I am the mother of two boys, and they have loved the idea of rockets over the years. I recently found a fun board book called Rocket Town by Bob Logan. The book will easily inspire 3, 4, and 5 year olds to soar into the air, move slowly, move quickly, blast off, and land. Use the book in a preschool dance class as a springboard for improvising and exploring rockets.
I am excited to try out this new book. For creative dance and modern dance teachers, the idea of "a spiral" is an important concept in the body and moving in space.
Joyce Sidman's book Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature is a beautiful book of poetic language and rich artwork to inspire multiple explorations of spirals in our own bodies, with a partner, and pathways in space. From the book....."A spiral is a growing shape. It starts small and gets bigger, swirl by swirl."
I would recommend this book for students in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade.
For Bay Area dance teachers, the following public libraries have a copy.
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Today I would like to recommend the new book I Love to Dance by Anna Walker. This book is a great read for a parent and child. The language and images are perfect for 1-2 year olds who love to move.
Ollie is a zebra-like creature. He loves to dance in various ways - quietly, loudly, twirling, and jumping.
Families can read the book aloud and then try some of the movements themselves.
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I first met Gigi Arrington in 1997 when I was teaching at her daughters' elementary school in Salt Lake City. Gigi has been the Educator Director for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company for many years. That year, she created a dance with her daughter's third grade class based on the story of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes. I believe it was based on the book Sadako by Eleanor Coerr and Ed Young. Fourteen years later, this dance sticks with me - its story and the beauty and elegance of seeing young people dance this tale.
I invited Gigi to write a post here on books in her dance classes over the years:
I've used many books in my 34 years of teaching dance to children. My teaching mentor was Dee Winterton who was a master of inspiring children to move. I watched him teach two books --- Giant John and Where the Wild Things Are and those experiences helped set my own teaching philosophy.Where the Wild Things Are is my favorite children's book to use in teaching. I learned something quickly when using books to teach dance; just because it says "dance" in the title doesn't mean it is a good book to use to teach dance. Dee taught me to look for a book with movement potential ---words that generate and inspire children to explore with their bodies. I love challenging children to show me what "mischief" looks like in their eyes, their fingers, their elbows, their knees. How does mischief move? Max goes through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost a year--great space words for children to experience through movement. And who wouldn't want to roar and gnash and roll? And finally--THE WILD RUMPUS!! The pictures for the rumpus are the inspiration; not a word is needed. I love this book. I think it is important for children to know that being "wild" is part of growing up; and that you are still loved after you make mistakes . . . "he found his supper waiting for him and it was still hot!"
I was excited to find out about the new book, Jazz Age Josephine, in a recent NY Times Sunday book review. Accomplished author Jonah Winter and illustrator Marjorie Priceman share the life story of dancer Josephine Baker, who lived from 1906 until 1975. As mentioned on Wikipedia, "Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer."
While the rhyming text feels forced at times, the book is still a valuable addition to American dance history and more specifically African American dance history.
While most of the focus of this blog is on new books on dance, I would like to highlight today three of my favorites that are from the 1970s and 1980s.
The images clearly are of another time, but the charm of the images and the continued power of children reading about children, still hold strong.
While these books are out of print, many larger libraries still have them in their collections. If you are a used bookstore browser, keep an eye out for these three.
A Very Young Dancer by Jill Krementz is a beautiful look into the life of a young girl in ballet. The large format book is always fun for a young person.
At Every Turn! It's Ballet, by Stephanie Riva Sorine with photos by Daniel S. Sorine, is a photo book pairing a photo from a ballet class with a photo out in the world (both doing the same action, such as reaching, balancing, and kneeling.) Amazon.com has used copies of this for sale.
Last, I want to mention the Tana Hoban book Over, Under, & Through. While not specifically about dance, this book still works nicely in preschool and kindergarten classes to introduce spatial concepts that you can then explore in a dance class.
For classroom teachers and dance teachers alike, the classic Brothers Grimm tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses can be a springboard for a creating dance or for a class discussion on versions of folktales.
I love Rachel Isadora's 2007 version set in Africa. The artwork is beautiful, employing an Eric Carle-esque use of paper and color. I am always on the look out for books with dancers from diverse cultural backgrounds.
(I have also blogged on the Debbie Allen and Kadir Nelson variation on the tale, Brothers of the Knight, another great book.)
For Bay Area teachers, the following libraries have The Twelve Dancing Princesses:
Today was my first experiment working with the librarian at my K-8 school. (I regularly work in the middle school, but do special projects with the K-5 students.)
To celebrate National Dance Week, the librarians pulled and then displayed their whole collection of dance books.
Today, we started one of the 1st grade library sessions in the dance studio. The librarian started the lesson, framed the activity, and then read Star Climbing to the class. I then put on some music and we danced the story. This book is one of the easiest picture books to use in preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade classes. The words beautifully create a simple dance.
This part of the lesson took about 15 minutes, and then we headed upstairs to the library. The students browsed the dance books on display, and each student selected one to borrow for the week.
This was a simple and fun lesson, sharing the concepts of books on dance and books that can inspire dancing.
Happy National Dance Week!
I just rediscovered this book this week on my shelf, African Animals ABC by Philippa-Alys Browne.
What I really like about this book is the variety of action words used over the 26 pages (snap, dive, quiver, scuttle, etc). There are also quite a few verbs that could nicely "pause" the students so that improvising with each page isn't too chaotic - words like nap, blink, graze. It is a nice balance of action words that will travel in space, as well as slower, more stationary movements.
This book can easily be used in K-2 classes for an improvisation, or you could create a dance using all or some of the text as inspiration.
The book is out of print, but used copies can be found online at amazon.com. For Bay Area teaching artists and teachers, the Oakland Public Library has 2 copies.
I am working right now with the fabulous librarians at my school, to help celebrate National Dance Week in the library. National Dance Week kicks off on Friday, April 20th. They are pulling all dance books for the upcoming book display and classes next week.
National Dance Week is a perfect time to celebrate, discuss, and read about dance and dancers. Find out more at http://www.nationaldanceweek.org/ or in the SF Bay Area, http://bayareandw.org/
Let's celebrate together!
