POST WORKSHOP NOTES
for
NYSSMA
Creating a Dynamic Learning Community with Traditional Dance, Song & Storytelling
Monday, August 12, 2013 • 9:00 – 9:15 •• 10:30 – 11:45 •• 2:15 – 3:30
Community Dance 6:30 – 7:15
SESSION I
Blaydon Races p. 8 in handout
in NEDM’s Chimes of Dunkirk collection
We used ‘Blaydon Races’ from NEDM’s
2010 Revision of the ‘Chimes of Dunkirk’
CD for this. You can also use any jig or
reel medley for this dance.
We did this is a mixer, but you can also do it with
younger children without changing partners.
We often call this at weddings. We always start
teaching this, as we do with any circle mixer, by
having the dancers promenade and defining the
gents/moons/peanut butter/inside partners and the
ladies/stars/jelly/outside partners.
My Heart is Ready by Cindy Kallet
This will be in the Amidons’
“Twenty-Five Anthems for Small Church & Community Choirs”
book which will be published this autumn, along with
“Fifty-Five Anthems for the Small Church Choir”
The Sun is In My Heart p. 10 in handout – In NEDM’s
(New England Dancing Masters’) “I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD
This is a wonderful calming way to start a class with young children.
Five Little Bunnies p. 10 in handout – In NEDM’s
“I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD
One of our all-time-favorite finger plays.
Form the Corn p. 8 in handout.
In NEDM’s “I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD
We call this “Scatter formation”; anyone standing anywhere,
great activities to throw in at any time. Children can just stand
up briefly from chairs or desks to do this.
Galopede p. 8 in handout – In NEDM’s “Chimes of Dunkirk” collection
We always do this to the specific tune ‘Galopede’
which is on the Chimes of Dunkirk companion CD.
We often end a community dance with this dance.
The 2nd version of ‘Galopede’ on the 2010 revision
of the ‘Chimes of Dunkirk’ CD has an extra C music
at the end for the ‘eggbeater’ figure where, after the
top couple sashays to the bottom the last time through
the dance, each successive couple sashays down the
middle, while the outside couples continue moving up
towards the top of the set. Sometimes we practice
this final figure ahead of time, sometimes we don’t.
PICTURE BOOK I These are all on pages 12-14 on handout.
In the Fiddle
We All Went on Safari
Waking UP is Hard to Do
Larry’s Mixer p. 9 in handout
in NEDM’s “Listen to the Mockingbird” collection.
We used the cut “Cheris” from NEDM’s
“Other Side of the Tracks” CD, which is the
band “Assembly”, a quartet that includes
our two sons Sam (fiddle) and Stefan (percussion).
Also try doing this to “The Coming Dawn” from
the same CD, or try “Golden Keyboard” from
NEDM’s “Any Jig or Reel” CD. All of these are
flowing music, and I find that this dance can
have a sublime “Historic English County Dance”
feel (think Jane Austen) when done to those
cuts of elegant music.
END OF SESSION I
SESSION II
Country Life p. 7 in handout –
in Amidon’s “Song in My Heart” book/CD
traditional, from Yorkshire England. We have found this
to be a wonderful all-school sing song.
Brotherhood & Sisterhood p. 5 in handout
in Amidon’s “Song in My Heart” book/CD
Peter was commissioned to write this to help Lititz (PA) celebrate
“Celebrate the Differences”.
A Little Seed p. 2 in handout.
in NEDM’s “I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD
A sweet and mesmerizing fingerplay song.
I’m Growing Up p. 3 in handout.
in NEDM’s “I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD
and in the Amidons’ “Song in My Heart” book and companion CD.
Make up your own motions to this Mary Alice composed song.
Sleeping Bunnies p. 2 in handout
in NEDM’s “I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD
This is the most-requested singing game amongst the pre-school to
Kindergarten set.
Here We Go Riding p. 6 in handout
in NEDM’s “I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD
What a simple way to teach the elements of greeting each other.
Kindergarten Reel p. 7 in handout
in NEDM’s “Listen to the Mockingbird”
Here is the music.
We did not include a recording of the music in the
“Listen to the Mockingbird” CD. You can do this dance
with any instrument imaginable: piano, guitar, recorder,
trombone, harmonica. Once the children have the phrases
memorized they can dance it to just the music with no
calls.
