Dancing Words Blog

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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The Dance of the Raindrops

One of my favorite themes for creative dance projects - spanning preschool through 6th grade - is the subject of water. I love the actions of water, the states of water, and the water cycle. Watersong by Tim McCanna and illustrator Richard Smythe is a great new addition to my collection, ideal to use with preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students.

This picture book is filled with playful words to describe the sounds, speed, and qualities of water. 

Drip drop plip plop

pitter patter pat. 

Twinkle sprinkle splatter splutter

spitter spatter splat.

The text can lead to an improvisational activity or a choreographic project with the group. Explore tempo, level, and quality changes. Use the words and your narration of the story to support the movement phrasing and slow, medium, and fast tempos. Water can move in so many different and playful ways.

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Water Is Water

I am always on the lookout for great books about water and all of its actions and forms.

Water Is Water, by Miranda Paul and illustrator Jason Chin, is an excellent addition to the collection. The words dance from one page to the next....full of action words, changing states, and a sense of play. 

Read the book, list the action words, and create a dance. Or use the whole text and narrate the dance for your students.

Misty.

Twisty.

Where is the town? 

Fog is fog unless....

it falls down.

Patter.

Splatter.

What is that sound?

Rain is rain unless.....

Check out the book at your local library to read the whole story or purchase it here!

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Raindrops Roll

Rain is coming. You can feel it in the air.

So begins the new picture book Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre. 

With clear photographs and poetic text, this is an example of a book where the words literally dance off the page and inspire students to move.

Most of the text can be directly used to create actions and movement phrases. Verbs include: plop, drop, patter, spatter, wash, weigh down, and thud. 

This book can be used with students in preschool and also K-2 classes. Try out the instrumental song "Halinkata Djoubé" by Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Siegel for your project.

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Alphabet Series: The Letter O

When you and your students explore the letter O, these books can be springboards and inspiration for improvisations and dance projects. 

O is for Opposites

Opposites are always a wonderful concept to explore in movement. I love the picture book A High, Low, Near, Far, Loud, Quiet Story by Nina Crews. (You can find used copies on amazon.com.) Use the words to create a simple warm up or improv activity, or create a dance with the entire text.

O is for Ocean

I love finding pictures books that can easily create an improv structure.  

Robert Neubecker's book has sparse text, but dense images of a day at the ocean. The main character, Izzy, heads to the beach one day. With each turn of the page, she explores another aspect of the beach and ocean world - tide pools, shells, fish, sting rays, and coral reefs. There is even a sunken ship.

You could set up an improv that could be repeated several times in your dance classes. With each page, the students could be exploring that environment (ex. dancing through a coral reef) or be that environment or animal (ex. move like sharks). Each spread begins with the word "wow" ("Wow! Tide pool!.....Wow! Fish!"). The word "wow" could be the cue for students to pause to get ready to transition to the next idea. 

Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems is one of 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. 

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. 

O is for Orange

To explore the color orange, you can pull out all of your books about colors. Four examples include: My Many Colored Days, Colour, Living Color, and The Rainbow Book. What are our associations with orange? How can we translate these ideas into movement? Ideally, see if you can pull out 3-5 books on color. Look at the orange pages, and then explore movement ideas related to these pages. You can even string the 3-5 ideas together.

Using Your Book Bin of Alphabet Books

As I suggested in the first post of this alphabet series, creating a book bin of alphabet books is a great idea. For example with the letter O, look at all of the "O pages" in your bin. Have students pair up, and give each pair one alphabet book. Ask them to find the O page. What movement or shape can they create related to that page? Give each pair a chance to share in front of the class. Again, you can string all of the ideas together to create an "O Dance."

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Water Can Be....

I love exploring water within a dance class - the actions of water, the states of water, and how water travels high to low, across, around, and through. I explore water in elementary school classes and even with my 6th grade middle school students. 

Water Can Be... - by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrator Violeta Dabija - is a great addition to your collection of springboards for water dances. The text is poetically written, and most of it could be the script/narration for a dance with students in 2nd-5th grade. 

