WELCOME BACK TO DANCE! (9/21/18)

Dear Families,

I have enjoyed seeing everyone back at school over the last three weeks and have met some wonderful new BSI students.  As always, the dance room is buzzing with energy that is vibrant and contagious.

This week, our youngest dancers are defining and exploring both personal and general spaces. Some fun new dances being learned are the “Robot Dance” and the “Macarena”.

In 2^nd grade, we have begun a unit called My City – My Community, and these students are learning about skylines. The dancers are thinking about the shapes of buildings and how we can work collaboratively to create a skyline with our bodies. It is fun to learn about our communities through dance.

Third grade students, both individually and with partners, are examining the letters and syllables in their names. How can our bodies create shapes that represent these language arts concepts, and can movement help us deepen our understanding of these ideas?

In fourth grade, students will be learning about setting goals and successful group work. In large groups, dancers will be challenged to find a solution to movement problems by working collaboratively. Pictures of their efforts will be coming soon!

Fifth graders are also finding movement connections into other academic areas by exploring math and dance. This week, students are creating a coin dance and exploring the concept of probability.

And finally, our oldest dancers in 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade dance elective, are focused and learning about new technical skills and ideas. Fifth Grade students are establishing an isolation warm-up involving forward and backwards sequences and movement across the floor emphasizing rhythm and stage direction protocol.

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade dance students are exploring body alignment and awareness by  creating machine dances using muscles, body parts and joints. Students have also begun establishing a technical warm-up including isolations, flat backs and round ups, and different kinds of turns.

Looking forward to teaching all of our students the joys of moving!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Diane