Dancing Words Blog

Blue by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Colors are an ever popular theme in dance classes. I was excited to see Laura Vaccaro Seeger's latest creation, Blue. You might be familiar with her book Green already.

Explore this book with elementary age students. Start off with a group brainstorm - what do you think of that is blue? Capture ideas on chart paper. Then, pull out a variety of scarves, pieces of fabric, and ribbons of varying shades of blue. Improvise, trade, and dance some more. 

The book Blue offers delightful text to try out through small group sections, taking inspiration from the words and the images. "Very blue" relates to blue butterflies...."midnight blue" refers to nighttime...."new blue" shows the ebb and flow of the ocean. Consider using the props within your dance as well.

For music, check out "Into the Sea" or "Broken Arrow" by The Album Leaf. And, to find more dancing books about colors, click here.

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I am the Rain

I am writing today's post on a very rainy day in the SF Bay Area.

Rain, water, forms of water, and the water cycle - these are all favorite springboards in my dance classes. Whether we are talking about a 1st grade dance class or a 6th grade science project, I find that there is endless movement potential here.

I was delighted to find a new book to add to my list the other day at the library - I am the Rain, written and illustrated by John Paterson. It just came out in 2018.

Sometimes I'm the rain cloud

and sometimes I'm the rain.

Sometimes I'm a roadside rapid

roaring down a drain. 

I can show you rainbows

in mist or morning dew. 

I can be a muddy flood

or a pool of aqua blue.

This is just some of the opening text for this picture book. 

The beautiful text inspires us to change shape, speed, level, and quality multiple times throughout the book. Use it for a structured improv in your class or compose a whole dance. Use the book with a wide range of students - from preschoolers through second graders.

As for music, consider using the piano sound of "Hope" by Michael Wall. You can download it from Michael's site here.

And, find more books for water dances here on the site. Let's dance!

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Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year

Are you a poetry lover, and love incorporating poems into your dance classes and projects with students in grades K-8? Consider adding this hefty book to your shelf. So many great options and springboards. So many poems!

Sing a Song of Seasons is 319 pages of poetry - one poem for every day of the year. 

If looking to have a small collection of nature based poems for future classes, consider this book alongside:

Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems by Kate Coombs

The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination edited by Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston

Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems selected by Paul Janeczko

 

Book of Bones

Do you work with students in grades 1, 2, and 3? I am in love with this book - Book of Bones by Gabrielle Balkan and illustrator Sam Brewster.

The content and format of the book calls for us to make a group dance with the book. Check out the table of contents, and the words that so relate to our dance work - small, big, long, heavy, light, fast....

"Guess who has the biggest bone? Huge. Gigantic. Tremendous: That's ME. Inside my massive body, I have the world's biggest bone..." So reads the text. Each of the 10 animals explored in the book has opening text, an image of the bony structure, and then a colorful two page spread with more text. 

I imagine that you could be the narrator and literally read the text as each group dances their section - the blue whale, the Etruscan shrew, the reticulated python, and 7 more. Break your class into small groups to explore each animal in terms of shape, size, speed, and common actions. 

The Book of Bones will be a delightful new class exploration this winter. The students will love the variety, the 10 animals highlighted in the book, and a culminating project with lots of small group sections. Select 10 different music options to support the different movements of each creature. Here are a few options. Use the first 1-2 minutes of each song:

Biggest bone: Blue whale ("Magic Hours" by Explosions in the Sky)

Smallest bones: Etruscan shrew ("Grace" by Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma)

Most bones: Reticulated python ("The Harder We Work" by My Dad Vs. Yours)

Longest neck bone: Reticulated giraffe ("See" by Tycho)

Heaviest bone: African bush elephant ("Kiara" by Bonobo)

Lightest bones: Peregrine falcon ("Particle" by Pantha du Prince and The Bell Laboratory)

Thinnest bones: Bumblebee bat ("Glass: In the Upper Room - Dance 1" by Philip Glass)

Fastest-growing bone: Alaska Moose ("Electric Daisy Violin" by Lindsey Stirling)

Spikiest bone: Regal horned lizard ("Vanilla Minus" by Gold Panda)

Fewest bones: Great hammerhead shark ("Irene's Good Night" by Slammin All-Body-Band)

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This is It - By Daria Peoples-Riley

This is It is a wonderful new addition to your dance book collection for children in preschool and grades K-2. The story, with gorgeous illustrations, is a "self pep talk" for a little girl. Words like brave, strong, and warrior fill the pages. "Dance with all your might. Dance like you belong in the spotlight!"

While the basic storyline is about a pending ballet audition, the heart of the book is a rare gem within children's books on dance. It is about feelings and confidence. It is about bravery.

Check it out!

 

Tall Tall Tree by Anthony D. Fredericks

The 2017 publication of Tall Tall Tree (author Anthony D. Fredericks and illustrator Chad Wallace) is a delightful new book to try out with preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students. The book offers a variety of animal movements and also is a counting book - 1 eagle, 2 owls, 3 salamanders.... Tall Tall Tree explores the many different creatures that live within giant redwood trees.

