Workshops
Workshop Notes
Western Michigan AOSA Workshop notes
Peter and Mary Alice Amidon leading:Creating a Dynamic Learning Community with Traditional Dance, Song and Storytelling
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Dear Western Michigan AOSA Folks,
Thanks so much for your great participation, enthusiasm and shared wisdom yesterday; we had a wonderful time. It has been a delight working with Dan DeZwaan who has done a great job for the last three! years working with us to set this up. Thanks to Kari DeZwaan and young Grace for picking us up at the airport & cooking us dinner Saturday night, to Sam and Jonah DeZwaan for entertaining us around their family dinner table, and to Bob Wilcox who gets seven gold stars for the best sound system we have ever had at a workshop, to Allie for taking us to the airport this morning, and to all of the other Western Michigan AOSA folks who worked hard behind the scenes to make this workshop possible.
We forgot to give you your homework, sorry. It is twofold:
1) DANCE!
Go to a public contra or English dance. Here is a website about dances in Grand Rapids:
and Kalamazoo (rich in traditional dances):
Take a peek at this:
and for calendar of greater Kalamazoo dances go to:
And here is a website for finding dances anywhere in the United States:
This is my favorite site. It includes contra dances,
English country dances and more, all across the United States.
2) TELL STORIES!
Try telling a folktale to your students: You might start with some of the classics that you probably know already: Billy Goats Gruff, Three Little Pigs, Gingerbread Man, Hansel and Gretel. Or tell a story you have found in a book or picture book (but don’t use the book when telling the story).
If you want to keep in touch with upcoming Amidon workshops (both dance for children and choral singing for adults), conferences, and new publications, sign up for our e-mail list. Postings are about once a month, usually in the format of: 1) workshop (either dance or choral singing), 2) announcements, and 3) musings on art and life.
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Here are notes on the workshop:
Blaydon Races p. 15 in handout
in NEDM’s Chimes of Dunirk collection
We used Cut #2, a jig medley 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.
Highland Gates p. 15 in 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.
Going to Alberta p. 13 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.
La Bastringue not in handout
In NEDM’s Chimes of Dunkirk collection
Formation: Circle with partners (can be a mixer,
but we did not do it as a mixer yesteray.)
We used this as a vehicle for a lot of teaching tips:
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.
discussion management/gents ladies
Picture Books I
(See Picture Book Bibliography (p. 20 in handout)
for more information about each of the below.
In the Fiddle is a Song book with recorded background music.
I Live in Music book with recorded background music.
Johnny Appleseed poem set to music
JonathanChapman.pdf
Grumpy March p. 15 in handout
in NEDM’s Sashay the Donut collection. We put
the “Wizard’s Walk” medley on our “Sashay the
Donut” CD specifically for this dance.
This is a great dance for upper elementary, middle
school and high school.
I have changed one figure from the book: right after
the “grumping” across/clapping figures I have everyone
take hands in a long skinny circle to circle right. THEN
they drop hands and skip back the other way.
Remember to specifically teach the student
Tree Song p. 6 in 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.
Heel & Toe Polka p. 3 in the handout.
In NEDM’s ‘Chimes of Dunkirk’ collection.
With younger children and at community dances
we usually skip the right hand or right elbow turn
that follows the clapping, and we go directly to
‘everyone pass right shoulders with partner, walk
straight ahead, and take two hands with new partner.’
We have done this dance with children as young as
Kindergarten. Like other circle mixers, you can start
out teaching it with the children staying with the same
partner, and later one teach the changing partners version.
Galopede p. 16 in the handout
In NEDM’s Chimes of Dunkirk collection
We always do this to the specific tune ‘Galopede’
which is on the Chimes of Dunkirk companion CD.
We often end a community dance with this dance.
If you have a live band, have them play an extra
C section the last time through at the end of the
dance and have each of the successive top couples
keep going down the middle while the rest of the
dancers move up the outside. Sometimes we practice
this final figure ahead of time, sometimes we don’t.
