Dancing Words Blog

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!