each other during this dance. Everyone can be civil, respectful, and
polite to each other for 10 minutes. What a wonderful thing to
teach them! Add to that the overarching rule that everything done
in the Music Room must serve to demonstrate our musicality, and
that silly or crazy actions run counter to that goal and are not acceptable. When these things are established, you’ve created a great
environment in which your students can thrive musically.
Teachers approach choosing partners in different ways. You
can number them 1’s and 2’s (you could also call these two-partner
sets Moons and Stars, Ladies and Gents, or A’s and B’s). Because
time is of the essence in my classroom I don’t have a lot of time to
pair students myself, so I usually say something like, “By the time
I count to 10, you need to be standing in formation with a partner.” Truthfully, I almost never have problems, and if I do, I simply
remind them of the classroom standards, which is enough to keep
things flowing nicely.
Perhaps many of you may think, “Yeah, right, it won’t work
with my kids.” But I can say that I have helped many teachers
who said the same thing and now are very successful. In addition
to talking to the kids about your expectations for their behavior, it
is absolutely crucial that YOU present folk dancing the right way
to set the tone for them. You must exude enthusiasm and firmness, and not give a hint that you’re nervous that they won’t like it.
Thankfully, I can confidently assert that I have rarely seen a student
who wasn’t smiling while we were dancing!
Introducing A New Dance
Do some research on the dance you are preparing to teach.
Talk a little bit about the background of the dance itself. In my
school, I start formalized folk dancing in 2nd grade. To start off,
I spend a little bit of time over a few lessons talking about the
pioneers and their experiences as settlers. I even read a couple of
picture books from the era to set the stage. We talk about how folk
dancing was a huge component in their social gatherings, and how
as young children, they began to learn steps and build a vocabulary
with which they could enjoy old favorites and learn new, more difficult dances. This offers a very nice, organic tie into their history
and social studies classes.
When it is time to begin instruction, I briefly describe the
formation of the new dance, or review the formation if it is old.
Since I’ve looked at challenges ahead of time, I quickly isolate and
demonstrate (with a student partner) tricky movements for the students. I use this time to reference vocabulary, usually referring to
my word wall. If I think the dance is particularly tricky, it may help
them to listen to the music or even chant the directions with me to
go through the dance beforehand. You can use a video to give them
a visual idea of what is going to happen. But really, the most fun
way is to dive right in and let them try it. Go step by step through
the dance when they are in the formation, building up by teaching
individual steps and then linking those steps together in bigger and
bigger chunks. Let them try the dance all the way through, while
you help them out with excellent calling (making sure to call the
next direction on the upbeat right before they are to do it.)
OCTOBER 2016
Resources
Phyllis Weikart is one of the biggest names in elementary movement and folk dance. She has many wonderful movement resources
for music teachers. One of her best and most comprehensive is called
Teaching Movement and Dance and I encourage you to check it out.
Next, I recommend anything by a group called the New England Dance Masters. You can find information both about their
books/CDs/DVDs at their website, www.dancingmasters.com. My
first book of dances, called Chimes of Dunkirk, was from them and I
still use it in my classroom. In it, you’ll find longwise, circle, Sicilian
circle, square, and contra dances. There is so much information to
help you as you plan for folk dancing, including dance terms, ideas
for how to lay out instructions, transcriptions of the songs, and a
CD. They have other wonderful books for you to get as your kids
gain more confidence as dancers.
If you are a NAfME member you might want to check out an
archived webinar I recently did called “Folkdancing in the General
Music Classroom” which can be found at http://shop.nafme.org/
product-category/webinars/archived-webinars/
In the 2nd article of this series, I will show you how easy it is to
expand folk dancing outside of your music classroom and into the
broader school population and your community. In particular, I will
talk about how to plan a Family Folkdance Night at your school.
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