Workshop Notes
ALABAMA MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION JAN 2010
Many thanks to Sharon August who was our main contact for this conference and who took great care of us before and during the conference. Also thanks to Garry Taylor and to the treasurer Leah. We had a wonderful time.
Birmingham Alabama has a thriving contra dance
community; give it a try. There is always live music;
all dances are taught; beginners are welcome.
Birmingham contra dance website:
https://sites.google.com/site/bfootmad/
Here are notes on our workshops:
AMIDONS WORKSHOP NOTES
WEDNESDAY 1:00 - 2:00 pm
Music for Children’s Choirs
Mary Alice and I were mostly teaching from
our new collection “From the Seed in the Ground
-Six Songs for Treble Choirs” which is available
for sale on our website:
and select “Store/Music”
My Heart is Ready
by Cindy Kallet - a cappella SATB
MyHeartIsReady.pdf
This is our current favorite instant harmony
singingalong song. It is not in our new collection
so I am making it available for you on our website.
Acres Grace
by Peter Amidon -a cappella SSAA
in From the Seed collection
A simple, short SATB grace originally written
for the Stearns/Amidon original music, “Truth”.
How Could Anyone I
by Libby Roderick - a cappella SSA
in From the Seed collection
This arrangement is based on our friend, storyteller
Eshu Bumpus’s singing of this classic song. Try
singing it for a loved one on their birthday.
Sylvie
traditional - piano SA
in From the Seed collection
I offered this as a separate handout/giveaway
song workshop participants are free to do with
your students. If you did not get it, here it is.
I think this is a traditional song. We have heard versions
of it from Leadbelly and from Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Sylvie.pdf
From the Seed in the Ground
by Connie Kaldor - piano SSAA
in From the Seed collection
A cumulative song; one of our current
favorite songs for children.
To Bethlehem
by Nym Cooke - piano SSA
in From the Seed collection and also in our Beatitudes collection
Nym is a Massachusetts composer,
choral leader, and scholar and collector
of early American choral music.
Parting Friend
by John G. McCurry, from the Social Harp (1846) - SA
in From the Seed collection
This is an early American shape note hymn.
It was originally published for SAB; this is Mary
Alice’s and my Alto/Baritone arrangement.
THURSDAY 9:15 am - 10:15 am
Literature music & storytelling in the Classroom
Tree Song in NEDM’s Down in the Valley collection
Peter likes introducing this magical singing
game with a story he made up.
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.
Owl & Pussycat on Amidons’ Faerie’s Gift CD
Introduced with a story
Chiney Doll on Amidons’ forthcoming From the Seed in the Ground
CD and companion book. Introduced with a story,
and then we played out son Sam, then 2 1/2 years
old, retelling the story before he would sing the song.
Picture Books and Music
See the picture book bibliography in your handout
I Live in Music with Dave Brubeck’s Take Five
In the Fiddle is a Song with Brittany Haas’s Dry & Dusty
Johnny Appleseed Mary Alice’s setting of the
Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet poem.
We recorded this on our Faerie’s Gift CD.
Month Brothers
MonthBrosSummary.pdf
This is a great! story for acting out with your students.
The Whales with Paul Winter Consort music
Love Me Tender What a wonderful
re-conception of this song. We recorded
this both on our Beatitudes - Amidon
Choral Arrangements CD and companion
book.
1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
Teaching Traditional Dance and Singing Games to Children
Blaydon Races
in NEDM’s Chimes of Dunirk collection
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.
Old Brass Wagon
In NEDM’s Down in the Valley collection
This can be an a cappella singing game, or, with the
CD (or live music) a great early dance to instrumental
music. When Peter teaches it he walks through the
figures first, and then says “Now just do whatever
Mary Alice says,” and puts on the CD.
Going to Alberta
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.
Dance 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.
Comment ça va
In NEDM’sSashay the Donut collection
This is really a version of “La Bastringue”
with a more sophisticated B1 section
(after the Circle L, Circle R, and before
the promenade) that makes it a great
dance for 4th - 6th graders; it is not
too difficult, but it keeps them engaged
and the flowing B1 figures makes them
feel like sophisticated dancers.
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 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.
Kings & Queens
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.
8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Evening Community Dance
Circassian Circle
in NEDM’s “Listen to the Mockingbird” collection
Mary Alice played for this. You an use any
hot reel, for example “Fancy Hornpipe” from NEDM’s
“Any Jig or Reel” CD.
Always start teaching this dance by having
the students promenade and defining ‘inside’
and ‘outside’ (gent/lady or moon/star or
whatever). I like doing this with fourth
graders who have a little dance experience.
Alabama Gal
In NEDM’s Chimes of Dunkirk collection. We used
the Alabama Gal cut from the Chimes of Dunkirk CD.
Teach this as an a cappella singing game before
trying with the CD which, as you found out,
goes pretty fast. With younger children I
teach the cast of figure in sections. The first
time through the dance finishes with just the
Gents’ line casting around to the left and back
to place; then the whole dance ending with
only the Ladies’ line casting to the right
and back to place; then the dance ending
with both lines casting and the children taking
partners’ hands as they come up the middle
(but no arch), then the dance ending with
the BOTTOM couple making the arch while
the same (exhausted) 1st couple leading the
remaining dancers around under the arch,
and FINALLY, the “real” way to the do
dance, where the head couples finishes
the sequence by leading ALL the dancers
in a cast of, and the head couples make
the arch for the other dancers to go under.
Larry’s Mixer
In NEDM’s “Listen to the Mockingbird”.
Try doing this to “The Coming Dawn” from
the same CD, or try “Golden Keyboard” from
NEDM’s “Any Jig or Reel” CD. All of these are
flowing music, and I find that this dance can
have a sublime “Historic English County Dance”
feel (think Jane Austen) when done to those
cuts of elegant music.
Zip It Up
In NEDM’s Sashay the Donut collection
This works perfectly with a three-part tune:
Try either the three part jig to reel
Quadrille Jos Bouchard/Reel Beatrice on
NEDM’s Sashay the Donut CD or Reel de
Rimouski on NEDM’s Any Jig or Reel CD.
You can also do it to a regular 2-part (AABB)
jig or reel and have each time through the dance
take up 1.5 of the tune, OR you can ignore the
phrasing of the tune, let the dance take its natural
course, and start the forward and back at the nearest
8-bar phrase OR OR OR if you are leading this at a
community dance, after calling for a while you can
stop calling and let each set find their own natural
rhythm. The sets will naturally get out of synch with
each other: one set will be sashay while the other is
poussetting. Stop the dance by calling, at the end,
a partner swing for everyone.
Sicilian Vowel Dance
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
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.
Happy dancing, singing and storytelling!
Best
The Amidons