Counting books like this one so nicely lend themselves to "parts" for a group dance. So if you have 20 or more students in a class, everyone can get one or two parts to the dance.

1 eagle (soaring, searching)

2 owls (carrying food, sharing, nesting)

3 salamanders (climbing, hunting)

4 woodpeckers (quick movements, pecking, storing food)

5 woodrats (darting, eating)

6 chipmunks (dashing, darting, scampering)

7 bumblebees (quickly zigging and zagging)

8 bats (sleeping, waiting, hanging)

9 banana slugs (sliding, sliming)

10 ladybugs (crawling, flying)

Tall Tall Tree is nicely bookended with clear beginning and ending text to help shape your dance. Teachers - you can be the narrator for the dance and literally read the whole story aloud to help shape and pace the dance.

As for music selections, try out "Brace Brace" by Bonobo, or "Blind Man, Blind Man" by Herbie Hancock.

Round by Joyce Sidman

Today we are excited to have SF Bay Area teaching artist Juliana Monin writing for Dancing Words.

My daughter received Round as a gift, and it’s filled with great images and ideas for dance. Written by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Taeeun Yoo, Round is lyrical and dreamy, delighting in some of the ways we enjoy round things. It could be an excellent way to introduce a study of shape for preschool through 3rd grade.

Some inspirational images include: curving around round juicy oranges, round seeds quiet and still, swelling mushrooms, concentric rings of a tree stump, round ripples from rain drops onto water, and bubbles bursting.

One favorite page depicting dung beetles says, "I love to watch round things move. They are so good at it! Rolling, spinning, bouncing. I always wonder where they’re headed.” Students can practice rolling on pathways with varying speeds, being “rolled” by someone, or rolling singular body parts.

Another nice idea comes from two pages showing how water smooths out the edges of rocks over time. Students can practice several ways of transforming from angular shapes to curved ones.

Other pages about friends linking together to make round circles, or hugging a loved one, lend to partnering explorations about round - loose and round, low and round...How big a round shape can you make? How small? How are you connecting?

Round is sweet and serene, helping to remind us of the magic in our simple, natural, round world. I’ve been having fun dancing out some of these pages and think you will too.

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Lives of Dancers/Biographies in Picture Books

Today I want to share about two great additions to add to your collection, especially if you teach in a K-5 elementary school. These books share the stories of Robert Battle (now the Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) and Amalia Hernández (Founder of El Ballet Folklórico de México).

The 2015 book My Story, My Dance shares the story of Robert Battle's early childhood in Florida, finding his passion for dance, moving to New York, building his career, and landing as the Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey. I personally learned a lot of new details reading the book. Author Lesa Cline-Ransome did an excellent job documenting Battle's career path in a way that students in elementary schools will understand and grasp. The book is a perfect introduction before students head to an Ailey show this school year. James E. Ransome's illustrations are detailed drawings to capture movement as well as facial expressions and emotions within the story.

Second, check out the 2017 publication of Danza! by Duncan Tonatiuh. I learned so much about the development of one of the most famous ballet folklorico companies in the world. Tonatiuh also follows the dancer's path from early childhood to discovering dance to building a career in dance. The distinctive artwork beautifully captures the swirling of the folklorico skirts, the partner dances, the costumes, and the musicians.

Please consider adding both books to your personal collection or asking your school's librarian to purchase copies for the school.

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Today I Feel...

We have come a long way since my childhood in the 70s, in terms of books and curriculum about social-emotional ideas and learning. However, few picture books exist to offer language and images for young ones. Today I would like to recommend the 2017 English translation of the book Today I Feel: An Alphabet of Feelings by Madalena Moniz.

Use this book with a variety of age groups - from preschool through 3rd grade. The book can inspire an improvisational activity, mirroring activity, or group dance. 

The words include:

adored

brilliant

curious

daring

excited 

free

There's lots of potential with facial expressions, body parts/whole body movement, dynamic changes, and axial/traveling movement. Seasoned dance teachers could make a playlist and change the music with each new word to further explore the varying qualities and speeds for each idea.

Some of my favorite words in the book are free, grumpy, light, patient, and strong.

I am adding this to my ongoing alphabet book list as well as book list for emotions/feelings.

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Plants Can't Sit Still by Rebecca E. Hirsch

Yes, I can get very excited about picture books and the many possibilities for dance explorations and projects. The other week at the library, I stumbled upon a find that might be one of my top 5 favorite books for dancing, of all time! Really.

The book published in 2016 is Plants Can't Sit Still by Rebecca E. Hirsch and illustrator Mia Posada.

Every page inspires movement, level changes, and traveling. The book begins with:

Plants don't have feet or fins or wings, 

yet they can move in many ways.

Look closely and you'll discover that plants can't sit still. 

Plants can wiggle.

As seedlings start to grow, 

they squirm out of spring soil, unfold their leaves,

and reach for the warmth and the light.

Similarly done just here, the book highlights in different colored inks the action words per page.

Rich possibilities are here to explore this long list of verbs from the book, as well as making a group dance using the entire text. Consider using the book in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classes.