Tag Archives: Children

Choreographing a Kid’s Dance Routine – Not for the Light Hearted

Posted in Dance by

Kids under seven are difficult to work with in any classroom let alone a dance classroom.  They yell because they want to be with their parents. If they aren’t use to public interaction with kids, it is difficult for them to get along with other children their age. And finally they can’t sit still for more then two seconds.  Over the last eight years I have been a dance teacher I have grasped an understanding on how to handle young kids and teaching them a routine.  There are three rules to follow:

Firstly, keep it simple. As a child, they are still learning the world and trying to understand everyday life, like their right from their left, why they can’t hit someone if they don’t get their way, or tying their shoes.  In a class where the kids are four to seven years old always kept feet and arm movements separate.  Trying to put them together is disastrous and you will end up with kids slamming into one another and falling down. Use simple dance movements that they have been learning all year. For a tap class some moves would be toe taps, heel digs, and big arm movements. If you tie in the movements that you do all the time in class, the kids are more likely to retain the dance when they get to the stage performance.

Secondly, relate to their lives.  I know relating to a life of a five year old can be hard since your an adult, but I promise you were a child once. When I start to develop a children’s dance the first thing I do is start listening to a ton of music.  Depending on what kind of dance you are teaching will depend on the music.  Let’s take tap as an example.  Back in 2008-2009 I was teaching a tap class for five to seven year olds.  I decided to use the song ‘My Girl’ which was probably one of the greatest kids dances I ever choreographed.  Since the song is super slow and has a repetitive chorus it gave me the opportunity to utilize the words in the song for arm movements, and during the instrumental parts we did toe taps, knee bounces,and shuffles, as well as gave the kids something easy to sing-a-long to.  Also, using imagery that they can relate to is important to get them to perform, like pretending that mommy is in the front row.

Finally, keep repeating the routine for fifteen minutes at the end of class every week. This sounds tedious and boring, but it is difficult for many children to remember things that are not repeating everyday.  So, when a child is only going to dance class once a week it is even harder.  This repetition will get the kids to understand the patterns of the movement, to understand the song, and how the two mesh together.  Routine is important for a child to have consistency in dance classroom is just as important as the child’s everyday life.

Just a little My Girl throwback for you to sing along to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUG-9jZD-g

Life Lessons in Oz

Posted in Film, Songs by

I’m willing to admit I was a weird child. I talked too much and became obsessed with things I liked. Let’s take the film The Wizard of Oz. To this day my older brother cannot watch this movie. Why do you ask? Well, I became so obsessed with it as a kid that was pretty much all I ever wanted to watch, and to get a four year old to shut up, you just re-watch the same movie over and over again. I feel like parents now a days probably feel this way about Frozen. I am sorry for the scars I left on my older brother for making him watch this movie multiple times in a row, but in the end I know he still loves me.

The whole reason I bring up this Wizard of Oz obsession is because let’s be serious I haven’t out grown it. Not to toot my own horn, I think I must have been a really smart child because I liked all these movies with deeper meanings, like Peter Pan, and of course, The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz is about feeling inadequate, such as not smart enough, lack of love, or the inability to feel fearless. There is also the obvious lesson of good always triumphs over evil, but where is the fun in the obvious.

Old movies and classic stories have the ability to teach children lessons about life. Now, I am not talking about a knight on a white horse saves the princess, because I think those stories don’t do much of anything besides fill little girls heads with the idea that they need to be saved by a man. I’m talking about the stories that bring people together, who help one another achieve their goals, like the tin man, scarecrow, and cowardly lion rescuing Dorothy after she is taken by the wicked witch. What about those strong women who ultimately have the ability to help out her friends or save themselves? Dorothy threw a bucket of water to save the scarecrow from burning, she always had the power to go home through the ruby slippers (silver shoes in the book), and she defeated the wicked witch by accident, but her willingness and quick thinking to help her friend erased her fear of her trapped situation.

Granted no four year old is looking at the deeper meaning of a movie. I’m sure the music in the movie was what drew me in as a kid. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is my “Let It Go”. It taught me to dream big and that anything is possible if you truly believe it will happen. So, I dedicate this post to my realistic thinking little bro. If you dream big it will happen. You just have to find that inner child to just believe that there is something over that rainbow.

Music for the Ballet Classroom

Posted in Dance by

BalletBarreUnless you are the American Ballet School the likelihood of an instructor having live music in ballet class is slim.  So, most ballet instructors need to use recorded music.  On top of the music being recorded, many dance teachers use classical, which makes it difficult to keep the attention of any student, especially if they are under twelve years old.  Over the past eight years of teaching dance I have learned that if you use music that they can relate to in some way they are more likely to be interested in the class.

Children between the ages of three and seven have the attention span of two seconds.  Everything in the ballet classroom has to have a game like quality to it including the music.  For classes with these age groups I found that disney music or any child type films work best such as Shrek or Despicable Me.  The kids not only recognize the music, but they know the words to the songs.  For example, you can use “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” or “Beauty and the Beast” to do across the floor work such as turning or relevé walks.  For jumping or leaping type exercises you can use music such as “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” from The Lion King or “Zero to Hero” from Hercules.

As dancers become older and hit between the ages of eight and twelve, continue to connect the music to something the students can relate to such as television shows.  In current pop culture there is Disney Channel’s Austin & Ally or Victorious (which is shown as reruns on Nickelodeon).  Either way there will be music from these shows that they can connect to.  As your students hit this age group you should start to introduce them to classical music, but in a relatable sense, such as music from the ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, or Cinderella.  All of these ballets have music that is used in many of the classic films that children watch everyday.  Introducing them to classical music early will start to prepare them with what to expect if they decide to go to dance intensives or begin to do auditions.

Hitting the teenage years can be tough for most parents, but in dance classroom this age group can be the best.  I hope that if a teenager is taking dance classes they are serious about the art form in some capacity whether it is to do it professionally, go to college, or it is an activity they enjoy to do.  Either way this age group usually has a strong dance technique to work with as well as being more open minded to music and learning new movement.  I have found playing top 40s music or artists is the best way to reach these students whether it is instrument or with lyrics; I believe that either delivers the same results.  The Vitamin String Quartet does some great instrumental versions of popular songs such as “Fix You” by Coldplay or “Stolen” by Dashboard Confessional.  Not into strings there is also the Piano Tribute Players that take popular songs and turn them into piano versions such as “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol or “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.

Whatever music you chose for the ballet classroom make it relatable to the kids that you are teaching and be conscious of the age group.  Using the wrong type of music could turn a child away from dance because they find it boring or they just can’t connect to the class.  You need to give children a reason to fall in love with dance.  Use various resources to find music such as your nieces, nephews, cousins, or your friends who have children.  All those resources will be able to tell you what is popular with the kids today.  If all else fails go color and watch the disney channel; it will help you find that inner child.