Dancing Words Blog

Dancing Feet

There are numerous picture books with the theme of feet. Whether you use the book as a springboard for a new warm up, an introduction to a lesson, or inspiration to create a foot dance or foot dance film, here are some fun selections.

Barefoot: Poems for Naked Feet by Stefi Weisburd with illustrations by Lori McElrath-Eslick

Fun poems exploring the many activities we enjoy with bare feet

The Soles of Your Feet by Genichiro Yagyu

A playful picture book with foot facts and details

Hooray for Feet! by Susan Pearson with illustrations by Roxanna Baer-Block

Poetic text exploring the many ways feet move; use the text as a starting point for improvisation

The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

Classic Seuss text and illustrations - "left foot left foot left foot right....feet in the morning...feet at night..."

"To Be an Artist"

I was just re-reading a wonderful book from 2004, To Be an Artist by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko. This picture book will be a great conversation starter in 1st-4th grade classrooms. 

The book includes photographs of young artists from all over the globe. The book includes dance, but really covers all art forms. Dancer Jacques d'Ambroise wrote a wonderful, one page foreward for the book. 

"To be an artist means expressing yourself in many different ways....To be an artist means sharing your artistic flair for others to appreciate..."

The text is simple but lovely. How can you not get inspired by a children's book that uses the language of "to be an artist?" 

I suggest reading it to a class and then discussing how each student expresses himself/herself artistically - in your classroom, arts classes, family and community activities, and more.

George Ancona's book Let's Dance! is a nice companion book to To Be an Artist. It also uses photographs and shares a global perspective on dance and the many ways dance is a part of our lives, cultures, and traditions. Let's Dance is great to share with students in kindergarten and 1st grades.

 

Bouncing with 1-3 Year Olds

Today I would like to suggest two fun books to explore in parent/child dance classes or at home with a little one. The action of bouncing is a favorite with preschoolers. How many ways can we bounce - in place, around the room, and with different body parts?

Both Bouncing Time (Patricia Hubbell with Melissa Sweet) and Bounce (Doreen Cronin and Scott Menchin) are great starting points. Read a book with the kids, and then improvise. 

There are many ways to use a book in a dance class. With these two books, I suggest sitting down and reading them first, to inspire movement exploration. Then, see how many ways you can bounce. Use the text for ideas, and maybe pull word phrases from the actual text as prompts.

Have fun!

Poetry Series: Water Sings Blue

For many of us, we are heading into winter and a time of cold, dark, and snow. But, I still want to suggest this beautiful book to remind us of warmth, summer, and the ocean. 

I have eagerly awaited a copy of this book in our local library system, and I finally checked it out today. To my delight, Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems, might be one of my new favorite children's poetry books to use in dance classes. The poetry is by Kate Coombs, with illustrations by Meilo So. Both text and paintings are full of magic, whimsy, and imagery to inspire movement with students ages 5-10. I suggest using this within an ocean unit with students in grades 2 and 3, as well as in creative dance classes in after school settings with students in K-3. 

From start to finish, the poems take you on a journey along the shore and in the water. Topics include: sand, tide pools, waves, jellyfish, squid, and coral. The poems lend themselves to a variety of projects for both small groups (solos and duets) and whole group vignettes. You could easily use all or most poems in the book to create a beautiful performance with your class. 

Here is an example of one of the beautiful poems to inspire choreographing and dancing:

Coral

We are busy.

We are growing.

We don't care where

you are going.

 

We are cousins.

We're a throng.

We are wide

and we are strong.

 

We are reaching, 

stretching high.

Pretty soon

we'll own the sky.

 

We are golden.

We are pretty.

We are coral.

We are city.

Top Picks for 2012: Books on Dance

As the year wraps up, I have looked back at all of my posts for 2012. Looking specifically at books published in this year, here are three of note:

Jazz Age Josephine

Invitation to Ballet

Bea at Ballet

The links are back to the original blog posts. Jazz Age Josephine uses rhyming text to tell the story of Josephine Baker. Bea at Ballet is a joyful book for preschool and kindergarten students beginning ballet, and Invitation to Ballet is for students in K-3 interested in ballet.

Keep adding to your book collections, as many books go out of print quickly. 

 

Invitation to Ballet: A Celebration of Dance and Degas

Invitation to Ballet: A Celebration of Dance and Degas, by Carolyn Vaughn and Rachel Isadora, is a great new addition to your ballet bookshelf. This book will be enjoyed by elementary age students as well as useful for children's ballet teachers.

Invitation to Ballet includes both Degas artwork as well as Rachel Isadora's playful images of young dancers. Like many introductory ballet books, the format of the book includes two-page spreads on various topics, such as: The Five Positions, At the Barre, Making the Leap, Toe Shoes and Tutus, and Famous Ballets. The layout of the book is clear and beautiful with a nice balance of text, images, and text boxes called "A Good Point."

Enthusiastic young students will enjoy reading the book on their own. I also encourage children's ballet teachers to consider reading the book over the course of a semester with your class - reading a two-page spread (ie one topic) each week as a nice introduction and calming activity for the class. 

Purchase the book through Powell's Books or through the Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Store. 

Winter Themes for Dance Classes

In this time of the holidays, and also a time to wrap up our school year, I frequently turn to the themes of: winter, night time, light, wishes, and dreams.

How to Make a Night by Linda Ashman, with illustrations by Tricia Tusa, is a playful book to explore with K-3 students. A family is having a rough day, and they are ready for the night to come. A little girl magically makes this happen. "Catch the sun. Pull it down. Find a safe, dark place. Peel the blue from the sky..." 

The story is whimsical and imaginative, and full of actions words to inspire movement (shake, splatter, lift, throw, fling). 

Magic and Whimsy Series: Butterfly Tree

A friend and colleague at work recommended this book to me. Butterfly Tree, by Sandra Markle with illustrations by Leslie Wu, is a magical and true story about monarch butterfly migration.

The story begins with a little girl seeing "orange" in the sky. Eventually the girl, her mother, and her dog journey through the woods in search of an answer to the mystery. Along the way, they find other orange objects around them but not quite what they are looking for. In the end, they find a magical swarm of monarch butterflies, stopping briefly beforing heading out for the wintertime.

The whole concept and whole story could become a beautiful class dance. Or, you could simply explore the idea of your group of students being butterflies and moving together.

Based on the size of the project and depth of exploration, this book could be used within a wide range of grades - kindergarten through fifth grade.

The author's note at the end of the book provides some more details about monarchs for interested readers.

 

When a Line Bends...A Shape Begins

I remember first seeing the book When a Line Bends...A Shape Begins, by Rhonda Gowler Greene, in a kindergarten classroom. I am always on the lookout for books about lines.

This picture book, in poetic verse, talks about how lines form to create many different shapes. Each vignette about a particiular shape - circle, square, diamond, heart, etc - also describes the various images we think of with each shape. For example, a square is hopscotch, a patch on the knee, a present.

When a Line Bends can be a springboard and opening conversation about various shapes and images seen in our world. Students can select one particular shape from the book and create a movement phrase. You also could use a prop - fabric, elastic, or ribbon - so that students could create shapes in space. 

The shapes described in the book include:

• square
• rectangle
• triangle
• diamond
• circle
• oval
• star
• heart
• crescent
• octagon

I recommend exploring this book with students in PreK-2nd grade. Have fun!