Today, however, it sort of fits — on 2 counts. First, because writing here is something I do in order to make sense of what I do. And second, because just now I’m in the process of letting go to make space for the new.

Oh, I haven’t actually let go yet — the End-of-Year Performance, which has consumed my time these last few weeks, is still 3 days away. At this point, I’m making the program, arranging the music playlist, creating a backup on my iPod, copying the rehearsal videos onto my hard drive, and writing notes for teachers on how to prepare their class on the day of performance.

But I’m letting go of the kids’ performance. It’s up to them now. Each class has one more rehearsal, with no more changes. Critiques & suggestions have given way to “Have fun!”… “If there’s a problem, improvise!”… “Do your best!” Each class has gone as far as developmentally possible just now…

Kindergarteners… have 2 dances, both based on following musical cues. In the first, set to Pathway Puzzles* by Eric Chappelle, they use scarves for juggling, making curvy pathways & making straight pathways, melting & rising with the musical changes of pitch. In the second, they do The Shoemaker dance, with a different locomotor skill during each traveling interlude (walking, jumping, hopping, galloping, skipping, bear walk, crocodile, frog jump, crab walk, and choice dance). Kindergarteners do this dance every year, so when they start dancing, it’s delightful to see the whole audience of older kids do the gesture part with them from the audience!

This year one of the classes has been HUGELY difficult, so their locomotor skills aren’t at the same level as usual. I’m letting go of that. They’ll enjoy the performance, and next year we’ll continue refining their skills.

First graders… have 2 parts of a dance about weather. First, they sing “Rainbow Round Me” with multi-colored scarves, highlighting the colors for sky (blue), clouds (white) & sun (yellow). Then they put the scarves away & join a 4-person dance group for a very structured improv with 3 cinquains about weather that they wrote as a group:

Sky
Tall empty
Stretching reaching widening
Weather crosses the sky
Blue

Clouds
Puffy wispy
Flying in the sky, bringing storms, flattening out
Clouds make many shapes
Clouds

Sun
Bright hot
Rising shining setting
The sun is a star
Sunshine

There are 32 1st graders in each class & both classes perform at the same time.  Every single one of them has an opportunity to leap through general space, while others stay in place. Some of them skip, hop or run instead — but I’m letting go of that. They do look wildly free, which was the intent of leaping!

Second, third & fourth graders… are triple threats this year.  They’re acting, singing & dancing in a musical from the Bad Wolf Press (more about that in another post) — a first for me!  They’ve learned the words, so I’ve let go of singing every song with them.

The class that combines 20 fifth graders, 14 self-contained special ed students & 2 students from one of our self-contained autism classes… is a production including narrators, boomwhackers, ribbon sticks, an earthquake, a tsunami, 3 long sheets of blue plastic tablecloth, 14 10′ streamers on sticks, a cymbal, and 2 rolling blackboards with a village scene on one side & Namazu the Earthquake Fish on the other (painted by the kids of course). In the past week, we rehearsed it down from 45 minutes in length to 9 minutes (all having to do with having their props in the right place & knowing their cues). It’s a recreation of the book The Magic Fan by Keith Baker, and it could well fall apart if there are too many absences on the night of the performance (which is always an issue with our families who speak another language at home or work several jobs). I’m letting go of how nuts I was to allow their dance to get so complicated!

The other 5th grade group… is doing fine!  Their dance is called Night in the Wax Museum. It includes a rap, a shape museum with role models coming to life to speak about their accomplishments (5th graders did autobiographies of important figures earlier this year) , and a reversal where the 5th graders teach their historical role models how to dance “their way.”  They all succeeded at getting their choreography done! But now I’m going to have to let them go, cause they’re graduating. Most of them have been with me since they were kindergarteners doing The Shoemaker!

Anyway, it’ll all be over within a few days, with graduation & summer vacation following in a few weeks.  Then, judging by how much time has been going into the prep, there’ll be space and time for something new!  And that’s a good thing. Maybe I’ll get a hint from my horoscope about what’s next — or maybe I’ll figure it out by writing down my thoughts.

