You should be dancing! Yeah!

Ceri (aka the Morrigan) writes:


When was the last time you danced?  Not because you had to, not self consciously, but for the sheer joy of moving your body, or responding to music, or because you couldn't keep still for one more minute?

Do you boogie in the kitchen, or chacha in the classroom?  Pogo in the parlour or jive in the garage?  Can you listen to music without tapping your feet or moving your head?

Dance is one of the most basic of human expressions - right up there with singing and laughing.  So how come we do so little of it?  Why do we see it as something only people who are trained can do.  Ask someone.  Bet they say they 'can't dance'.

I love watching children dance.  When they are young they have no self-consciousness, when they are older they try to develop routines.  Teachers tailor their approach to the age of their classes because they have to deal with social baggage, and because older children require both more and less direction.  More direction, because they need to be reassured that it is socially OK to dance - and less, because you don't have to explain every move.

For more than 17 years I danced every day.  But I was a ballet dancer, specialising in contemporary and modern dance.  And because of that, I am actually a really bad creative dancer.  Too much regimentation (and currently, too much age!).  But introducing children to the types of dancing which other cultures and places find normal is an exciting way to introduce SOSE and history topics.

So here are some videos you could show to classes to get them thinking about how other cultures dance - and what those dances mean to the people dancing and those watching.  You have already seen the Chooky Dancers from Australia, and what they do with cross cultural and global culture.  These dances are more representative of the cultures from which they come.

First, Masai dancers from Africa - young men attempting to engae the interest of girls!

This one is a clip about Bollywood - another example of how traditional dances meet the 21st century!

And here is a Lakota Shawl dance at a Powow

And last, but definitely not least, an African drumming and dancing workshop for primary students.  Look at the children's faces!

So, get up, and get moving!

Not only is dancing fun, and an expression of our creativity - it's also good exercise!

So Soon? It's as if you never left.....

Ceri (aka the Morrigan) writes:

Fancy that!  So soon after the first post and I am back.

I hope you enjoyed the Chooky Dancers clip, because today I am putting up two more - and pay attention - because afterwards there will be a test.

First, the Chooky Dancers perform a new number at the Barunga Festival.

(You need to follow the link for this one, because it isn't a YouTube video).

Then, look at this, which is the same dance, performed on Australia Day.

Please look at the linked one first, before the embedded one.

Now, apart from the incredible technical skills of the Chooky Dancers, I need to ask, is one performance more 'Authentic' than the other?

One is performed outdoors, in the dust, with no enormous technical back up.  It is performed before an appreciative audience of locals, and is, perhaps, not as 'polished'.  The other, has all the technical and television back-up.  Music, speakers, lighting, amplification and so on.  Does it make one of the performances 'better' or somehow more real?

In both of the dances, the Chookys are obviously having fun.  They are re-inventing the idea of their own culture as a global culture.  I found it particularly interesting that one of the comments on the YouTube clip suggested that they were cheapening their own culture, and that this incredible technical performance was somehow embarrassing or demeaning.  This view suggests that culture is frozen and stagnant, that it must never change, adapt, adopt or have fun.  That we can never enjoy or play with culture, especially indigenous culture, because it is much too serious.

My view is that culture is not somehow separate from our lives and the things we do.  It is a very Western view that art is something we do which is separate from everyday living.  Other cultures around the world see it rather differently, in that arts of all kinds are integral parts of day-to-day life.  That every day involves music, dancing, visual art, words and poems and fun and beauty and drama.

What do you think?