Dancing Words Blog

Category: Magic and Whimsy

  • Magic and Whimsy Series: Grandmother Winter

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    Are you a K-5 dance teaching artist looking for inspiration as you wrap up the semester, and maybe make a dance to celebrate winter? I encourage you to check out Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root, with artwork by Beth Krommes.

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    Grandmother Winter is a magical character that is interacting with the animals, creating snow, and more. "When the days burn down toward the longest night Grandmother shakes her feather quilt. Flake by flake the snow begins to fall." You, the teacher, could be the narrator of the story, with your whole class dancing the story. Students will move like feather, animals, and snow. I love the idea of the students shifting shapes, qualities, and ways of moving. 

    I think the book can be a fresh take on the theme of "winter" in your classes. 

    As for music, one album I am loving right now is with the beautiful sound of kora and cello, Chamber Music by Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal (available on iTunes).

  • Magic and Whimsy Series: Symphony City

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    If you liked the book The Conductor, featured in this Magic and Whimsy Series a few weeks ago, then I think you will like Amy Martin's picture book Symphony City. 

    This is Martin's first book, and it is lovely and quirky at the same time. For sophisticated dance teaching artists working with students in 3rd-5th grades, check out this book.

    Symphony City is composed of sparse, poetic verse and gorgeous artwork of a girl in a city and the "music" that surrounds her. The text refers to the music of the city – literal music and also the music made by our world. 

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    I think that this book will be a great springboard for a class dance with many layers to it. Use the book for inspiration for your music choices, use of color with costumes and props, and let the text lead the way for movement ideas. I encourage you to use the actual text, with a live narrator or recorded voice.

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  • Magic and Whimsy Series: The Conductor

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    Chronicle Books is known as a publisher of beautiful books – beautiful in content and the quality of the images, paper, and binding of the books. Today let's talk about The Conductor by Laeticia Devernay. This is a magical book for dance teaching artists who love creating new projects with their 3rd-5th graders.

    On this blog, I rarely quote book covers and jackets, but the description on the back of this book describes it so well:

    Pairing two seemingly disparate elements – an orchestra conductor and a grove of trees - award-winning artist and children's book author Laeticia Devernay has created a beautiful and compelling wordless narrative. Her spare yet intricate illustrations take flight as the conductor prompts the tree's leaves to rustle, whirl, and swirl into soaring, unexpected life. A celebration of creativity, imagination, storytelling, and the renewing power of nature, this is a volume for readers and art lovers of all ages to treasure.

    Yes, indeed!

    From the very first presentation of this beautifully designed book to your students, you are heading on a magical journey. "Read" the book with your students. What is the story? Who is the conductor? What kind of music do you hear to accompany this tale? To me, the book is a great inspiration, to explore in movement, shape shifting, part/whole, ensemble work, flocking, following a leader, and the actions of floating, soaring, traveling, flocking, and gliding. 

     

  • Magic and Whimsy Series: Sky and Earth

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    Artwork: Debra Frasier

    Today's two book recommendations have a similar feel to them. I love them both. They are about our world, the earth and sky, and being a part of the whole. The two picture books for use in K-5 dance classes are:

    In the Space of the Sky by Richard Lewis with Illustrations by Debra Frasier

    Earthdance by Joanne Ryder with Illustrations by Norman Gorbaty

    Whether you use them for an improvisational activity or to create a group dance using the text, you will find elegant and touching words and ideas.

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  • Magic and Whimsy Series: All in a Day

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    Story Behind the Magic and Whimsy Series:

    About 16 years ago I was taking a "teaching methods for children" undergraduate course at the University of Utah. Teaching artist Joni Urry Wilson lead a class one day, sharing how to use the book Caretakers of Wonder as a springboard for a dance with elementary school students. The text of the book is poetic and magical. It touches your heart. The idea of the book is how we can care for the world – be a perch for the birds, repaint rainbows to brighten their colors, and such. Joni was the one to model for me how to use children's picture books as a theme for special dance projects with elementary students, especially students in grades 3-5. Thank you Joni!

    The first post in the Magic and Whimsy Series:

    All in a Day is a picture book by two stellar children's book artists, writer Cynthia Rylant and illustrator Nikki McClure. "A day is a perfect piece of time to live a life, to plant a seed, to watch the sun go by. A day starts early, work to do, beneath a brand-new sky." All in a Day can inspire a dance project for 3rd-5th grade students in elementary schools, after school programs, and dance centers.

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    The book alternates with pages with a blue background and a yellow background. I love this pattern, and you can work with this pattern as the students choreograph a dance. Half of the class could dance the yellow pages/text, and half could dance the blue. You could even split your "stage space" in half, with the yellow group on one side and the blue on the other. One group could freeze while the other moves. You could even use these colors for your "costumes" for the dance (ie blue/black and yellow/black).

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    If you have a smaller after school or studio class, with 6-8 students, this could be a duet project. You could get a few copies of the book out of the library, so that each duet would have a book to use and refer to. 

    Nikki McClure's paper-cut images have clear lines and strong images. Cynthia Rylant's text indeed has "magic and whimsy" in it. It is about hope and beauty – a perfect idea for a dance with young children. 

     

     

  • Poetry Series for Dance Classes: Night Garden

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    Oh, I love the Berkeley Public Libraries. I especially love it when I find unfamiliar books on display that I can use in dance classes.

    Last week they had "night books" on display. I took out Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet S. Wong (with illustrations by Julie Paschkis). It is a beautiful set of poems, and I love the order of the poems in the book. 

    My teaching mind already goes to using this book with students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. I would encourage you to use all of the poems, in their order. I envision a set of beautiful solos for brave, young choreographers. This could turn into an elegant culminating performance at the end of your semester or session. 

    The poems are of night, dreams, magic, and whimsy. One of the poems from the book:

    Gently Down the Stream

    Like one fast fish

    I'm swimming free,

     

    water washing

    over me,

     

    seeing clear

    through eyes like glass,

     

    following

    a moonlight path,

     

    one fast fish,

    no breathing troubles,

     

    followed by

    a trail of bubbles,

     

    swimming long, 

    swimming lean,

     

    swimming gently

    down the stream.

     

    The poems can be your starting point for movement. In terms of reciting the text, you could record each student reading his/her own poem. You, the teacher, could be the narrator of the poems. Or, students can switch off and read for another student.

    I very much envision this project as a group of solos.