Teaching Folk Dance

1. Teaching Folk Dance • Know your Students • Know your Dance • Set the stage

2. Your Students • Age • Number of Students in class • Male/female ratio • Previous experience/ skill level • fitness level and intellectual capacity • disabilities • ethnic background • Amount of time

3. Your Dance • The music • The Movement Sequence • Combining music and movement

4. The Music • Find the underlying beat • Determine the meter (2’s or 3’s) • Introduction • Parts or verse and chorus • Say and Do in time to the music

5. The Movement Sequence • Visualize the sequence • Determine the directions the body faces • Pick out the transitions • Fit movements to music

6. Say and Do Process • Cueing (Say) • Action words • Directional cues • Counting • Singing • Clapping • Nonsense Syllables • Say and Do

7. Presentation Methods • Whole Part • Part, Whole, Part • Add-on

8. Combining music and movement • Practice dance from end to beginning (transition) • Individualize learning. Say and Do practice on own • Add style after the footwork has been learned

9. Setting the Stage • Teach social etiquette • Provide name tags • Prepare for co-ed situation • how will you get partners if needed

10. Teaching hints • Give background information to spark interest • Play music early in the learning process • Demonstrate where all can see • In circle change location periodically or • Have all students face front in staggered lines • Teacher facing class must mirror movements • Teach at the tempo you will dance

11. Teach from known to unknown • Teach more difficult part first • Modify dances as needed for success • When students can “Say” then they can practice on their own.

12. Motivation • Teachers attitude and behavior critical • Giving feedback (p, 75-76) • Students trained to self-check

13. Notation (handout) • Language to dance vocabulary • Rhythmic notation