Start with Your Roots

I want to flashback to my first day teaching at the BYU Kindergarten. My Arts Academy Leader, Shavon, encouraged me to come up with a simple routine that we would do each time I came, to help the kids transition into and prepare for dance time. I had a hard time coming up with with something good so I decided to go back to my roots for help. My Japanese roots. Okay, fine, my grafted Japanese roots.

I started class by teaching the kids "Atama, Kata, Hisa, Ashi", which is more commonly known as "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". Yes, this is an over-used classic, but they really enjoyed it! I told them how I had lived in Japan for a year and a half; I taught them some Japanese words and then we used this dance to stretch out our bodies and get warmed up for dancing. Hopefully we memorize it so that we can just hash it out then jump right into dance :) Let's start with self-introductions.

I took the kids on a journey through my life.

We started out dancing on a low level using small ranges of space and sustained movement. We talked about me as a baby, and how we lived in a warm, happy town by the Mexico-California border. Drumming rhythms led to skipping, leaping, and jumping; we experienced growing up and playing, attending school and leaving home. Their favorite part was using dance to learn about my adventures in Japan. We raced around the room with the speed ferocity of a fiery dragon, jab and kicks of a ninja, and of course we sushi "rolled" around the floor. It was neat sharing parts of my life with the children my finding ways to use dance to represent those experiences, feelings and memories. We lived a lot.

Of course the children had to introduce themselves too! In a circle, the students thought of a simple dance move that they liked or felt was a representation of them. As a class we watched each other share and then tried out the moves ourselves. We went through the circle one or two times to remember and appreciate the individuality of each of my little dancers. Now, if this was an older class, I would probably play a concluding game where you pass the dance move from person to person in the circle. I did that my first day teaching dance at Provo Peaks Elementary and it gave my students a mini-performance opportunity. They had to remember and dance someone's movement while everyone was watching them. I feel like it's a good way to get over that initial stage fright or awkwardness of having people watch you dance... which none of my kindergarteners really had haha. They are quick little learners and aren't shy about expressing themselves through dance - I think we'll have a downright good time!