teaching folk dancing to children
Jennifer Angelo
Things like how to "touch" anouther person without freeking out.
How to ask for a dance properly?
I went to a good workshop on this topic at the February Flurry in
Albany NY, but now can't remember what I learned.
Thanks
Jennifer Angelo
Jennifer Angelo PhD OTR
Director, Graduate Program
Rm 116, Pennsylvania Hall
Department of Occupational Therapy
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Phone (412) 624-2843
Fax (412) 624-5008
Jennifer Angelo
Peter Amidon
>folk dance.
>How to take some ones hand
>How to ask for a dance.
>Can anyone give me any tips to make teaching children fun??
>Thanks
>Jennifer Angelo
I think you're referring to my Dance Flurry workshop that I've been
doing every year for a few years now. I spend much of my time in
public schools teaching traditional dance to children and I think
you got right to the core of the issue by asking about how to make
teaching children fun. I tell myself that my primary goal while
teaching dance to children is to enjoy myself generally, and to
enjoy dancing with the children specifically; or another way of looking
at it is to have the children experience me enjoying dancing with
them. "Exhilerating" is a word that is closer than "fun"
to my goal of what I hope the children to experience. I work
towards their losing their self-consciousness (which is a large
part of the holding hands issue) and to lose themselves in
traditional dance the way I do at, say, a David Kaynor
contradance with the Greenfield Dance Band at the Guiding Star
Grange.
Some of the elements that are important to this are:
GOOD TEACHING
That means teaching for success. If a few of them, or even one
of them are confused at any point I assume it's my fault, due
to unclear teaching, and teach it again. I try to find many
different ways to describe each figure in a dance, and I usually
have two children demonstrate each figure before having the whole
group try it. I make the ground rules clear, as well as the reasons
for the ground rules (safety, respect, success of the dance).
If any two people are not holding hands in a circle I stop the
dance and say that it's not working as the circle is not complete.
I rarely have to do this more than once.
Teaching for success also means that, say in the Virginia Reel
with younger children, the first time through might just have
a "one hand turn" followed by a "two hand turn" (rather than
specifying right or left hand), and that the top couple might
cast off around to the bottom by themselves with no cast off
under the arches, and certainly no strip the willow. As the
group gains skill and confidence I will add in a left hand turn/
right hand turn, a cast off under the arches, and, sometimes,
with older children, the strip the willow figure.
I describe to the children how to hold hands: "put your hands
out, keep your fingers together and thumb out like this...now
place your fingers over your neighbor's fingers and thumb lightly
on the back of their hand" and we practice. I have a set
lecture on holding hands with partners when there's resistance
to this (particularly with gent/lady partners) that I won't
repeat at length here, but the most important elements are
that when you're someone's partner it means you're their helper.
It doesn't mean that it's your girlfriend/boyfriend, and it
doesn't mean you're getting married. Holding hands is a way
of giving respect to your partner. If you do something like
refusing to hold hands or making an ugly face while you do it,
this is disrespectful. And so on...
GOOD MUSIC
We all know how important good music is to our experience of dancing.
Now I can teach with the accordion pretty well, and it's a great
teaching instrument as I can start, stop and vary the tempo and
volume from moment to moment. But once we've mastered the dancing,
since I don't have, say, the Greenfield Dance Band (GDB) with me in the
gym or classroom, I dance with tapes of my favorite music. Of
course I use the "Chimes of Dunkirk" tape and book that Andy Davis,
Mary Cay Brass and I produced with music by the GDB. I also use
a tape recorder hooked up to a pretty powerful amplifier/speaker
so that they get the full range and volume of sound. I know this
makes me much happier as I dance with them. I also use a collection
of some of my other favorite recordings of traditional dance music
by Yankee Ingenuity, New England Chestnuts, La Boutine Souriante,
Popcorn Behavior, ect. The challenge is to find recordings that are
long enough, and that have a steady, clear dance rhythm throughout.
POSITIVE TEACHING TECHNIQUES
The last thing I'll mention is the attitude I bring to the children.
If I'm going to see the group four times or more I learn all of their
names. This takes time: 10 minutes maybe, the first day, and maybe
5 or so in each subsequent visit, and I use their names constantly
and practice their names to myself constantly throughout each
session. This makes the teaching much more efficient, and also
allows me to know the children much better as individuals. I teach
with good humor and laughter. I include all of the adults
in the room in the dancing. If any one or two children are acting
inappropriately I mention my expectations generally to the whole
group first rather than singling them out. If they continue, I
will have the offending children be the ones to demonstrate the
figure in question without any comments about their being the
ones out of line. If they continue to disrupt the dancing after
that I might have them switch partners. If they continue after that
then the disruptive student is sent out of the dance for, say,
5 or ten minutes. I try to tell the children these last two
consequences ahead of time.
Obviously I could go on and on but I won't. I'm not going into
succession of dances taught, teaching children how to choose
their own partners, gender/partner issues, odd/even number of
children & adults, alternating singing games with other trad.
dances, ect.
I think I'll be doing this workshop again at the ¹96 Flurry. Alot of
this and more is included in the introductions and glossaries of
New England Dancing Masters' "Chimes of Dunkirk-Great Dances for
Children" edited by Mary Cay Brass, Andy Davis and myself, and
"Jump Jim Joe-Great Singing Games for Children" edited by my
wonderful wife Mary Alice Amidon and myself. Both books have
companion tapes and can be ordered from me, but most mail order
(particularly bulk) is handled by the New England Dancing Masters
office at the home of Andy Davis, 21 West Street, Brattleboro,
VT 05301; (ne...@sover.net). We have another collection of dances
for children and community dancing coming out soon called "Listen
to the Mockingbird" book & companion tape. Also I've heard that
Bob Dalsemer (dals...@grove.net) is coming out with a collection
of traditional dances for children that I, for one, am going to
snatch up as soon as it comes out.
Many of the above ideas have come from many of my dance teaching
colleagues; particular thanks go to John Krumm from whom I've
learned much about how to teach traditional dance to children and
adults.
Peter Amidon
6 Willow Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-257-1006
pet...@sover.net
Peter Amidon
Peter Amidon
Peter Amidon
Peter Amidon
Peter Amidon
AnVanHo
I teach folkdancing ot children in San Francisco and am always looking for
new dance descriptions and tapes. Can you tell me which dances are on the
tapes you mentioned? I have also some nice collections. Are you
interested? What age do you teach?
tin...@aol.com