This past week we spent the first part of our mornings participating in Tradansa workshops. Tradansa is a Montreal based company that offers multicultural dance education and instruction to school age children. Our instructors name was Eliane.
Eliane brought her globe to give the children a better perspective of where the dances originated from. She first pointed to Ottawa and then moved her finger across the ocean to Denmark.
Before each dance, Eliane would introduce the song and we would practice the moves with our hands. Eliane would explain the steps and use gestures to teach the moves. We would practice with Eliane singing before we would try it out with the music.
Eliane introduced several dances to us that originated from France, Denmark, Holland and Quebec! All of the songs were sung in French.
This dance was similar to a musical version of "Simon Says". The children followed Eliane's instructions that ranged from tapping her feet to putting her chin on the floor.
It was amazing how quickly the children got some of these dances.
In this dance the children had to hold different positions for varying lengths of time.
Practicing mirroring.
Funky moves!
The big day! During our last workshop, the children were seated against the wall where they would be sitting during the performance.
Eliane giving a little pep talk!
The children were very polite and well behaved during each of our three workshops!
Our last practice before the big performance!
The dance that we were to perform for the sharing was a traditional Quebecois dance about flipping an omelette. The dance was tricky as you had to go in a specific direction in order for the omelette (the circle) to be flipped. The children (and I) had to listen very carefully for the cues. I took dance lessons for 12 years and I still kept send the children in the wrong direction.
Children benefit from learning to dance in a number of ways. Dancing is highly physical and is a great way to stay healthy. Dancing improves strength, stamina, flexibility and balance. Children that are active are more likely to continue to be active as teens and as adults.
Children that learn to dance have the opportunity to enhance their self esteem and confidence through practicing and performing. Successfully learning a dance routine gives children a sense of pride and accomplishment and shows them what they are capable of. Performing in front of a crowd is a very common fear but when children have early opportunities to experience performing it can make it easier later in life.
Dancing as a group provides the children with a sense of purpose as they are an important part of the group. Teamwork is an essential part of dancing as a group. Children are also required to use their listening skills as there are many directions and instructions to follow when learning a routine.
Learning and memorizing a dance requires children to strengthen their memory and use their coordination to perform the actions to the beat of the music.
Here's a link to see some clips from our workshops and our final performance:
This was my first attempt at using iMovie so bear with me!
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