*The link for Pathway Puzzles takes you to volume II of Music for Creative Dance by Eric Chappelle, which inexplicably doesn’t include Pathway Puzzles, but honest, it’s on the CD!

As I brought up my lesson plan template for planning this coming week’s classes, I realized why the coming weeks (and months) have been looming large in my mind.  Starting Tuesday (tomorrow I’ll be teaching a day of sessions for pre-service teachers at Seattle University), I’ll be planning 8 unique classes every day instead of 5 because every class has to have their own performance piece.  Man, this year’s schedule is a killer!

So far this year my lesson plan template looks like this:

Classes for kinder/1st, 2nd-3rd, 4th, 5th & Autism

…with 5 discreet classes per day (K-1, 2-3, 4, 5 & autism). But from now on, every class will be working on a unique piece, so I needed to split 3 columns in order to make an 8-plan template.  They’re not all planned yet for Tuesday!

Once I get the pieces started, they’ll each unfold pretty organically, with the next step proceeding from the last step.  So I can look forward to that. But here’s the lesson plan template for Tuesday at this point:

We just have to get started...!

And here’s the performance plan, still evolving — I’ll try a few things with the 2nd graders (B) & see what works best.

There are still some holes, but it's beginning to firm up.

Anyway, vacation’s over so here we go…!

So I started with my new groups on Monday, we worked through four 30-minutes classes, and they performed Thursday afternoon. There were only two classes that met 4 times before the assembly, so those were the classes that performed. My only regret was that the process had to be fairly prescribed — with more time, the kids could have had much more input in the choreographic process!

Grades: 3rd & 5th grade

Teaching points
Choreographers can build a dance from the ideas and images of words.  Choreographers use diminution and expansion as strategies for building dances. Choreographers use canon as a strategy for building dances.
Dancers rehearse in order to do their best in performance.

Targets:

• Build a movement phrase based on a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Manipulate the phrase using diminution & expansion.
• Learn & practice the use of canon.
• Rehearse & perform a short dance including the original & manipulated phrases.

Lesson 1 : Choreographers can build a dance from the ideas and images of words.

• Identify the teaching point.
• Warm up using a yoga sequence that progresses through named yoga shapes. This is a warm-up my students already know, so it was an easy way to introduce the idea of building a dance based on words.  The yoga sequence goes like this: mountain, tree, bird, woodchopper, big X & spiral (this is a transition, not an identifiable yoga shape), boat, V-sit, slide, whale, snake, cat, child, swallow, downward dog, mountain, moon, bow & arrow & eagle. The shapes come from a few books I have on yoga-for-kids — this one & several others that seem to be out-of-print — but there are various books with named shapes.
• Go over the quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I used different quotes for the 3rd & 5th graders:
  • We must combine the toughness of serpents and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart. [3rd grade]
    
  • We have learned to fly in air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together like brothers. [5th grade]

3rd graders' quote

5th graders' quote

• Highlight the main words & learn movements for them.  I used movements based on American Sign Language, cause it was early Monday morning, and my creative juices had not begun to flow. I checked on a website for some basic signs, using synonyms for signs that I couldn’t replicate from the website or signs that didn’t seem to fit the dance phrase.
• Practice the sequence together.  [I asked the 3rd graders to word with a partner to make up their own movements for the words serpent, dove & heart, so most of the gestures were in unison, while those three varied among the duets.]
• Have students break into smaller groups & practice the sequence together.
• Homework:  Learn the sequence, so we can play with it tomorrow!

Lesson 2: Choreographers use diminution and expansion as strategies for building dances.

Beginning to manipulate the sequence

• Identify today’s teaching point.
• Explore a key dance element related to the movement sequence.   For the 3rd graders & their quote about “toughness” & “softness,” I lead students through an exploration of powerful & delicate effort actions — punch, float, press, glide — both with & without their voices (shouting “powerful” & whispering “delicate”).  The 5th graders worked on the details of the basic phrase, so when they performed in unison, it would really be unison.
• Practice the sequence with music.
• Explain diminution & diminish the long sequence to a short one, by highlighting 4 key words, e.g. tough, mind, tender, heart for the 3rd graders.  Practice the shortened phrase.
• Explain expansion & expand the shortened phrase spatially, either making the gestures larger or abstracting them by turning or moving them through space.  Practice the expanded [short] phrase.
• Create a sequence, combining all the versions: twice through the full sequence, twice through the shorter phrase, twice through the expanded short phrase. [The 5th grade sequence was a little different -- 2 full sequences, then the expanded short phrase 4 times.] Practice.
• Homework: Practice the diminished, expanded phrase.