The Chimes CD Galopede does not have the double C
music required to do this final “eggbeater” figure.
E-mail me if you would like a version of the Galopede
music that has a this double C music - I can e-mail
you an mp3.
All School Sing
Country Life p. 4 in the handout
Brotherhood & Sisterhood p. 3 in the handout
I’m Growing Up p. 5 in the handout
Now It’s Time to Go p. 4 in the handout
From the Seed p. 8 in the handout
From the Seed dance
Make up your own
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUZrrbgCdYc
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k&feature=related
Sicilian Vowel Dance p. 17 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.
Oh the Comfort p. 9 in the handout
We have discovered over the years how important it is for music educators to have a regular diet of satisfying musical experiences for ourselves.
Potluck lunch
Yummy.
The Fox p. 6 in the handout.
Picture Books II
Whales book with recorded background music.
Keep on Singing - the Ballad of Marion Anderson
poem set to music.
Month Brothers
Acting out stories
Children do this quite naturally; you just
set it up and, as much as possible, get out
of the way. After telling a folktale I give
them the homework to retell it aloud,
we might go through a speed through of
the story or do a quick group map of the
story or discuss the story (What was the
funniest/saddest/most scary/most memorable
moment?) Once they all know the story well,
you are the narrator, and maybe also the musician
(guitar, accordion). Pull the characters (and
human props) from the ‘audience’ of children
sitting in a bunch in front of the ‘stage’.
All the action takes place right in the middle
in front of the audience. The ‘actors’ speak
loudly so everyone can hear. If they forget
what happens next you can feed them a line
as the narrator: “And then January asked who
she was and why she had come.”
You can use this method to create a musical performance
with added instrumental music, songs and dancing, or
just do it once and leave it at that.
Chiney Doll p. 2 in the handout
I always introduce this song with a story, the idea of which I
got from that picture book. I had always done the story with
the book when I told it to 2-year-old Sam, and when we were
recording Sam singing familiar songs and Mary Alice got to
the Chiney Doll, Sam could not sing the song without telling
the story: as far as we know, the first story he ever told.
As I mentioned at the workshop, a teacher who listened to that
who knew a lot about child development said, “When Sam
was grunting his way through the story it wasn’t that he
didn’t remember the story; he knew it perfectly well. It was
that he was turning the images in his head into language.”
And that is what we do when we tell stories, and we listen to
stories we turn the language back into images.
Children need to hear stories, they need the classic folktales as
a way to help sort out their emotional lives. The archetypal
characters that inhabit folktales: the kings, queens, princes,
princesses, ogres, giants, witches, wise old women and men,
and everyman Jacks and Marys are, according to one of
my storytelling mentors, Donald Davis, all part of our own
inner selves. When a prince marries a princess at the end of
a folktale, Donald Davis goes on, that marriage represents our
male self marrying our female self; a healthy emotional integration.
There are depths of meaning of these wonderful folktales that
we will never fully plumb, but whenever we tell folktales to
children, it is wonderful to see them uncover endless and
often surprising new meanings.
Choosing Partners
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 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. 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,
then a volunteer King ask a Queen, and 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. 17 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.
The Annandale Lucy Loo
Created by participants in Amidons
Sept 26, 2009 Western Michigan Orff Workshop
Formation: circle mixer
Music: any jig or reel
A1: Forward and back (8)
Forward and back again. (8)
A2: Allemand left partner. (8)
See saw partner (right shoulder dosido) (8)
B1: Women move into circle and end up facing partner:
Gents facing in, ladies facing out. (4)
Bow to partner (4)
All move to left one place and bow to next person (4)
All move to left one more place and bow to next person
(who becomes your new partner) (4)
B2: Swing new partner (8)
Promenade new partner (8)
CREATING AN ORIGINAL DANCE WITH YOUR STUDENTS
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, “Jump!”.
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.
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.
Circle Waltz Mixer (p. 19 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.
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.
Now It’s Time to Go p. 4 in the handout
* * *
Keep on dancing and singing, and tell your students stories!
Best,
Peter and Mary Alice