Workshops
Workshop Notes
New England Orff Association Lexington Workshop
Peter and Mary Alice Amidon leading:
Teaching Traditional Dance and Singing Games to Children
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Dear New England Orff Association & New England Kodaly Folks,
We had such a wonderful time yesterday! Thanks to Pam Yanko for great organizing; to all the other folks who helped set up and run the day. We really appreciated the enthusiasm, level of participation, and practical and creative ideas that all of the participants brought to the workshop.
If you are ordering books, CDs or the Chimes DVD from our website this week please let us know that you were at the Lexington workshop and we will mail to you, along with your order, a full refund for shipping and handling.
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Once again, your homework:
- DANCE!
Here is a great site for contra and English country dancing in the greater Boston area:
http://www.cds-boston.org/
And here is a website for finding dances anywhere in the United States:
http://www.thedancegypsy.com/
This is my favorite site. It includes contra dances, English country dances and more, all across the United States.
Here are notes on the workshop.
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Blaydon Races - -p. 9 in the handout
in NEDM's Chimes of Dunirk collection
We used 'Broken Lantern' from NEDM's 'Any Jig or Reel' CD for this. We did this is a mixer, but you can also do it with younger children without changing partners. We often call this at weddings. We always start teaching this, as we do with any circle mixer, by having the dancers promenade and defining the gents/moons/peanut butter/inside partners and the ladies/stars/jelly/outside partners.
Tree Song - p. 3 in the handout
in NEDM's Down in the Valley collection
Lorraine Hammond, who composed this wonderful singing game, is a songwriter and musician, and the best known Appalachian dulcimer player in the country. She is in the greater Boston area. The piano arrangement on the CD is Peter's. We find this to be a calming, centering dance, both for the children and for ourselves.
Highland Gates - p. 8 in the handout
in NEDM's Down in the Valley collection
This is a great dance for opening a community dance. Folks can join in the dancing as they straggle in.
Dance Teaching Tips pages 4-5 in handout
- Mittens; front of your mitten on the front of your neighbor's mitten, thumb lightly on back;
- take hands drop hands take hands drop hands;
- posture;
- teach the forward separately from the back in the forward and back;
- shake partner's hand, hang on, take partner's left hand for teaching promenade;
- while promenading: inside person is the moon/peanut butter/gent, outside is the star/jelly/lady;
- four steps of making a circle from a promenade: "Hang on to partner stop walking, hang on to partner face the center, drop hands, take hands.";
- 9 ways of keeping the circle big and round on circle left and right;
- dosido (gents start on inside, ladies start going outside) flowing into two hand turn flowing into promenade;
- when music starts clapping the first of each 8 beats;
- doing the dance with your hands;
- "thick" calling, then "thin" calling then no calling;
- saying the call right before the 'clap' or before the first beat of the phrase and figure.
Comment Ça va p. 11 in the handout
In NEDM's Sashay the Donut collection.
Mary Alice played on this, but you can use any reel, particularly a French Canadian Reel like 'Quebec Reels' from the 'Sashay' CD. This is exactly the same as "La Bastringue" (NEDM's Chimes of Dunirk collection) except for the figures in B1. I often use this as a first dance for 4-6th graders; it is pretty simple and straightforward, but the B1 figures make it interesting and dynamic for the students.
Going to Alberta p. 7 in the handout
In NEDM's Sashay the Donut collection
This is a GREAT way to teach the ballroom position (used for the waltz, the polka, and for a contra dance swing) at the same time as a simple polka step. We have found this to be a great dance for little kids, big kids mixed ages, community dance, in short, for anyone. You can do it as an a cappella singing game, or accompany it with piano, guitar, accordion, or Orff instruments, or do it to the music of the Sashay the Donut CD.
Lucky Seven p. 11 in the handout
In NEDM's Chimes of Dunkirk collection
We used 'The Coming Dawn" from NEDM's 'Other Side of the Tracks' ' CD. The grand right & left exercises: First all promenade to determine inside/outside gent/lady or moon/star roles. Then all face partner. Ladies crouch while men weave around circle, starting on the inside. Then Men crouch and assist ladies as they weave around: right hand for outside, left hand assist for inside. Then all stand and face center and do a stationary grand right and left just with the arms, counting up to seven. Repeat that, but this time stepping in place (two steps per arm reach). Then face partner and 'repeat after me' some of the rules: 'I will not turn around, I will not go backŠ' etc. Tell them that it always takes seven times to get it right, and make sure, when it doesn't go right, that they all go back to where they started from (rather than trying to fix it in the middle of the grand right and left figure).
