… a place where the best dancing is the everyday stuff… on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays & a few days in between…
Entries Tagged as 'culture'
Warmth in winter: Carnaval in Merida
March 4th, 2012 · No Comments · Uncategorized
We’ve been back to Merida, a place where dance seems synonymous with everyday life. This time we happened to arrive in the midst of Carnaval. The parade we saw (one of 6 throughout Carnaval week) was fun, although it’s definitely not the best dance we saw this week! We tried for some other parades, but [...]
Too much to ask: dance without music, revisited
February 4th, 2012 · No Comments · Uncategorized
I posted my article “Too much to ask: dance without music” (about religious restrictions on music in a dance classroom) to a forum of fellow dance educators, and their responses were very helpful – thoughtful and well-considered! They did research and sent me links, they referenced their own context and made suggestions, they commiserated and [...]
Too much to ask: dance without music
January 2nd, 2012 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
Alimah and Farihah are my students. They’re both cheerful, attentive, kind, lively, quick, and participatory. Alimah, a 1st grader, is shy, but she’s a great partner for anyone in the class. Any student, boy or girl, calm or wildly off-task, gets their work done when paired with her, because she can be on-task and have [...]
Dance / Panama
August 25th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
It was a great summer! Among other adventures, we spent three weeks in Panama — and finally saw traditional dances on our last night in Panama City. It reminded me a bit of the dances we saw in Merida, in the Yucatan, several years ago — but quite unique as well, especially in the way [...]
Tags:culture·performance
Colonial Dance Resources
March 7th, 2011 · No Comments · dance arts integration into academic subjects
Looking for resources on Colonial dances? Here are suggestions from NDEO (National Dance Education Organization) members from across the country**: The Colonial Williamsburg website has a rich resource teacher site. from Eileen Sheehan, Illinois “Colonial Singing Games and Dances,” produced by the Williamsburg Foundation, has dances which are notated and easy to follow. from Elly [...]
the most diverse zip code in the country
June 17th, 2010 · No Comments · Uncategorized
Evidently my school sits in the most diverse zip code in the country! Here’s a video… No wonder it’s such a great place to work!
Why Dance Matters: it’s a respite for body & mind
April 21st, 2010 · No Comments · why dance matters
Third graders are learning dances about clapping for their end-of-year performance now. Their first dance is d’hammerschmiedsgselln (that’s duh-ham-mair-shmeets-guh-seln, I’m told), which has a great clapping pattern for a quartet. I dragged them through learning it last week, and now that they finally have it, they love it. The second is the Virginia Reel, which [...]
Transition back from vacation…
April 4th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
A good vacation is when you have no one but yourself to manage. It’s been a good vacation! 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 [...]
Tags:choreography·culture·curriculum integration·lesson plans·performance·teaching
Holiday dances? Which holidays?
December 29th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
Holidays in the public schools… now there’s a topic with little agreement! There are proponents for including all of them… for celebrating the most visible… for distinguishing between education & celebration… for celebrating none… There are legal opinions, personal opinions & curriculums… Many questions, but no prefect answer. When I was growing up, holiday projects [...]