Lesson 3: Choreographers use canon as a strategy for building dances.

• Practice the dance thusfar with music & narration.
• Introduce the use of canon.  I show students two video exemplars… I use the short broom dance at the beginning of Stomp Out Loud, in which the dancers have unison moves, everyone’s different rhythms, and some moves they do in canon.  I watch the kids to identify what the dancers are doing… unison, different, or canon (the canon section’s short but clear).  I also show them Bourrée from Mark Morris’s Falling Down Stairs. Bourrée has a section of unison hand gestures, a floor section [for which I introduce the concept of the costume designer & ask the kids to notice the costumes, cause I know they're going to think they're a little weird], & a canon section of hand gestures.
• Practice the diminished, expanded phrase in canon, multiple ways (this group leads, that group leads, 8-count offset, 4-count offset) — for as much time as possible, so they get comfortable.
• Add a canon section to the end of the sequence so far & practice.
• Create an ending to the dance, if there’s time.

the 3rd graders' dance sequence

the final class before the assembly

Lesson 4: Dancers rehearse in order to do their best in performance.

• Day of performance!  Set the stage for doing our best…
• Rehearse, fix the ending, practice the canon, run the whole dance several times, answer questions, troubleshoot problems… My 5th graders decided they wanted to end by improvise the ending by using any of the gestures from the dance sequence.
• Videotape the 3rd graders to catch one version without the boy who doesn’t have permission to be videotaped for the school’s website.
• Many congratulations and much encouragement…

The performance went fine, with a volunteer videotaping.  I like the fact that the kids really knew & understood the quotes after working with them so thoroughly. When I get a chance, the videotape will be uploaded to the website, and I’ll link to it here.  It could be awhile…

Meanwhile… if I haven’t made the process clear & you’re interested, just ask!  And if you have a good idea for MLK Day, do share!

When you arrive there, there’s a kind of happy hum in the room. It’s noisy & busy, with groups of kids planning, trying, talking, crisscrossing through each other — or if they’re working solo, they’re concentrating, changing, showing & comparing. And after some minutes of the hum — 5? 10? — they’re back in touch with me: “Can I show you?” “You want to see?” “Come & look!”

But it’s fragile too — the edges of it can crack quickly if two students bump… if one member of a group isn’t heard… if a new student doesn’t get it… if another can’t handle freedom…

It takes more than 30 minutes to set up. Last Tuesday was the culmination of 4 days of work, building the focus. They’d been researching Land & Water in science, so in dance class we…

• thought about water (what kinds are there?),
• talked about water (what’s important about water?),
• improvised water (a Pause dance, working from a word bank they’d developed),
• watched & discussed Isadora Duncan‘s Water Study (what aspects of water was she showing?),
• written about water (what aspect of water do you want to show?),
• & moved all kinds of water (find 10 ways to show the kind of water you want to show).

Word cloud of ideas

When we got to the draft-a-dance stage, they began to hum. Lots of movement, no arguments, talking in their small groups, trying out formations, swirling together, changing levels…

drafting the dance

On Wednesday, several groups continued in flow, while several broke up: Melinda who’s new this year wanted to do cartwheels, but her group didn’t think they fit the mood; Jeremy who’d been his group’s leader on Tuesday was absent on in-school suspension; and Oscar, returning from an absence, didn’t get it.

Thursday was better, as they refined their work & performed for each other — better enough that they rehearsed as whole group and will perform tomorrow.  A great performance?  Probably not, since it’s only their first for the year.  But the performance wasn’t the goal — the flow (engaged, energized creativity) was.

And hopefully, flow will reappear as we redo this process throughout the year…

the choreographic process