Retrograde: Dancing Favorite Songs Backwards

Do you ever tire of singing the same songs? Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good itsy bitsy spider and ABC song. BUT if you teach many classes of the same age group like I do, you might start to feel a little crazy! Here’s something new to try: 

A few weeks ago I tried singing our standard class songs backwards. Retrograde if you will. 🙂 It was so silly and perfect, that now it’s become part of our class. If I even try to leave it out, they will remind me. An example that is successful is head, shoulders, knees, and toes.

A-hem (at least you can just read my singing here, and don’t actually have to listen to it! haha)

Forward:
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Knees and Toes
Head Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Knees and Toes

Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose
Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Knees and Toes 

Backwards:
Toes, Knees, Shoulders Head
Shoulders Head
Toes, Knees, Shoulders Head
Shoulders Head

Nose and Mouth and Ears and Eyes
Toes, Knees, Shoulders Head
Shoulders Head 

I always start out very slow even with the forward version. If you go to fast, then they can’t sing along, then they get lost and frustrated. Once they got the hang of  it backwards they wanted to do it over and over and over. They  also wanted to try to do it as fast as they could. I love this because by the end they are rolling on the floor laughing! It gets so silly.

I have also tried point and flex backwards, and if you are happy and you know it. It’s fun to play around and see how creative you and your dancers can be, isn’t it? Go ahead, try it!

Have you tried singing or dancing favorite songs backwards? I would love to hear some other songs that work well in both directions. 🙂

p.s. thanks to your votes I am a top 20 blogger! We got #12! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. xo