Tag Archives: dance

We Like to Move it, Move it!

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Movement activities in a Kindermusik class may take several forms. There are circle or line dances, guided by the educator. There are interpretive dances where we pretend to be an animal, a vehicle, or something more abstract like the wind. There are partner dances and free dances. Fast and slow dances. High and low dances. Stop and go dances. All these activities have several benefits. Let’s go through each of them.

Social Dances: Circle or line dances guided by the educator promote social bonding. We wave at our friends. We partner with other families. We smile across the circle at each other. This allows the children to notice where they are in relationship to others. Not only does it promote socialization but it also helps develop proprioception, spatial processing, visual processing, and auditory processing. There’s a lot going on when you are listening to directions, moving in real time, watching the other dancers, and trying to follow along. Talk about a challenge for their little brains!

Creative Dances: Here’s when your child is encouraged to think about how a mouse skitters, how a cat creeps, how a bear lumbers. How they can mimic their idea of that motion in their own bodies. Perhaps they are asked to sway like a tree in the wind, or how a train chugs slowly, then faster, then slower again. These activities are helping your child make connections between concrete and abstract concepts, develop their imaginations, engage in pretend play, and practice their balance and coordination.

Free Dance: In a free dance a child is encouraged to create their own movement in concert with the music. This is developing their auditory discrimination as they listen to the musical cues and interpret them physically. They have to figure out how to move fast and slow, stop and go, high and low, big and small, and more. Think about the inhibitory control they are gaining as they listen to contrasting musical themes and coming up with new ways to mimic that theme in their own body!

All of these activities are giving the children practice with gross motor and locomotor movement. They’re also increasing your child’s strength, balance, and coordination. And through this playful activity they are releasing endorphins and getting a shot of “Joy Juice”, that natural hormonal cocktail of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. These neurochemicals make them feel loved and safe and joyful.

So when your educator invites you to stand and move with your little one, be sure to throw your inhibitions out the door and fully engage in the activity. You’ll get all these benefits too!

The Art of the Dance

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Last weekend, my daughter (a Kindermusik graduate) participated in Flabbergast with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.  The show was described as “a journey of wonder,” and indeed, it was.  Tandy Beal, the choreographer, said in the Salt Lake Tribune, “We can get through some of the harder moments in life if we can achieve a sense of wonder.”

The show was not like anything I had seen from a dance company.  There were acrobatics, and dancing with helium balloons and all sorts of antics, wrapped up in the story of a woman’s desire to share with her grandchildren the importance of enjoying life.

Although I knew that children would be performing, the group of parents who came out to dance with their babies completely surprised me.  I realized, moments into the dance, that this was something special.  Not only did they somehow manage to get a group of eleven babies, all about the same age, to be happy all at the same time, they also turned the everyday movements parents do with their kids into art.  It was stunning.

I have swooped my children around, dancing with them in the living room or the Kindermusik studio, many times.  I have connected with my children through movement, and have enjoyed the raw emotion that comes from savoring that fleeting moment.  I have also observed many Kindermusik parents, all dancing with their little ones together, perhaps to Skinnamarink or Dance, Little Baby.  Perhaps it was context—since I was paying for a ticket and observing a choreographed show on the Capitol Theater stage, the movements ceased to be common, and instead took on an element of artistic expression.  But I doubt it.  I think I was thrilled with the art of the dance because, as part of the theme of the show, I realized just how magical it is to lift a baby into the air and see the smile that emerges on her face.

Of course, I also marveled at my daughter, now almost a teen, dancing up on stage.  It seems only yesterday she was one of those babies.  My challenge to you this week, as you’re in Kindermusik class with your little one: take a moment and absorb the artistry of what you’re creating.  Allow that moment to carry you through some of the more difficult aspects of parenting, and wonder at the delight that we can take in dancing with our children.