This year, as part of my district’s contractual stance on professional development, I’m required to be part of a Professional Learning Community (PLC), meeting on a regular basis to share data-driven reflections and discussions with like-minded educators in order to raise student achievement. So I facilitate a Dance PLC within the district. However, since I’m the only full-time dance specialist in the district, this PLC doesn’t meet often enough to fulfill my contract.

Happily, I have a principal who’s willing to accept the fact that I cast a wide net in my search for a Professional Learning Community. The folks & organizations that I consider part of my professional development network probably don’t even know they’re members of my personal PLC.  Nonetheless, I’d like to note & thank some of these folks from across the country who are willing to engage in cyber dialogue about dance education!* THANK YOU IF YOU’RE ONE! And please feel free to let me know other links to add to my network.

Dance Educators Association of Washington: these folks are spread thinly, but near at hand, and we’re all dealing with the context of Washington State. I get to meet with them face-to-face occasionally.

K-12 Members Online Forum, National Dance Education Organization: dance educators who are willing to share their vast variety of experiences from across the nation.

Dance and Disability Online Forum, National Dance Education Organization: ditto above, but with experience in teaching special needs students like my students with Autism.

Malke Rosenfeld & Math in Your Feet: a resident dance artist who actively pursues & blogs about the intersection of dance with math, while editing the ALT/space website for Teaching Artists Journal.

ALT/space & Teaching Artists Journal: a coalition of arts educators who work at & blog about the intersection between art & the public schools, sharing their perplexions, discomforts, victories & stories online.

*This isn’t an exhaustive link of blogs I follow when I have the time. You’ll find those in my links list. This is a short list of places/people I go to, to ask a question, collaborate on ideas, or be inspired. Again, if you have suggestions, it’s not a closed list!

ALT/space is a project of the Teaching Artist Journal — an arena for Teaching Artists to share stories of their students, moments of learning, questions and obstacles, reflections, and successes. I’m honored to be part of ALT/space, representing dance education in a public school setting and adding my voice among other arts educators and advocates. Thanks to the folks at TAJ for putting it together!

I hope you’ll check it out… perhaps you’ve read my story before on dancepulse, but some of the other voices have blogs too, so do browse!

There’s also the hope that it might support our profession by collating opinions / experiences in order to gain perspective on next steps…

Participants Needed for Research Study of Teaching Artists in Dance and Theatre

Title of Study:  A Qualitative Study of Teaching Artists in Dance & Theatre

Professional teaching artists in theatre and dance are invited to participate in a research study investigating the experiences and attitudes of arts educators working in urban environments in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. The on-line survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Participants may also be invited to participate in an interview or focus group that asks similar questions. For those participating in an interview or focus group, an additional one to two hours will be necessary. Taking part in this study is voluntary.

Please click on the following link, which will take you to the Zoomerang survey: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AZ6WW3AAN

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!

Coming from a modern background, when I first started teaching in the public school setting, I had the kids work in mixed-gender groups. Almost every time, the mixed gender groups would split into two single-gender groups & create complementary [or sometimes just simultaneous] choreography. Over the years I’ve gravitated toward having the intermediate kids (4th & 5th grade) self-select their groups — and, with a few exceptions, they self-select single-gender groups.

Recently, my 2nd graders performed a series of partner dances, and their teacher paired them for performance. She put Charlize & Jacob together, and their reflections remind me once again that boys & girls dance differently! Neither the audience nor I were aware of this little drama during the performance…

When we performed, I felt bad because of Jacob being fast and hard!!!!!! I learned how to be come (calm) not CRAZY!!! But I wish I wasn’t with a CRAZY!!! Partner! I just want a come (calm) partner! JACOB was so CRRAYYZZYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we performed, I felt so exited I gragd Charlize to the front of the stage. I learned when you dance it doesn’t mater if it isn’t perfect you just have to be good, dance, and have fun.

Note to self, a reminder: Boys & girls who choose to dance together do a great job, but don’t force it!

Another year ends...

Although my space is clean & clear,
I’m still processing the end of year…

For many years I’ve gone directly from the close of school to teaching an intensive graduate course on “Learning through Movement.”  It’s made for a grueling transition to summer vacation, but it’s always given me a chance to take a long view on my work by spending 2 weeks on my soapbox, in support of dance education.

Last year, the university responded to the down economy by canceling summer electives, so I did my year-end processing by leaving immediately for New York City to present at the NDEO Conference.

This year, summer vacation is really here ~~ no teaching, no travel til later… unstructured time with nothing but a list of “to-do’s.”

But still the urge to process the year gone by.  So I’ll continue looking at the kids’ reflections.  … to enjoy them & mine them for developmental changes that occur from kindergarten to 5th grade, as well as for insights about teaching.  I’ve already highlighted kindergarten & 1st grade…

2nd graders danced a medley of cultural dances for the end-of-year performance:

Yakyu ken, a dance about baseball from Japan that has a lot in common with Tanko Bushi & the variations of it that are performed at Obon,
Brown Jug Polka, or Heel ‘n’ Toe Polka, a circle dance with partners from Australia,
and Sasha! from Russia.

