Giving students, teachers, and parents an edge in dance education
Stacey Pepper Schwartz is the Founder and Director of Leaping Legs Creative Movement Programs. The focus of Leaping Legs is to help people regardless of age, experience or ability, become educated about their movement potential, develop kinesthetic awareness, and become more physically fit and healthy together as a family, and community. Leaping Legs promotes its goal through its original Up Down & All Around DVD, teacher training, and school and community workshops. The Up Down & All Around DVD received Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products 2009 Award and 10 Best Active Products 2009 Award. The DVD has also been featured in many magazines including Dance Teacher and Dance Retailer News. In its August 2009 issue, Dance Teacher called the DVD “an essential tool for teaching the fundamentals of movement with daily adult-child interactions.” Come visit www.leapinglegs.com to learn more about Stacey and her programs.
Everyone is nervous on the first day of a new class but it can be especially hard for young dancers. This article is packed with great tips for teachers as Stacey Pepper Schwartz shares her methods for easing the anxieties of the children in her classes as well as how she addresses a crying, timid, or non-participating child.
“Raising Happiness” is a parenting book but Stacey Pepper Schwartz shows that teachers can take away some of its lessons, too. For example, how to effectively recognize achievement, model optimism, convey positive messages, create a joyful atmosphere, resolve conflict, and promote gratitude among your young students.
We all have things we do as we close the door on one dance year and prepare for the next. Stacey Pepper Schwartz has three items on her list that go beyond physically organizing her closet of props and other items. These can’t be folded neatly or packed away. But they do give perspective and closure for the year behind so that you and your students can move confidently ahead into the new year.
Dancing outside can be a fantastic teaching tool. The change of scenery from a classroom or studio can change the way students perceive space and their bodies and provides them with a hands on approach to exploring texture and qualities of movement. Stacey shares 6 helpful tips, tricks, and activities to make your outside class/exploration a success.
Before your big performance day (and after), add some informal performances to your schedule. Not only is it good practice and experience for your students, it’s great advertising, and most importantly, a wonderful gift to the community. Stacey suggests ways to encourage parent involvement and how to make the most of your outreach come recital time.
The way you teach can be analyzed into different teaching styles. Each style has its own teacher objective and student objective. Learn about your preferred style, what works for your students, and discover how to mix and experiment with different styles to teach most effectively.
Transitions make all the difference in managing your class of young dancers. Use these creative ideas to get kids from one part of the room to another, or from one activity to the next while maintaining the focus and flow of the class and providing more ways to learn and explore.
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.
Halloween time is exciting for children and with a little focus and extra preparation it can open up creative possibilities. It can a starting off point for your students to let their imaginations fly like a magic broomstick soaring around the moon!
It might seem silly at first to get on the floor with your child and roll with her. You might think she already knows how, but movement is a layered experience, which means we relearn the same concepts over and over.
To illustrate this, I ask my students to become aware of how their body feels as it works against gravity. I ask them to put their hands above their heads and then to be still. I remind them, “you are in charge of your body,” “your brain tells your body what to do,” and then we wait.
