Musical Awareness for the Creative Dancer

Welcome back from vacation everyone! I hope that you all enjoyed some time to rest and relax.

This post is of interest to my students in Creative Dance, Combination Class and Pre-ballet

I feel that it is of utmost importance to instill a sense of musicality in my students when they are young. Therefore March is devoted to reviewing musical concepts that we have already worked on earlier in the year.

Working at home with your child: The more children listen to music, the more they will be able to understand it. Three year olds should be able to learn how to clap or pat their knees to the beat and count to eight over and over. Four year olds should be able to do this as well as adding pauses, such as clapping for eight and then holding for eight. Five-year olds should be able to clap to four and hold for four, getting a little more complicated, and six-year olds should be able to clap on the "one" of a waltz. (ONE, two, three, ONE, two, three)

Do not be afraid to put aside children's CDs in favor of classical music. Children have enormous ability to understand classical music. Finding the beat, with the absence of words, will make transitioning to the music used in a classical dance class setting easier for them.