And here’s what 2nd graders had to say (let your mouse hover to see if it’s a boy or girl responding):

When we performed, I felt nervous and ecxited at the same time. My stomach was doing flipflops. I learned don’t be nervous. Forget about the crowd and just do what you are supposed to be doing. and you will do a great job.

When we performed, I felt nervous because my mom and my little sister was stairing at me. I learned that you don’t have to be afraid to dance while the audience watch you dance. you can be shy some time but not every time. dancing is really really fun.

When we performed, I felt surprised of how many people I had to perform so many people. I learned that you don’t have to be shy to perform and you have to brave also you got to dance with all you potent energy also you can do different and awesome moves.

We did the “Baseball” dance, “Brown Jug Polka,” and “Sasha!” for our friends and families. When I was danceing in front of the friends me and Flora were haveing fun too on stage and we laugt to much and when I see my grandpa and my uncle and my baby cusin Steven I was haveing more fun and just made them in jonie it and when I was danceing in front of my famally and my famailly friend I was realy scrad and. But it was fun anyway so It wasn’t scary to more and I realy injoyit when my teacher show me the dance I dance it was realy realy fun I realy like it so much this is all I have to say. And one more thing my teacher is the best and she teach us everything we need to do and I just like it so much and the performis is so fun and I am realy enjoy it when I was dancing in front of my family and in front of my friend.

When we performed, I felt fhy, happy, and it was so amazing. I learned that my dad and my mom saw me dance my dad and mom said to me that was amazing.

When we performed, I felt happy and shy scared. I learned that it’s hard to go up stage, and permore to eyerone in the school looking waiting for you to performe. My parents said you did a great job.

It was real fun. I lots of fun with my partner and I fell imprest of my self. I liked what I did. I was realy happy of what I did about my self. I felt kind of shy.

We did the “Baseball” dance, “Brown Jug Polka,” and “Sasha!” for our friends and families. I was kind of shy but when it was the middle of the dance I wasn’t shy anymore because no one laughed and me and Khaleea were adding some tricks to dance when we were doing the Parade. My mom was videoing me and my mom said go Malyun go you rock!

I find it interesting that kids expressed similar thoughts, regardless of the different sentence-starters I gave them — they talk about their feelings, their partners & who was in the audience…

I.  Groups of students grew from low to high, counting from 1-10 in various languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Somali, Cambodian, Arabic, Laotian, Tagalog, Cham, Korean, and English.  It was usually their home language, but a few had a language from martial arts, and by the end of rehearsals, almost everyone joined in on the Spanish.  One boy didn’t know which language he belonged with until he heard the numbers; several students went home & asked their grandmas to teach them.

II.  Each student wore a shirt with a big number from 1-100.  They performed a 16-count dance sequence alternating with an improvisational interlude of finding a partner, comparing their numbers & making low or high shapes to show the greater than/less than relationship.  Music: Eric Chappelle, Dancing Digits, Music for Creative Dance, v. 3.

III.  Singing CountBounce from Greg & Steve’s Kids in Action CD, students danced a 16-count pattern for the chorus & made number shapes with a partner & solo, ending in multi-place numbers in small groups.

Here are some of their reflective responses after watching a video of their work (the writing is first-draft, with best-guess spelling!):*

* Ethnic background, as identified by the family, shows if your cursor hovers over the sample.

We have fun on stage! I was danceing with the music! I was happy when I was danceing with joy!

I felt nervous because there was a lot of student and I am making number 7 and my number was 30 I was awsome.

I was number 56 and I work hard to complete my dance I dida good job

It was awsome because I got to spin my leg around my two hands and my other feet. and I saw my baby couziz was crying. I was number forty-eight. I saw alot of student at the performance. The audieance gave us a great aplause for us and the performance was really fun I saw my mom my sister and my baby couzin.

I felt nurvese before and then when we started to dance I felt better and how I can do better is I can not be nervese and scared.

I feel happy when I shine on the stage with my best 95 shirt. My best part was comparing number with the partner.

My nuber is 10 when we have to make small shape we crall very small and when we need to make big shap we stcrech are feet and hand and I feell very happy for parent to look at me

Then, the rush of all the “to-do’s” that have been piling up… scheduling for next year, plans for end-of-year activities & events, grades for report cards, & post-performance reflections.

Here are some of kindergarten responses after watching a video of their work (the writing is first-draft, with best-guess spelling!):*

* Ethnic background, as identified by the family, shows if your cursor hovers over the sample.

We danced on the stage! I am have fun

We danced on the stage! I was happy about to dance with my frens

We danced on the stage! I felt proud I danced on the stage we did alot of dancedis! we did alot of dance is to showe are femily!

We danced on the stage! I felt nurves

We danced on the stage! I felt proud of myself! and I saw my baby casin and my antie!