Dancing Words Blog

Big Feelings by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman

I am always on the lookout for books about feelings and emotions. To be able to support young students in building their vocabulary, and embodying how different emotions look and feel in our bodies, is a super powerful exploration.

Big Feelings, published in 2021, is expressive in its images and rhyming language. It's a beautiful book to read with preschool and kindergarten age students.

I feel hopeful.

I feel tired.

I feel frustrated.

I feel...inspired.

There are many ways to use the book as a springboard, including:

-For a simple warm up, read the book and then pick out 4 emotions from the book. Try out shapes, gestures, facial expressions, and how your feet show a feeling in a walking pattern, stomping, etc.

-List out all of the emotions from the book and make a group dance or structured improv with the list.

-Create a dance based on the whole book and the text.

 

 

Blue on Blue by Dianne White

I had just read Green on Green by Dianne White, so I was excited to check out Blue on Blue, a 2014 book by White with illustrator Beth Krommes.

The blue refers to bright skies, which change in the book to stormy weather. Blue on Blue is a simple and clear depiction of a storm coming in, rain showers, and the sky clearing. Explore it with preschool and K-1 students. The book is a great way for young dancers to embody transitions, changes, varying tempos and of course the amazing actions of water (pouring, streaming, rushing, dripping, etc).

Set up a playlist so that you can use a variety of songs to support the changes in the book.

Green on Green by Dianne White

Oh, this is such a wonderful book, which combines two of my favorite themes - the seasons and colors! Green on Green is a 2020 publication by Dianne White, with illustrator Felicita Sala.

Check this out for explorations with K-4 students. The rhyming, poetic text is beautifully chunked, naturally lending itself to sections and "parts" for small groups of students.

Yellow the flower.

Yellow the seed.

Yellow and black the buzzing bee.

 

Lemonade petals.

Sunflakes between.

Lemonade, sunflakes, and yellow on green.

 

Spring the meadow.

Spring the pond.

Spring the season of new birds' song.

 

So begins the book! Check out author Dianne White reading it here in this Youtube video.

The text offers space for multiple kinds of explorations. You and your students might create a shape or movement for each line, or for each section as a whole. It is a great springboard for playing with literal ideas and also poetic/abstracted expressions. As for music, may I suggest "Toufoula" by Ballaké Sissoko, Driss El Maloumi and Rajery?

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Seasonal Dancing: "Sometimes Rain"

Published in 2018, Sometimes Rain is a great new addition to your collection of books on the theme of seasons. Try it out with students in preschool, K, 1st, and 2nd grades.

Meg Fleming's text is spacious and poetic to invite interpretation and choreographic choicemaking. The words inspire a dance with many sections, and possibly trios for each page spread.

As seen below, the text is rhyming. "Sometimes dreaming. Open skies. Sometimes chasing butterflies."

The text takes us through the seasons, describing both weather changes and activities enjoyed within each season. There are lots of action words for dancing: blazing, finding, stomping, and jumping, to name a few.

As for music, consider using "Recurring" by electronic artist Bonobo.

Enjoy!

The Starkeeper by Faith Pray

Are you a teacher who works towards culminating projects in December (ie end of fall semester, end of the calendar year)? Are broad themes of hope, light, and darkness recurring themes in your classes? Then check out the latest book written and illustrated by Faith Pray, The Starkeeper. This book could lead to a wonderful project with students in 1st-5th grades.

The world is dark and gloomy, and then a little girl discovers a star (ball of light). She tries to show it to others in the community, but people express little interest at first. It starts to dim and diminish. Then she figures out how to truly share it with others and bring this light (and hope) to more people.

Dance teaching artists - use the book as a springboard to build a special new group dance with your class. Consider an illuminating prop, like battery operated tealights. I am thinking of the electronic piece "The Light" by The Album Leaf as well for music accompaniment. We need more dances about hope and kindness right now!

 

My Island - by Stéphanie Demasse-Pottier

The theme of "islands" has been a favorite over the years, especially to explore personal space, stationary movement, and working within hula hoops. And now, with teaching via Zoom in our separate spaces....we might want to explore "islands" through this new angle.

My Island is a dreamy book by Stéphanie Demasse-Pottier and illustrator Seng Soun Ratanavanh. I suggest using it with preschoolers, kindergarteners, and 1st graders.

I live on an island that has no name,

an island where the flowers are always blooming,

an island where there are thousands of birds, and other animals, including snails.

Play with movement potential page by page. The students will sometimes be the narrator, and sometimes the plants and animals on the island. Build a group dance and share it with families, even via Zoom. Play with moving in and out of the frame/screen.

As for music, may I suggest "Akabanah" by Kodo?

Related posts:

An Island Grows

Alphabet Series: The Letter I

 

Taking Time - By Jo Loring-Fisher

Oh, I love this new book, Taking Time by Jo Loring-Fisher. "Taking time to listen to a bird's song on the breeze. Taking time to gather up the blossom dancing free." Those are the first two lines in the book.

This expansive book can be explored with a wide range of ages - preschool through fifth grade. Read the book and explore time and all the ways we talk about it in dance, and how we feel time. "Take your time." "All of the time in the world." "Take the time you need."

