Put On Your Dancing Shoes
By Reisa Schwartzman, BPE owner of Griddly Games

I had the wonderful opportunity to teach dance for 18 years which gave me the privilege to work with hundreds of dancers of all ages.  I learned quickly that dance brought an element to each soul that gave them freedom of expression that was deep inside each individual. Bringing this liberty to each dancer opened doors for a lifetime of pleasure, increased self-esteem and self-expression.

Incorporating dance into your classroom doesn't need to make you nervous. You can introduce dance into your classroom and have fun doing it! The children will love it! They're born to move. If you can learn to toss aside your inhibitions, get silly, and have fun, your lack of talent will never be missed. Instead, you'll be providing great physical activity and the joy of making movement together.

Dance is more than the exploring of different ways to make a shape or learning a series of steps to music; it is a way of moving that uses the body as an instrument of expression and communication. Through dance, students learn teamwork, focus, and improvisational skills. Dance awakens new discernment in children, which helps them learn and think in new ways.

Dance has often been overlooked as important and had not been included in elementary curriculum. Many people believe that dance is a frivolous activity with no educational merits. Including arts in the elementary curriculum is important to the growth, self-esteem, and creative expression of children and is in no way trivial to their educational process.

Dance should be an integral component of a comprehensive education for the same reasons that math, history, language arts, social studies, and science are essential to education. Each subject taught to students helps them to learn who they are, how they interact with others in the world, and how they fit into history.

Providing these educational elements to students allows children to simultaneously move, think, and feel. There is not any other subject in which students learn to express themselves and communicate through movement, a natural means of expression for children.

Dance is a perfect forum for creative and participatory learning. Since different students will excel and learn in different ways, it is crucial to include art in their educational experience. Learning new skills, learning academic subjects from a new approach, and having the space for expression and creativity in a supported environment will help to advance confidence in students.

Children need to express and communicate their ideas and to be given the opportunity to make creative decisions, even at a young age. This decision making promotes self-esteem and independent thinking for children. Learning the movement of others helps expand the child's movement vocabulary while creating one's own movement will put the child in a teaching role and give her/him the chance for their voice to be heard. Giving the students the freedom of making choices within a structure encourages them to reach beyond what comes easy to them and use their imagination, thus allowing them to test their own personal boundaries.

Dance also enables students to have an incite about themselves and the world in which they live. Through the arts, children can recognize the contribution of all cultures in our society and increase the understanding of diversity and values of all people. Learning traditional folk dances and creating new ones based on children's ideas can do just that. Dance also enhances skills of perception, observation, and concentration which will undoubtedly help students in all of their school subjects.

When included in the classroom curriculum, movement can be a significant tool for developing literacy behaviors appropriate for children in the early grades as well as increase their sensory awareness and sensory recall, aid concentration and foster group collaboration.

Teachers should model for children how to work with body patterns and rhythms set to music and sound. Even within the context of these more structured activities, children should still have the freedom to explore and discover internal rhythms and patterns through the use of movement.

Getting Started

Music can enrich children's lives and tap into their creative potential, but we need to give them the freedom to explore and be spontaneous. Many teachers are hesitant to introduce dance activities because they're afraid of losing control of the classroom. Don't worry; you won't lose control if you do the following six things:

1. Use appropriate materials.
2. Begin with small movement songs.
3. Give children time to explore and add their ideas.
4. Keep the pace moving.
5. Keep verbal directions to a minimum.
6. Stop before children get tired or bored.

Children love all types of music. Use all kinds of music including new and old. Many of the traditional folk songs can easily be adapted to your classroom.

Personal space is a hard concept for most children to grasp. They are not aware of spatial relationships yet. Have you ever noticed that young children have a tendency to sit almost on top of each other when they're in a group?

One way to help establish the distinction between personal and general space is to have them stand with their arms extended out to their sides and turn around in a circle while the teacher explains that this is their personal space. It's a special space that gives people room to move around without bumping into people.

Younger Children

• Dancing bodies: Lead a series of fun stretches to get children ready for a new day, become energized after naptime, or relax before the car ride home. Do windmills with your arms, reach for the sky, tickle your toes, twirl like a top, sway like a tree, rock back and forth like a rocking chair.
• Moving to the beat: Using a drum, set the beat for movement. Direct children to jump backwards, gallop in a zigzag, move using tiny steps, and dance using big steps. Have fun and be creative!
• Stop and go listening: Have a bell and some music ready, you can use recorded music or a drum. Before they start moving, tell the children to freeze when the music stops and change directions when they hear the bell. Encourage them to walk, tiptoe, slide, gallop, or jump to the beat.
• Dinosaurs and fairies: Lead the group in a discussion about how dinosaurs and fairies move. Pre-record two types of music, one heavy and dramatic, the other light and airy. As you make your tape, alternate portions of the dramatic song with the light song. Before the children start moving, ask them to identify which one sounds like a dinosaur song and which one sounds like a fairy song. Then have the children move around the room as dinosaurs when they hear the dinosaur music and as fairies when they hear the fairy music.

Older Children

• Be a Choreographer: Work on a variety of steps until they become comfortable with a few: turns, jumps, chase, grapevine, etc.  Have your students listen to a preselected piece of music and ask them either in groups or solos to self choreograph a number that they will present to each other.  To make it more challenging you can request that they use different levels: something low, something high.  Request different patterns, or space requirements.  After 15 minutes, clear the floor and have a show.  Each group will perform for the class.  This works on self confidence, individual expression as well as team building, by working hard to reach a goal while having some fun.    It is important to set the rules before the performances.  This gives you a great opportunity to teach the students proper etiquette for being an audience.  Have the students sit in front of the “stage” and expect that they watch, listen and applaud – showing respect for their peers.
• Move and Groove: Have a selection of different music: jazz, folk, hip hop, classical etc.  Have your students find their personal space.  Play each selected piece for two or three minutes and ask them to move, make sure you are dancing with them.  Each kind of music will elicit different responses!  Be creative and try all kinds of music.

Reasons to add music and movement every day

1. All children are born with the potential to be musical; nurturing this natural potential will give them a jump-start.
2. For some children, music and movement are their only means of self-expression.
3. Music and movement affects all areas of learning and development, such as social, emotional, physical, cognitive, language, and fine and gross motor.
4. Music and movement provide a consistent opportunity to develop important listening skills.
5. Making music is a joyous experience, and it instills a sense of well-being.
6. Music can soothe a cranky child, relieve stress, burn energy, make transitions smoother, and instantly transform an environment.
7. Children are very responsive to music.
8. Musical activities have a way of bringing people together.
9. Dance is a great way to shake off slumber, get energized, and focused.
10. It's difficult to frown or mope when our bodies are moving to the beat of a drum or swaying to the music.
11. Our bodies need the freedom to move and be creative.

By providing fun experiences, you are giving children a gift that will last a lifetime: the joy of music and movement. Don't just dance at scheduled times. Be spontaneous. Be creative. Put on those dancing shoes, and dance your way through the day.

Reisa Schwartzman, BPE, taught dance and choreographed for 18 years in her own dance school, as well as working in the private school sector in Vancouver, BC, Canada.   She was a choreographer for the provinces top Olympic gymnasts and school musicals.

Griddly Games creates award-winning party and board games that deliver innovative, engaging fun that brings people together while encouraging social interaction, learning, strategy and challenges that anyone (the entire grid of people) can enjoy. To discover more about Griddly Games, visit http://www.griddlygames.com/.