PICTURE BOOK II These are all on pages 12-14 on handout.
I Miss You Every Day
Day is Done
Whales
Mother Earth
Lucky Seven p. 7 in handout
In NEDM’s Chimes of Dunkirk collection
You can use any jig or reel for this dance;
we like doing it to “Coming Dawn” from
NEDM’s “Other Side of the Tracks” CD.
The grand right & left exercises: First all
promenade to determine inside/outside
gent/lady or moon/star roles. Then all
face partner. Ladies crouch while men
weave around circle, starting on the inside.
Then Men crouch and assist ladies as they
weave around: right hand for outside, left
hand assist for inside. Then all stand and
face center and do a stationary grand right
and left just with the arms, counting up to
seven. Repeat that, but this time stepping
in place (two steps per arm reach). Then
face partner and ‘repeat after me’ some
of the rules: ‘I will not turn around, I
will not go back…’ etc. Tell them that it
always takes seven times to get it right,
and make sure, when it doesn’t go right,
that they all go back to where they started
from (rather than trying to fix it in the middle
of the grand right and left figure).
Level one: Wait 8 beats on 2nd
half of A2 music.
Level two: dosido partner on
2nd half of A2 music.
Choosing Partners
We think it is a real gift to children to teach them
how to choose their own partners. I like to frame
this in ‘Kings’ and ‘Queens’ language to help the
children get over their self consciousness over
choosing partners.
I start with a story about how Kings and Queens
realized that it might be more fun to dance with
more than just their own spouses, and so they
needed to devise a polite and efficient way to
choose other partners. “And the method they
came up with was so good we still do it today.”
I have them all practice the words: ‘May I please
have this dance?’ ‘Yes thank you.’ and then
practice answering me, and then practice
asking me. Then I demonstrate what it
looks like to ask a partner to dance, by
asking one of the ‘Queens’. Then, I
have that Queen sit down, and I ask
her again, showing the 10 steps:
The approach. Eye contact. The question.
The answer. King puts out his hand.
Queen stands and takes King’s hand.
They hang on to each other’s hand and
walk to the top of the hall. If there are
two Queens then there is a Queen on one
side and a Queen on the other side. If
there are two Kings (you know the rest).
If it is a King and a Queen, the King
stands on the King’s side, the Queen on
the Queen’s side and they face each other,
nose, toes and bellybutton, taking two hands.
Then they drop their hands, and, voila, there
they are.
Kings & Queens p. 10 in handout
in NEDM’s “Sashay the Donut” collection
We used ‘On the Danforth’ from NEDM’s ‘Other Side of the
Tracks’ CD for this dance. You might also use our other
version of ‘On the Danforth’ which is on our ‘Sashay
the Donut’ CD.
Before we teach this dance we will dub each child a King or a
Queen, and talk to them (sometimes while the music is playing
to help sustain the mood) about what it means to be a King and
Queen: They have royal posture, they never rush, they make
good decisions, they are very attractive; basically describing
the ideal King/Queen or, which, in my mind is being the
very best person they can be. Then I “dub” each child a
king or a queen, making sure they have their royal posture before
I dub them. This is in the style of an historic English country dance
(e.g. dances done in Jane Austen’s time).
END OF SESSION II
SESSION III
Seed in the Ground p. 4 in handout
in Amidons’ “Song in My Heart” book & CD
This Connie Kaldor song is one of our favorite children’s songs
of all time.
Seed in the Ground dance by Peter Amidon
Inspired by the Flash Mob movement
If you got the sun
*Walk sideways with hands miming sun rising.
and if you got the rain
*Walk sideways the other way with hands miming rain.
and you plant a little seed
*Crouch down.
in the old back lane
Then jump and turn halfway with
arms moving directly over head,
end pointing in opposite direction.
And you wish and you hope
hands clasped together in front,
take step to diagonal left, then diagonal right,
And you keep the weeds down
Crouch down, keeping head up.
You might find, oh
standing up, step and gesture with arm to left.
You might find
step and gesture with arm to right
a root growing down from the seed
mime with hands
in the ground
take one step forward (leaving other foot in place) ending with forward leg bent a little and back leg straight as arms and hands sweep from front to both sides (separating) as if miming the flat surface of the ground.
