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Entries Tagged as 'culture'

Merida

March 4th, 2012 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

… a place where the best dancing is the everyday stuff… on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays & a few days in between…

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Warmth in winter: Carnaval in Merida

March 4th, 2012 · Comments Off · 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 […]

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Too much to ask: dance without music, revisited

February 4th, 2012 · Comments Off · 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 […]

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Too much to ask: dance without music

January 2nd, 2012 · 4 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 […]

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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 […]

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Colonial Dance Resources

March 7th, 2011 · Comments Off · 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 […]

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the most diverse zip code in the country

June 17th, 2010 · Comments Off · 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!

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Why Dance Matters: it’s a respite for body & mind

April 21st, 2010 · Comments Off · 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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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