The workshop notes have level I. Level II, which we learned from contra dance caller Lisa Greenleaf, simply replaces the waiting (at the end of the A2 music) with a partner dosido. Level III is adding an allemande right with the 7th person of the grand right and left into the promenade. That allemande right ends up being 1 1/4 times around in order to get the gent on the inside for the promenade.
Choosing partners p. 10 in the handout
We think it is a real gift to children to teach them how to choose their own partners. I like to frame this in 'Kings' and 'Queens' language to help the children get over their self consciousness over choosing partners.
I start with a story about how Kings and Queens realized that it might be more fun to dance with more than just their own spouses, and so they needed to devise a polite and efficient way to choose other partners. "And the method they came up with was so good we still do it today."
I have them all practice the words: 'May I please have this dance?' 'Yes thank you.' and then practice answering me, and then practice asking me. Then I demonstrate what it looks like to ask a partner to dance, by asking one of the 'Queens'. Then, I have that Queen sit down, and I ask her again, showing the 10 steps: The approach. Eye contact. The question. The answer. King puts out his hand. Queen stands and takes King's hand. They hang on to each other's hand and walk to the top of the hall. If there are two Queens then there is a Queen on one side and a Queen on the other side. If there are two Kings (you know the rest). If it is a King and a Queen, the King stands on the King's side, the Queen on the Queen's side and they face each other, nose, toes and bellybutton, taking two hands. Then they drop their hands, and, voila, there they are.
Then I have a volunteer Queen ask a King, and when they are finished I have a volunteer King ask a Queen, and they get in place in the line beside the first King & Queen. Then all ask. This can be wonderful, and the children who succeed in doing this can be quite proud of themselves.
Kings and Queens p. 10 in the handout
In NEDM's Sashay the Donut collection
We used 'On the Danforth' from NEDM's 'Other Side of the Tracks' CD for this dance. You might also use our other version of 'On the Danforth' which is on our 'Sashay the Donut' CD.
Before we teach this dance we will dub each child a King or a Queen, and talk to them (sometimes while the music is playing to help sustain the mood) about what it means to be a King and Queen: They have royal posture, they never rush, they make good decisions, they are very attractive; basically describing the ideal King/Queen or, which, in my mind is being the very best person they can be. This is in the style of an historic English country dance.
Rural Felicity p. 12 in the handout
This is in NEDM's Sashay the Donut collection.
Mary Alice played for this. I prefer using jigs for this, so any jig medley would work. Try"Irish Jig Medley" from NEDM's Sashay the Donut CD. We often use this in our school community dances.
Old Bald Eagle Square p. 13 in the handout
In NEDM's Sashay the Donut collection
Andy Davis's brilliant version of 'Old Bald Eagle' is the simplest square we know: a great first square dance for young children. Try it with the Sashay the Donut CD to Andy's calls.
First Night Quadrille p. 9 in the handout
In NEDM's Listen to the Mockingbird collection.
A great dance for, say, 4th grade and up who have a fair amount of dance experience. We love doing this to Old Time Reels on NEDM's Sashay the Donut CD. Teach your students Lucky Seven (NEDM's Chimes of Dunkirk collection) first so that they already know the grand-right-and-left figure going into this wonderful flowing square dance. Also you might teach them "Comment ça va" (NEDM's Sashay the Donut collection) ahead of time as well so they are familiar with the allemande-left- corner-back-to-partner figure.
From the Seed in the Ground by Connie Kaldor
I (Peter) made up this dance (well, Mary Alice came up with the last "from the seed in the ground' movement), the concept of which was inspired by the Youtube videos:
Original Dance
I start with the question: "What is a dance?" A dance starts with a formation (or a shape):
- longways (line of partners facing each other),
- circle (partners in circle) or
- square (four couples facing in).
- There is also the Sicilian Circle formation (couple facing couple around a circle)
- And also the concentric circle formation where couples are in a circle with, say, the gents facing out and the ladies facing in.
