Giving students, teachers, and parents an edge in dance education
Three years feels too long since my last visit to Jacob’s Pillow. Dance Interactive is how I’ve been getting my Pillow fix lately. The website provides a tremendous opportunity for educating students and encouraging appreciation for dance on a global level. Drawing from the extensive Jacob Pillow Archives, it is a collection you won’t find elsewhere online.
Dance Advantage contributor, Roger Lee reflects on Black History Month, focusing in particular on a time when dance, along with the rest of America, was segregated. Giving a brief history of ballet dancer and pioneer, Arthur Mitchell, Roger expresses the inspiration that Mitchell and other trailblazers have provided for young black dancers like himself.
Introduce students to narration, divertissement, characters, and themes by exploring The Nutcracker through creative movement. Stacey Pepper Schwartz breaks down the ballet in a way that young dancers can understand, providing an enriching experience that will enhance dance appreciation.
It is important that children understand that Native American people are not characters in a Thanksgiving story, but a people with a rich and deep culture. And one way to explore a culture is through its dance.
“Yes, it’s kind of like Tap. No, it’s not like Riverdance. Clogging is every dance – a dance form that includes everything from Irish step dancing to hip hop and everything in between. Cloggers perform choreography to anything from “Uncle Penn” by Ricky Skaggs to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.” It is a dance form that defines who I was, who I am, and who I always will be.”
Discover details about National Tap Dance Day, more about Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and his relationship to this event, and ways you can celebrate with the rest of the world.
I feel very honored that Mr. Taylor took the time to answer a few questions about his life and work in an email interview. Paul Taylor is one of the most prominent and influential choreographers of our time. Yet, in the late 1940′s he was studying painting and swimming on scholarship at Syracuse University when amidst a series of seemingly unrelated dance experiences he was struck by a revelation or, as he describes it in his autobiography Private Domain a “flash of recognition… an unignorable hunch” that he was to become a dancer.
My First Ballet Collection is a great choice for those wishing to nurture enthusiasm for ballet among children of all ages. Younger children will enjoy being introduced to colorful characters and beautiful dancing. Older children will benefit from the opportunity to sample a mélange of ballet specimens.
Ballet Comique de la Reine (1581) was choreographed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeux and is credited as the first ballet because it had a central story around which sets, costumes, and music were built. Ballets de cour peaked during the reign of Louis XIV, who was passionate about dance and its artistry.
I had the opportunity in college to observe Merce in action with his company of dancers during a company class several years ago. At probably about 80 years old, he had difficulty walking and would instruct the dancers from a chair, indicating movements and instruction with his hands and only a few words.
The lobby of your studio is a great place for waiting dancers and families to learn a bit more about dance, its history, and its artists. Picture books are a great way to introduce your dancers and perhaps inspire them to learn more and dig deeper into the lives and legacies of important figures in dance.
An innovator ahead of her time, Isadora’s natural and free dance liberated the dance formula and paved the way for the development and acceptance of the modern dance art form.
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