Movin' Easy Dancewear

The Austin City Ballet is holding auditions  for

Snow White and The Sleeping Beauty

January 8th @ The Austin Conservatory of the Arts

14735 Bratton Lane, Suite 125, Austin, Texas 78728

Call 512-496-5937 for more info

www.austin-conservatory-arts.com

Why dance? Dance is the primary mode of exploration by a child.  When we take the time to notice, children have a movement groove going all the time.  They are trying out something new, repeating it, doing it with the grocery cart, on the stairs, on the curb.  Movement is exploration and exploration has one main purpose, to make connections in the brain.

With or without music, discovering and building the brain connections to the body are top priorities that begin in the womb and continue until we die. No other activity engages the entire brain, the inner and outer rhythms of the body, along with the full delight of using the imagination.

Grandpa’s Guide to Dancing with Children is my exploration with twin girls Twala, Tweela, their sister Tiger, and their cousin Mr. Man.

I follow two simple principles.  Children dance all the time, and a child’s job is to build connections in their brain by exploring every variety of movement.

To follow these principles, I have to adjust my habitual response both to children and to my use of time.  I have to train myself to pay attention, total attention, to only one thing, “How are they exploring now?”  Then my job is to support their brain building activity whatever it is.

Paying attention and supporting are the hardest for me because my inclination is to direct, to correct behavior, and to set time limits and schedules.  Of course my adult life has to go on even with a child present, and my fear is that “This will go on forever.  We will never get out of here if they keep doing this.”

The most important discovery I have made is that the child knows when they are done. The child’s brain building activity has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  When they are supported, they know when to begin, when to keep it going, and when to end.  Something in my adultness still wants to scream, “What about me?  Don’t I know best?”

The answer is “No.”  When it comes to a child’s exploration, only the child knows what and how much activity they need.  Their discovery process and time sense goes way beyond what we call “attention span.”  That term applies only to how long a child can be directed by an adult or manipulated by media.  My new approach speaks directly to the adult pulling the child from the sand pile kicking and screaming.  It also speaks to the child addicted to electronic games without a sense of time.

What’s more fun than laughing until I cry?  What’s more fun than running with dogs in the park?  Dancing with my grand children, that’s what.  I not only laugh and smile for hours, but I can not wait for the next opportunity for that much delight.

So at every moment I am with our four grand children, 3 girls and a boy all about the same age, I am watching for the moments when dance will pop up as the main feature.  Matters not whether it’s the short feature, the full length, or the cartoons, I am ripe and ready to catch their wave of sparkling delight.

I will tell my stories of how I learn to dance with crawlers and toddlers and Asbergers, how we learn together, and how our brains grow beyond our wildest imaginations.

Children’s dance team auditions, astounding @DanceDiscovery where even five year olds remember the routines?  And my Miss Tiger Lily is 7 and so exuberant.  To get here, she has soaked up all of her dance training, @BalletAustin Miss Joan gave her confidence, coordination, and a real interest in exploring movement.  Michelle’s modern dance @CafeDance gave her the tools to create and explore with every body part, in every direction from rolling to flying.  Alexandra @SlavinNadal  gave her the love of the ballet barre and an interest in commanding the space with correct placement.  @Tapestry she got the tap fever with just a few privates.  And now with Miss Lisa she has met her match in exuberance and the challenge to perfect her alignment and dance skills.  Hopefully she will be able to revisit the other teachers when the time is right.

Best kept secret in Austin Ballroom is Dance International kids ballroom camps.  Delightful mom and daughter, eight years old,  were in Movin’ Easy today talking about their summer camp.  “My daughter spent the summer doing a game that Stewart taught them.  She would listen to different styles of music and say which dance you would do to that music.  It was phenomenal.  I could see her little mind working and then she would say, ‘Mom, that’s a cha cha.”

The she told about how much her daughter learned in one week.  “I was astounded.  They had a show and they were really dancing.”

Everyone has different goals in finding a dance school.  Here is one mom:” We have gone to several schools and my daughter has finally found the school that works for her.  She did not like the heaviness of tap, something about jazz didn’t work.  Ballet is what she likes.  In ballet, she responded so much more to moving across the floor and to having a directed free time to dance at the end of class.”

So much is happening at a dance school for children, it is hard to talk about it all at once.  Not only are the children building the brain space for exuberant learning that involves their whole body and every part of their brain, their parents are building a world of focus and communication that will support their family in everything they do.

Every child should be congratulated on the courage to say yes to so much delight and every parent should be congratulated for supporting their child in an art form that helps to build their personal expression as well as brain body connections.

Dancing and singing is the now thing.  Here are some quotes from Boston Herald article by  lbfalcone@bostonherald.com

“Even “Glee’s” very-glee-club version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” was the No. 2 iTunes download yesterday.

And it looks as if this happy trend will continue: Musical theater programs at local universities are busting at the seams and local camps are filling up faster than you can say “And a 5, 6, 7, 8.” (Thanks, “Camp Rock.”)

“You say you’re going to do anything from ‘Hairspray’ to ‘High School Musical 2′ and the phones ring off the hook,” said Carole Ward, office manager at Riverside Theatre Works in Hyde Park, adding the theater’s summertime Broadway Boot Camp for kids ages 7 to 19 is almost filled.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/lifestyle/view.bg?articleid=1173709&format=&page=2&listingType=life#articleFull

Heidi at Tapestry Dance Academy says:  “We are a home for so many different dance groups now, Uptown Dance, Austin Dance Arts and their Austin Jazz Ballet Company, Backstage Dance School, Nia, Classical Indian dance, Kid’s Acting, the Lindy Project, African Dancing and Drumming, the Austin Tango Connection, Belly dancing, and a Gabriel Roth 5 rhythms group.

  “Tapestry is really conducive to making connections.  Between all these groups there is not a sense of competition.  It feels so good here.”