Then there are the figures, which is, simply what the dancers do in the dance. Some obvious figures include some you do with the whole group (let's say we're doing a circle mixer)
- Forward and back
- Circle left, Circle right,
- Grand Right and Left
- etc.
and figures you do just with your partner (or neighbor)
- Right hand turn
- Dosido
and some that are a bit of both like
- Promenade.
It is OK to have an original figure or two in our original dance, but not too many. Mostly you should have familiar, common figures that dances can learn quickly.
Once we (or I) decide on a formation, I simply say, "What first." and do whatever the first person suggests, in our case, "circle left".
As the suggestions come in I might invite discussion about which suggestion to choose (if there are more than one). I try to use as many of the children's ideas as possible, and I almost always have the children try out dancing a suggested figure before discussin g it.
Your job is also to facilitate the children creating a dance that is fun to do. You might make a small suggestion here and there, especially one that might help make a student's suggestion more successful and flowing.
The children can help figure out how to make the dance fit the AABB of the music. It is also an option to ignore the AABB and make up a dance that goes across the AABB pattern of the music, or, as we did, compose a longer sequence to match a three-part (AABBCC) tune
Once you and your students have made up a dance, it is important to name the dance. This is the same process as making up the dance. I take in suggestions and facilitate the decision making. Sometimes we combine the words in two or three different suggestion. Sometimes we vote on two or three different name candidates. Sometimes, as happened with us, someone comes up with a suggestion so inspired that I declare it the official name by acclamation.
When students create their own dance, they really take ownership of it.
Hurry Up and Turn
(We hope that is right, please let me know if we got it wrong.) by the participants of the Amidons' 2009 New England Orff Association dance workshop October 24, 2009.
Music: Any 3-part (AABBCC) tune ("Reel de Rimouski " from NEDM's Any Jig or Reel" or "Bridge of Athlone" from NEDM's "Listen to the Mockingbird"
Formation: Circle mixer- circle of couples
- A1: Circle left (8)
Circle right (8) - A2: Bow to partner (4)
Bow to corner (4)
Right elbow turn corner (8) - B1: Left elbow turn partner (8)
Hands in a ring, forward and back (8) - B2: Forward and back again (8)
Men walk CCW around women X1 (8) - C1: Women walk CW around men X1.5 (8)
Grand R & L for four changes (8) - C2: Promenade fourth person of Grand R & L. (8)
What a great dance!
Sicilian Vowel Dance p. 11 in the handout
In NEDM's Sashay the Donut collection
We used 'Golden Keyboard' (actually, the piano only comes in at the end of the cut) from NEDM's 'Any Jig or Reel' for this. Do this with 5th or 6th graders who have a fair amount of dance experience, and who have already learned the grand right and left ('Lucky Seven' from our Chimes of Dunkirk collection is a good teaching dance for the Grand Right and Left figure). It can work at a community dance if you have all the younger children dance with an adult or older experienced child partner. The main teaching point is, once folks are in the formation of couple facing couple (Sicilian circle formation), having everyone point to the left. Those pointing to the inside of the circle say "I go inside first." Those pointing to the outside say, "I go outside first." That is the direction they start going when they do the big, no hands, stay-with-partner grand right and left.
Circle Waltz Mixer p. 12 in the handout
In NEDM's 'Sashay the Donut' collection.
We used 'In Continental' Waltz from the 'Sashay' CD for the music. This is a wonderful dance for a wedding where you can do it the original way we learned it, doing a short waltz instead of the two hand turn. In the original dance gents are the "posts" and women are the "twirlers", but it works perfectly fine in a non-gender community dance with a two hand turn. In order to make sure that this works in a community dance you:
- Limit the dance to Kindergarteners and older.
- Tell K-3 students that they must dance with an adult or older partner.
- Start by having everyone promenade, and have the older partner promenade on the inside.
- Tell all the inside (left hand) partners they are "posts" and all the outside (right hand) partners they are "twirlers".
- Posts stay in place and keep their feet planted during the "twirl" figure.
- All look at partner and say "goodbye".
- Carefully teach the first "twirl" each "Post" does with their left hand neighbor, from left to right.
Once the dancers get that twirl, the rest of the dance can go pretty smoothly.
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Happy dancing!
Best,
Peter & Mary Alice Amidon