This series is a part of the Creating With Kids Interview Project! I have set out to interview 52 dance teachers working with young children everyday. By doing this project, I have learned that you are all amazing, hard working, creative and inspiring! I hope you enjoy the interviews and can take something special away from each one. A look inside a dance teacher’s class, is a look inside a dance teacher’s heart. -Maria

Introducing Candace Carriger… (more…)

Do you teach in a room with a mirror? Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. Now, I know the mirror is a lovely thing to have, but most of the time I find it distracting, so I don’t like it all that much.

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This series is a part of the Creating With Kids Interview Project! I have set out to interview 52 dance teachers working with young children everyday. By doing this project, I have learned that you are all amazing, hard working, creative and inspiring! I hope you enjoy the interviews and can take something special away from each one. A look inside a dance teacher’s class, is a look inside a dance teacher’s heart. -Maria

Introducing Kristi Newsome…

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Do you ever ask your students to make up songs? We all know that I make up songs on the spot while we are practicing a certain step, but I thought it would be an interesting idea to ask them to make up a song to go with the step.  (more…)

Last week I wrote this post on Dance Advantage and ever since I have gotten a handful of e-mails asking me about my story. I realized that there are a lot of people out there that love dance and want to spread the love of dance to children, but just don’t know how, or where to start.

I would love to know, how did you start? What’s your advice to them? xo

Read It. Move It. Share It. is a collaboration with Kerry from Picture Books and Pirouettes. Once a month Kerry recommends a book for me to use in my creative movement classes. Then I write a post on what I did with the book and how I used it with my students in hopes of giving you some new ideas to use in your classes! Here is the April book. Enjoy!

This could be crazy, but I think this book, Up, Down, and Around almost meets the genius of The Very Hungry Caterpillar!  The illustrations are gorgeous and I love the concept of a book about gardening and vegetables.

The words have quite the rhythm, so after I read the book to my students, I memorized it so we could dance it. Here is what we explored:  (more…)

This series is a part of the Creating With Kids Interview Project! I have set out to interview 52 dance teachers working with young children everyday. By doing this project, I have learned that you are all amazing, hard working, creative and inspiring! I hope you enjoy the interviews and can take something special away from each one. A look inside a dance teacher’s class, is a look inside a dance teacher’s heart. -Maria

Introducing Kelly Williams… (more…)

This week I’m putting the finishing touches on my littles celebration dances. In one of the 4 year old dances about a boat, I had the idea of adding waves at the beginning! Before I added them in, we explored the movement. Oh. My. Goodness! The movement that came out of them was so amazing. Each child interpreted the assignment differently and that’s my most favorite thing to watch. Want to do the waves dance too? Here’s how we used waves as inspiration:  (more…)

At this point in the semester, last week especially, I have seen A TON of breakthroughs! You too? I saw so many, that I have named it “breakthrough week.” Ha! Ok, well not really, but I could have! Shy students have suddenly become independent, stuffed animals are not needed as much anymore, and littles have shown so much growth overall this past week! Kind of crazy considering what last week was like for all of us.

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