In Winter 2008, thanks to Lane Arts Council and the Eugene School District 4j,
Teaching Artist and Sparkplug Dance Director Rachael Carnes completed a six-week residency with k-2nd graders at Eugene's Edgewood Elementary School.
Rachael met for 45 minutes once per week. Each child received about five hours of direct instruction. But in a short amount of time, taking a developmental, integrative and reflective approach, a lot of fun learning can happen.
Here is a summary of their responses to their dance learning process:
What is dance?
We can sway, and skate. Dance is fun. Dance is quiet.
It feels like floating. It's fast. You move your body with control.
We're moving quickly, but we can watch where we're going.
We move to music, fast and slow. We're shaking around, and in different shapes.
Dance is about being yourself.
What do we learn from dancing?
We learn how to be nice and to be calm. We can think better.
We think before we move.
The brain dance makes our brains healthy: We get smarter!
Dance makes our bodies strong.
We move the way the music makes us feel.
We find new partners. We learn to be flexible.
We get better at focusing. Improving our eye-tracking helps us to read, and do math.
Movement is hard!
Movement is fun!
Dance teaches us responsibility.
What kinds of words can you move?
We swing, we slide, we glide, we gallop and leap.
We shrink and grow.
We jiggle, poke, press, push.
We bounce, sway, spin, stretch, sharply and smoothly.
Fast and slow.
We widen.