Water is water -

it's fog, frost, and sea.

When autumn comes chasing,

water can be a.....

            Cloud fluffer

            Fire snuffer

            School drink-er

            Bruise shrinker

            Salmon highway

            Eagle flyaway

The text is divided by the seasons. The descriptions and actions are varied and playful. The variety of text can easily lead to giving each student a "part" for the dance.

In the back of the book, the author provides "more about water," detailing scientific facts about each concept touched upon in the book.

Water Can Be... will provide rich connections between science and dance --- exploring the movement and action of water in our world.

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Magic and Whimsy Series: Snowflakes Fall

"After the flowers are gone

Snowflakes fall.

Flake

After flake

After flake

Each one a pattern

All its own -

No two the same - 

All beautiful."

So begins the new picture book by a stellar duo, author Patricia MacLachlan and illustrator Steven Kellogg. If you are still seeking a magical picture book for a project in the coming weeks in PreK-5 dance classes, check out Snowflakes Fall. 

Whether you use the actual text as a springboard for a dance project, or simply read the book for the start of a idea, Snowflakes Fall will lead you to some great Winter dancing. The words in the book talk about the actions of snow - falling, drifting, and swirling. The book ends talking about the water cycle - snow melting, streams flowing, evaporating, and raining.

The overarching idea of the book expresses the uniqueness of us all. Even in times of sorrow and loss there is still hope. Snowflakes Fall definitely inspires us to find beauty and to find hope. 

 

 

 

Snowflakes and Symmetry

One of my favorite books in my classes this fall (6th-8th grade) is the small photography book Snowflakes, featuring the incredible "micro-photography" of Kenneth Libbrecht. You can purchase new and used copies on amazon.com. 

There are numerous uses for this book. The book is full of pictures and quotes, not a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Even in this digital age, my students always love having a book in hand and beautiful color images as inspiration. 

1. With my 6th grade students, we have an entire "water dance project" in conjunction with the 6th grade science curriculum. One component of the project includes states of water. This book is a great addition to my collection, to use as springboards.

2. With all of my classes, the book is a great example of symmetry. I am always on the lookout for visual images to use when exploring symmetry and asymmetry in classes.

3. In my 7th/8th grade dance elective course, we are creating an entire performance around the theme of Winter. We are using these images and embodying them as we make a stop motion film this trimester.

This book can easily be used in elementary dance classes as well. 

Wow! Ocean!

I love finding pictures books that can easily create an improv structure. Wow! Ocean! can be explored with preschool students and K-2 students.

Robert Neubecker's book has sparse text, but dense images of a day at the ocean. The main character, Izzy, heads to the beach one day. With each turn of the page, she explores another aspect of the beach and ocean world - tide pools, shells, fish, sting rays, and coral reefs. There is even a sunken ship.

You could set up an improv that could be repeated several times in your dance classes. With each page, the students could be exploring that environment (ex. dancing through a coral reef) or be that environment or animal (ex. move like sharks). Each spread begins with the word "wow" ("Wow! Tide pool!.....Wow! Fish!"). The word "wow" could be the cue for students to pause to get ready to transition to the next idea. 

Have fun exploring ocean life with this book!

 

This is the Rain

I love the theme of water and have explored it in many ways over the past 16 years in dance classes varying from preschool through 7th grade. Students explore the actions of water, the water cycle, forms of water, and more.

This summer at the library, I found the book This is the Rain by Lola M. Schaefer and illustrator Jane Wattenberg. This is the Rain is a cumulative story, like The House That Jack Built, where the story gets built upon. 

As for movement inspiration, the book talks about the water cycle and the many forms/states of water. The use of repetition in the text is a great way to explore repetition in your dance class.

I encourage dance teaching artists, classroom teachers, and science teachers working with students in grades K-3 to check out this book. You can purchase used copies on amazon.com. 

*Also, please note, I added the category of "water" in the column to the right here. There are numerous books on the theme to explore in elementary dance classes.