Movement and Folk Dance

We've talked a little bit about Eurhythmics so far, but I would like to expand our conversation into other areas of movement, including folk dance.

Due to some complications in the specialist schedule at my school, I have one 1st grade class that comes to music for an extra hour each week, and in an effort to keep them from getting to far ahead, I am creating a music-related curriculum of which I hope that folk dance can play a significant role. I am worried about the developmental limitations of 1st graders when it comes to choreography, but I believe I have found a few good things I can do with them.

Phyllis Weikart has put out a lot of material on movement. Much of what I have seen is for 3-7 years old, but she also has a large collection of dances in a book called Teaching Movement and Dance: A Sequential Approach to Rhythmic Movement. As the title suggests, the dances are categorized by developmental levels, and includes several chapters on the pedagogy of movement-based learning. These books tend to freak me out because of all the diagrams for the choreography, but I found these diagrams easy to read, and there are also written instructions for the movement. There are a total of 9 CDs that must be purchased separately, and they are very well done.

Another source I am hoping to acquire is Move It! Expressive Moments with Classical Music by John Feierabend. The package includes two DVDs, a guidebook, and a CD, with a total of 20 selections from classical music. I read somewhere that all the movement was choreographed by a reputable dance company, but I can't find that info now. There are no verbal instructions on the DVD, so is more friendly for our visual learners.

I would like to find (read: borrow and make copies of, because I have no budget) some resources with authentic folk dances. Anyone have anything worth sharing? I'll buy you a drink!

Ready, Set, Discuss!

-Stephanie

Listening and Movement Activities

I have a hard time coming up with musical works off the top of my head that work well for teaching musical concepts.  Anyone else?  Liz Knapp and I have started a list of pieces we've been using so far this year for listening (journaling) and movement activies, and I have made a GoogleDoc spreadsheet.

Anyone who has this URL is able to view and edit the spreadsheet.  Hopefully random people on the internet won't find it and mess around with it--I'll try to keep a back up copy periodically.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AqYwseSAJ0MAdDlUb2Y5Ym5faGpORk9JWWg2SWllalE&hl=en&authkey=CLzFuJsF

The categories are:

• Title of Work
• Composer/Arranger
• Where the recording can be found
• Does it work for a listening activity?
• Does it work for a movement activity?
• What are the musical concepts highlighted in this piece? (rhythmic ostinato? dynamic contrast? tempo changes?)

Feel free to add more categories if you think there should be more.

Please add information and then click File--->Save.