WEEKLY DANCE UPDATE – (K-5th Feb. 8th)

The littlest dancers at Brooklyn School of Inquiry are beginning to learn about audience and performer roles. Here, they can be seen both watching and performing. This week, students continued exploring the concept of creating shapes that reflect and travel on different pathways. How can the body make shapes that are straight and move in a linear pathway. What does that look and feel like? Next week they will begin to explore directions in space.

First graders are beginning to distinguish the different kinds of shapes our bodies can make and how they might inform our dancing. In this picture, they are trying to create linear lines with partners. How many lines can you and your partner make and connect? Next week, they begin to look at the curved or rounded shape.  Second graders have started discussing what our country looks like, and what makes it special. They are learning how movement can be inspired by many different ideas. There are leaders and followers in many dance ideas, and this can be reflected in our mirror/shadow movements. Next week, second grade will explore the choreographic concept of cannons and what that looks to an audience.

Third grade continues their language arts/dance connections by studying punctuation. What is punctuation and why is it important? How can we show punctuation in movement and what does that look like? Dancers are assigning actions and gestures to this literacy concept and will try it out in a familiar text that was read by the third grade. Just Juice, by Karen Hesse, will serve as a text to movement connection for this study.

Fourth and fifth graders are finishing up their World Cultural Dance Comparison. In the next several weeks, they will begin to create their own cultural folk dances using movement, sound and costumes inspired by Latin, Indian and Israeli Folk Dance. Each group will decide what their dance represents, how it is done and what music will accompany the steps. I look forward to seeing these creative projects.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Diane