Dancing Words Blog

Category: Wordless Books

  • Transitions, Transformations, and Teamwork

    I have a growing collection of playful and quirky books about the transformation of objects. This theme has great potential in a dance class with students in 3rd-6th grades. Seasoned teaching artists – read on…..

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    Let me begin with Durga Bernhard's book In the Fiddle Is a Song. "In the acorn is a tree waiting to grow tall. In the clay is a pot waiting to be shaped." The poetic text, talking about 9 different items changing, can beautifully inspire a dance about transformation and transitions. Whether you have only one student at a time represent each page, or students work in small groups of 2 or 3, the project will challenge students to work on shapes, transitions, and changes in level, size, and quality.

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    Second, I love the wordless book Before After by Anne-Margot Ramstein and Matthias Arégui. Each spread shows two images – without text – challenging your imagination about the changes and transformations from A to B. Some are animals, and others are objects. Some examples include: a rocket ship/the moon, a deck of cards/a formation of cards, and a spider/a cobweb. If you have a group of students who improvise well together, you can use the book as a springboard for a group improv. Over the course of several classes, you could improvise with 6-10 of the pages.

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    Last, in a similar vein to Before After, there is the art book The Art of Clean Up by Ursus Wehrli. This photography book captures an item – such as a Christmas tree, sandbox at a park, or bouquet of flowers. Photo #1 is of the item; photo #2 is of the item taken apart and organized by shape, color, or size. Like Before After, this could lead to a group improv exercise exploring shapes. And, how do you transition from the first image into the second idea? It's a great exploration of re-organization.

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  • Flora and the Penguin

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    Fun, play, skating, gliding, and conversation. This is the beautiful "dance" of Flora with a penguin in Molly Idle's latest wordless picture book, Flora and the Penguin. If you loved Flora and the Flamingo, check out this new book! 

    The artwork literally dances off the page. The book is a great springboard for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classes as you explore partner work, working together, mirroring, and shaping. 

    You can use the book for inspiration, the images for actual movement ideas, or the storyline to create a group dance. The book is also a fun addition to your "winter" book collection.

    As for music, the classical skating piece "Les Patineurs" is a great option!

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  • Repost: Flora and the Flamingo (Now a Caldecott Honor Book!)

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    The folks at Chronicle Books (one of my favorite book publishers) have released another playful picture book to inspire young ones to dance. 

    Flora and the Flamingo, by Molly Idle, is a wordless picture book with two characters – a young girl and a flamingo. Both wear their "pink costumes," ready for dancing.

    The story is a playful dialogue of a friendship forming. In movement terms, it is a fun way to introduce the ideas of follow the leader, mirroring, and call and response with students in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade.

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    Share this book within a creative dance or pre-ballet class, or purchase it for your your one who loves to dance. The beauty of wordless books is that they encourage us to ask the kids, "What is happening here? What's the story? What do you think?"

    Check out the Chronicle Books website for two reasons.

    1. There is a "book trailer" that shows you all of the pages of the book. It is set to the classical piece, "By the Beautiful Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II. Watching this trailer inspired me to want to use this particular piece of music when using this book.

    2. Also, orders over $25 receive free shipping this week. (Chronicle publishes lots of inspiring books for dance classes, including the new book on Josephine Baker, Josephine.)

    Flora and the Flamingo will lead to multiple movement possibilities. What a great way to start doing work in pairs/duets with young ones. One dancer can be the role of Flora, and one dancer can be the role of the flamingo. I also love the use of color in the book, and it inspires me to want to bring in large pieces of pink fabric with the kids as well. (Pink tulle is very inexpensive, and then you can give each student a yard of fabric.) Pick out several of the images and ask the students to make the same shapes in their bodies ("see and do").

    Have fun and play!

     

  • Magic and Whimsy Series: Tuesday

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    David Wiesner's 1991 Caldecott Medal Book Tuesday is pure magic and whimsy. The (almost) wordless picture book tells the story of a day when a group of frogs fly through the town. 

    The book is a great springboard with students in grades 1, 2, and 3 to explore a variety of ideas through movement: flying, stealthfulness, moving en masse, and traveling pathways around town. The book can lead to improvisation activities with a group, or even a magical group dance. 

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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.