Today is the beginning of Why Dance Matters! What a great event to spread awareness about dance! I know why dance matters, but I realized I had no idea what my students think about dance and why it matters to them. So in my creative movement classes of 4 and 5 year olds I decided to get inside those growing, happy, smart imaginations and see what they thought. Here is the play by play! When asked, "why do you LOVE to come to dance class?"
"it's fun, fun, fun!"
"it's good for our bodies"
"we get to see Miss Maria" (haha, funny!)
"I come because I like to pirouette and leap"
"I love to do Jamaican dance, it makes me happy"
"I get to see my friends"
"I like to make shapes at dance class and at school"
"jumping in hoops is like jumping in puddles, and I like doing that"
"I like to hear the music"
Can you believe they had all of that to say?! I mean, they always have a lot to say, but they were really focused and didn't seem phased by the interview! I am sure I missed some quotes because I was really trying to prompt them to get clear answers! I hope you enjoy reading the responses! Next week I will ask them another question about why dance matters!
P.S. join the facebook group of Why Dance Matters here. Or head over to Dance Advantage and read about how you can get involved here!
Awesomeness! Way too cute, Maria. Thanks for sharing those :)
ReplyDeleteThat's great, Maria,
ReplyDeleteI've been asking the kids in our program at Menomonee Club and surprisingly the little kids are way more into it than the big kids. The tots were coming up with some of the best answers! Once I told the bigger kids about how my Jr. High School cut the arts this month, they really started to perk up and talk about how unfair it is that sports are so important and heavily featured at school and the arts "get the shaft". They mentioned art projects and music concerts that get no publicity or display cases at the school and how that is "totally unfair". Thanks for talking about this with your kids! I always feel that they may not become professional dancers, but at least they will go away knowing that it was something that was valuable to learn.
That's wonderful Maria. Just remembering the energy level of a class for those ages makes me happy!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your sweet comments! I had fun doing it, and I love to get in their heads and hear what they are thinking. Lauren, you are right, that most of them probably won't become professional dancers. I always think about how dance teaches so many life lessons and that in itself is why dance matters so much!
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