Quartz Mountain Man in the Middle p. 10 in handout
Created by teachers at a workshop Mary Alice and I led
in Oklahoma. I facilitated their ideas into a dance that has
become on of my favorites for just about any situation. Children
grades 4 (3?) and up love this dance.
We did it also to inspire you to create new dances with
your students. After they have developed some dance
experience and vocabulary, I get them into whatever formation
you want to use (I like using the circle mixers formation, but any
formation would do) and then just say “OK, what should we do
first?” Every once in a while test out whatever they have come
up with with any standard AABB jig or reel. Your job is
1) to use as many of their ideas as possible
2) to facilitate it into a satisfying dance.
You are allowed to inject your own ideas once in a
while, especially when it is adapting their ideas somehow
to create flowing, interesting choreography that is fun to dance.
Act out Gawain
Children do this quite naturally; you just
set it up and, as much as possible, get out
of the way. After telling a folktale I give
them the homework to retell it aloud,
we might go through a speed through of
the story or do a quick group map of the
story or discuss the story (What was the
funniest/saddest/most scary/most memorable
moment?) Once they all know the story well,
you are the narrator, and maybe also the musician
(guitar, accordion). Pull the characters (and
human props) from the ‘audience’ of children
sitting in a bunch in front of the ‘stage’.
All the action takes place right in the middle
in front of the audience. The ‘actors’ speak
loudly so everyone can hear. If they forget
what happens next you can feed them a line
as the narrator: “And then Arthur asked Sir
Gromer what the riddle was.”
You can use this method to create a musical performance
with added instrumental music, songs and dancing, or
just do it once and leave it at that.
Chiney Doll/Sam
Chiney Doll is in our new book/CD “Song in My Heart”
Two-year-old Sam could not sing the song without
telling the story. Here is Sam now.
My Heart is Ready again
Circle Waltz Mixer p. 9 in handout
In NEDM’s “Sashay the Donut” collection
Music: “In Continental Waltz” from “Sashay” CD
We used ‘In Continental’ Waltz from the ‘Sashay’ CD
for the music. This is a wonderful dance for a wedding
where you can do it the original way we learned it, doing
a short waltz instead of the two hand turn. In the original
dance gents are the “posts” and women are the “twirlers”,
but it works perfectly fine in a non-gender community
dance with a two hand turn. Here are some tips to
for teaching this dance:
Start by having everyone promenade.
Tell all the inside (left hand) partners they are
“posts” and all the outside (right hand) partners
they are “twirlers”.
All look at partner and say “goodbye”.
Posts stay in place and keep their feet planted
during the “twirl” figure.
Carefully teach the first “twirl” each “Post”
does with their left hand neighbor, from left to right.
Once the dancers get that twirl, the rest of the dance
can go pretty smoothly.
EVENING DANCE
Circassian Circle
This is in NEDM’s “Listen to the Mockingbird” collection;
a great simple circle mixer for, say, 4th grade and up.
Bridge of Athlone
In NEDM’s “Listen to the Mockingbird”
I like using, for music, “Reel de Rimouski” on
NEDM’s “Any Jig or Reel” CD
Auretti’s Dutch Skipper
traditional English country dance from 1700.
Formation: duple proper (couples numbered,
alternatingly from the top, 1’s and 2’s. Gents
in gents’ line, Ladies in Ladies’ line.
1st Gent, 2nd Lady are first corners.
1st Lady, 2nd Gent are second corners.
Music, I like using jigs for this.
A1: #1’s go down between 2’s, separate, return to place
#1’s do two hand turn.
A2: #2’s mirror what #1’s just did.
B1: 1st corners two hand turn,
2nd corners two hand turn
B2: All set to partner twice.
Weaving poussette:
All take partner’s two hands.
#1 gents push and #2 gents pull,
two couples (keeping same orientation)
change places.
Intersection Reel
This is the dance where four short sets
make a giant “X” or “+”.
It is in NEDM’s “Sashay the Donut”
Sicilian Vowel Dance
In NEDM’s “Sashay the Donut”
For music we used “Golden Keyboard”
from NEDM’s “Any Jig or Reel” CD.