Explore duration, felt time, an internal sense of time. Play with feeling rushed, hurried. Move very slowly, slow, medium, fast, very fast.

Then, instead of using the exact words of Taking Time, what if each student wrote their own line, riffing off of the book? What if your group dance came from these words and personal connections? (Ex. Taking time to stretch my arms as long as they can be...Taking time to give and receive....)

As for music, may I suggest Michael Wall's composition "Clouded Street Sign?" It is #2 on the album Mix 2. You can listen to it in its entirety here.

I dedicate this post to Joni Urry Wilson at Tanner Dancer in Salt Lake City, who taught me nearly 23 years ago how to take a book and make a magical project with it. Thank you Joni. Her lesson during my Dance for Children course has inspired so many lessons over the years since she first showed us how to use Caretakers of Wonder.

With So Many Dancers on the Zoom Screen, Let's Explore Collective Nouns!

 

In light of many dance classes happening online this fall, I have been thinking about the new possibilities for using books as springboards within Zoom classes. I am thinking about the Zoom screen filled with a group of students, and how to build community and togetherness even via the distance learning.

Could words inspire group movement, ensemble thinking, follow-the-leader moments, and looking beyond ourselves to other movers in the class?

I think there is a lot of potential with collective nouns - a crash of rhinos, a journey of giraffes, and a kaleidoscope of butterflies. Animals are an ever popular theme for exploration, play, and joy. With each new group of animals, students can explore size, shape, levels, tempo, and dynamic changes.

My collection of collective noun books keeps on growing, including:

A Pandemonium of Parrots and Other Animals - Hui Skipp

A Dazzle of Flamboyance: An ABC book of Collective Nouns for Groups of Animals - Wendy Hayden

An Ambush of Tigers - Betsy R. Rosenthal, illustrated by Jago

A Zeal of Zebras - Woop Studios

Use the books as a springboard for an improvisational activity, or use a book's text as your basic "score." (Suggested age range - preschool through 2nd grade.)

Let's dance!

 

 

Back at it!

Image: a card from the Dancer Wellness Deck. Concept by Jill Randall, artwork by Claire Calalo Berry. Write to Jill at [email protected] to find out more.

 

Hello wonderful blog community and fans of books! Happy fall. After 8 months away from writing for the blog, I am excited to launch back in. I aim for 3-4 new posts a month plus a highlight of one of the themes/categories on the site. Hundreds of books have been featured during the past 9 years.

Please write to me with any requests and also if you need book suggestions for your classes or homeschooling!

 

Warmly,

Jill Randall

Blog Director, Dancing Words

[email protected]

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How to Two

Oh, I love the new books section at the library and stumbling upon new titles. Today I scooped up How to Two by David Soman. Do you work with preschool-first grade age children? This is a great book to explore groupings, taking turns, entrances/exits, and choreographing sections of a dance. Let's go!

The text is super simple, but poetic and inspirational to lead us into a dance project. First start off with a read of the book to the group. How to one....how to two...how to three... The illustrations are of joyful, moving children.

Each section of the dance can be one simple movement that the students repeat. For example, "How to one" could be one student skipping in the space. Then the dancer exits to the side. "How to two" could be two students in the middle of the room doing several criss cross jumps. You can cue them with your hand when it is time to exit. 

Of course you can creatively alter the text, but the text goes to "How to ten." This means you need ten or more students in your class. If you have 10+, then several students can have more than one part in the dance. Even with a class of 20, students can be in an least 2 sections. 

Co-create the ten sections together. Write them on big chart paper. Here is an example of how this might go:

1 = skipping in a circle

2 = criss cross jumps

3 = swaying back and forth

4 = sit spins

5 = jumping jacks

Students can move freely in the space when it is their turn to dance, or you can place blue tape to help with spacing:

X

X     X

X     X     X 

X     X     X     X

Some music selections to try out include:

• "Sky Full of Stars" by the Vitamin String Quartet
• "Bambo Koyo Ganda" by Bonobo
• Various versions of the jazz standard "Sweet Georgia Brown"

Have fun! Please leave a comment below if you tried it out with your students and have more ideas and versions to share. Thank you!

Zoogie Boogie Fever!

This book was made for our dance classes! It works so magically with preschoolers' and kindergarteners' love of animal dances, imaginative play involving sneaking out and dancing at night, freeze dance games, and more. The words literally will narrate your group dance or structured improv for your class.

The story will inspire swinging, swaying, jumping, and wiggling. We will move slowly and quickly. We will FREEZE when we don't want to get caught at the zoo....

Musical selections can include bright jazz tunes like "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock, "Seven Come Eleven" by Oscar Peterson, or "Salt Peanuts" by Dizzy Gillespie.

Dance teachers - become the narrator of the book and let the words lead the sections of the dance (whether a culminating project or a recurring structured improv you repeat several times throughout the semester).

Tease out the concepts of the book over several lessons:

• Shapes/body positions
• Various animals and how they locomote, plus the levels they move on (high/middle/low)
• Fast and slow movement
• Improvised movement/set steps
• Naming steps/trying out new movement of your own that does not have a name
• Dancing 2 by 2 across the space

Purchase your copy of Sujean Rim's Zoogie Boogie Fever today!