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The Do-Re-Mi Of Performance
By Rosemarie Boyden
In teaching performing skills, the beginning is a very good place to start.
Preparation for performing on the stage begins with the atmosphere for learning that you, the teacher, set from a preschool-age child’s very first class. You can weave performance skills into your curriculum from the onset. Discipline, consistency, and repetition turn talent into ability, so it’s a good idea to start teaching these practices while children are young. They are eager and ready to learn, often by imitating. (But keep in mind that with young children, you can always expect the unexpected!) Here’s how to give your preschool students the tools they’ll need to become comfortable and confident onstage.
Introduction
1 At the beginning of the dance season, welcome the students and lead them into the classroom in an orderly fashion to take assigned places. If they are too animated, repeat the process.
Lesson: Tell them that the studio and the stage are magical, special places that must be treated with respect. Reiterate this thought often through the year. Attitude is key.
2 Take attendance with the students responding as their names are called.
Lesson: Develops listening skills and provides individual attention.
Composition
1 Stress motor skills in class work. When two or more skills have been learned, combine them. This is the beginning of learned preschool choreography.
Lesson: Provides memory practice.
2 Teamwork: Have the children work with partners in small groups and in simple patterns and formations. This ensures that all children participate and allows them to practice learned choreography (as possible performance content).
Lesson: Develops camaraderie and gives children practice at taking turns.
Expression and Motivation
1 Play music with varied time signatures and tempos. Marches are rousing; waltzes are smooth and flowing; polkas and jigs are lively. Tell the children to listen and clap to the beat. Discover what music stimulates them. Invite them to freestyle dance for you and encourage their creativity and exploration.
Lesson: Music appreciation and ear training.
2 Explain to the students what is expected of an audience and a performer. Divide the class into audience and performers and seat the “audience” on the floor. Their job is to watch quietly with eyes glued on the dancers, to clap when they like something, and to clap at the end. Performers are assigned a step, skill, or combination to dance. The teacher presents the dancers and then joins the audience. The performers enter and dance their very best, showing their audience how much they love to dance. Then they should switch roles.
Lesson:
Roles of audience and performers.
3 When the students have learned their recital choreography, have them repeat the previous exercise with an added twist. Assign an “audience” student to watch one particular performer. Afterward that child is to go up to the “dancing friend” and whisper “one nice thing they liked about their friend’s dancing.” Tell them that this compliment is “between two people and no one else’s business.” I have no idea what they say to each other and I never ask! Just watch the interaction, the reaction, and the smiles that follow. It is a magical moment for both teacher and students.
Lesson: Positive reinforcement combined with stage and studio etiquette.
Directions For 4- to 6-year-olds, add to your curriculum stage and studio directions. Make it fun!
1 Teach the students to identify the corners of the room by number (1, 2, 3, and 4) in order. Once they have learned them, mix up the order. Ask them to point or jump to the correct corner as you call it out.
2 Point to stage right, stage left, downstage, and upstage; have them find center stage. Once they have learned the stage directions, tell them to jump or march to face each one as you call it out.
3 Mark the studio floor as you would mark the stage for the recital.
4 Explain what the main curtain and the wings are and what they are for. Impress upon the students that they must stand beyond the audience’s view until it is their turn to go onstage. Tell them that their appearance is to be a surprise.
5 Dim the studio lights, then switch to full lighting, explaining that “the lights make you beautiful and handsome and they make you shine!”
6 Teach the children that “when your audience laughs and claps, you make them happy and that means they love you!” Stress this lesson in every class for about six weeks before the recital. Ask them what it means when you dance in a recital for lots of people. Teach them to answer in unison, “It means they love us.”
Recital Routine
Use material that the students have learned in class. Choreograph what they know and do well, and save what still needs work for next year’s recital. The youngest preschoolers (ages 3 and 4 by the recital date) can remember roughly three simple steps by themselves. Lengthen their entrance and exit by having them appear one at a time and then tiptoe or skip in a circle before heading offstage. Expect them to “improve” your choreography! Children at the next level (ages 5 and 6) can count, make simple patterns, hear rhythms, and stay together quite well.
Program
Preschool children love to portray something or somebody in
their world. (Little boys should be presented and costumed as
boys.) Consider combining two or three preschool classes in a
theme-related mini-p
roduction.
Be prepared with enough dependable help in the wings.
For example, in Wedding of the Flowers I included three classes of young children, each with one boy. The youngest class consisted of a Gentleman Gardener with a watering can, who watered the wilted Bluebells. The flowers grew and everyone danced together with the Gardener as the leader. The second class performed a piece called “Mr. Carnation and the American Beauty Roses,” dancing to a majestic polka. The oldest class’ part, called “The Lilies of the Valley and the Bachelor Button,” was set to a baroque waltz.
The wedding finale for all three classes was set to Purcell’s Trumpet Tune, a fanfare piece for a celebration. The girls entered carrying flowers and formed vertical lines. Next came the Flower Girl (a Bluebell) and the Ring Bearer (the Gardener), the Best Man (Mr. Carnation), the Maid of Honor (an American Beauty Rose), and last the wedding couple—the Bride (a Lily of the Valley) and the Groom (the Bachelor Button). All held a final pose with the principals in front. In just under eight minutes, three classes (33 children) performed separately and in a combined finale.
Other Performance Opportunities Prepare children for their stage debut by giving them other opportunities to dance in front of an audience. Any and all chances to perform help to ready children for the stage, including the following:
• Visiting day for parents.
• Surprise classroom visitors. At your discretion, invite parents into the classroom to watch the children once they have achieved a certain skill, combination, or pattern. The students will be elated; parents are always impressed.
• In-studio holiday concerts.
• Run-throughs of the recital piece with another class watching.
• Nursing home or retirement center visits.
These experiences are valuable learning tools and build the students’ confidence. Plus, they are fun!
Recital Time
Backstage, make sure the children are supervised and kept occupied with coloring books and other quiet activities. Have your little ones escorted to the stage, and greet them warmly in the wings. Remind them that it’s their turn to make lots of people happy. Send them onstage and then stay out of sight. Prompting from the wings is not advisable; a performer’s focus should be on the audience. After they exit the stage, give quiet praise.
For preschool students, consider an alternative to the full-scale stage production: a one-hour studio performance in which each class demonstrates selected classroom curriculum while dressed in class attire plus minor accessories. You can accommodate four preschool classes in four hours in a relaxed, inexpensive end-of-year celebration. Charge the audience a nominal fee and offer light refreshments. You may also choose to have your advanced students perform.
Teachers touch lives. Temper all that you do with love (from the heart) and sprinkle your words lightly with praise (when earned), and preschoolers will develop the confidence and understanding necessary for a joyful, relaxed recital experience.
Contact:
Goldrush, P.O. Box 2150, Norton, MA 02766,
Phone: 888-i-dance-9, 508-285-6650, Fax: 508-285-3179,
Email: Goldrushdance@aol.com
Copyright 2006 Goldrush Magazine, a division of the Rhee Gold Company and Gold Standard Press, LLC. Goldrush Magazine and Goldrush Online is published twelve times annually. No contents of Goldrush Magazine and Goldrush Online may not be duplicated in whole or in part without permission of the publisher. Inclusion in the Goldrush does not imply endorsement by Goldrush or its employees