Date is confirmed.
On Tuesday June 17, grade six students of Hillcrest Elementary School, Dufferin Elementary School and grade six French Immersion students of Sydenham Community School will gather in the large gym of Hillcrest at the start of the school day and do an hour of folk dancing! The objective of the event is to provide opportunity for these to-be-middle-schoolers to meet and interact with each other before they start school together in the fall.
This September, over one hundred 6th graders from 4 different schools will continue their elementary school in the senior section of Hillcrest. In the past few years volunteering at the school, I have observed, and teachers have told me, some of the difficulties these pre-teens are faced with. It takes them a long time to break down walls between them and be able to learn and grow as a group. When I was doing folk dance workshops with grade 7 classes at Hillcrest last fall, the students were very receptive to this group activity, to the teachers' surprise. Each workshop ran for 3 sessions. By the third session, students were mixing with each other. Hence, I started toying with the idea of a folk dance event for grade 6s.
It was not difficult to convince principals and teachers how their students will benefit from the event. In the past couple of months, I did workshops with all the grade 6 classes involved, teaching them the same 4 dances which will serve as ice-breaker at Smooth Transition. The students are also going to learn two or three dances together.
The classes are looking forward to dance together, and so am I!
Monday, May 5, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Cultiviating interest among youths
The reason I have not written on this blog since last August is that I have been busy cultivating folk dance interest among youths in the community.
Between September and December, I have gone to 15 classes at 3 elementary schools in Owen Sound and run folk dance workshops for students from kindergarten to grade 8. I visited each class once, twice or three times depending on the arrangement with the teacher. Most teachers had me in three consecutive weeks, so that the students were able to learn at least 4 dances from different countries. Some teachers even treated these folk dance sessions as part of the class' cultural study. For example, Mrs Stredwick, a grade 5 teacher at Dufferin Elementary School, had her students look up Israel, Romania, Turkey and Armenia in the world map after I had told her ahead of time the dances I was going to teach her class --- Shibolet Bassedeh, Alunelul, Iste Hendek and Ambee Dageets.
These workshops were very well-received by both teachers and students. Dance is in elementary school's syllabus. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers do not feel comfortable teaching it as they themselves have done very little dance or none at all. Often, classes are shown instruction videos and students are asked to follow along. Teachers welcomed my workshops as there is a "real live instructor" present to help the kids --- steps are walked through at the pace of the students; steps are "dissected" and shown to the students so they understand how to do them. Students loves the sessions during which they get to listen to exotic and appealing music they don't hear anywhere else; they learn a lot of basic steps which they can use with music of their choice. Three years ago, a grade 7 boy signed up to do my folk dance elective at Hillcrest Elementary School and was disappointed the first day when he found out that I was not going to teach him break dance. I explained that the steps in all the dances I teach can be adapted to most genres of dance. He did not believe me at first; but by the end of the four weeks, he was incorporating these "simple" steps into his break dance moves!
The second round of elementary school workshops is about to start. In the next five weeks, I will be visiting six classes from grade 3 to grade 6. By the end of spring, about 500 elementary school students in Owen Sound will have experienced the joy of international folk dancing!
Between September and December, I have gone to 15 classes at 3 elementary schools in Owen Sound and run folk dance workshops for students from kindergarten to grade 8. I visited each class once, twice or three times depending on the arrangement with the teacher. Most teachers had me in three consecutive weeks, so that the students were able to learn at least 4 dances from different countries. Some teachers even treated these folk dance sessions as part of the class' cultural study. For example, Mrs Stredwick, a grade 5 teacher at Dufferin Elementary School, had her students look up Israel, Romania, Turkey and Armenia in the world map after I had told her ahead of time the dances I was going to teach her class --- Shibolet Bassedeh, Alunelul, Iste Hendek and Ambee Dageets.
These workshops were very well-received by both teachers and students. Dance is in elementary school's syllabus. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers do not feel comfortable teaching it as they themselves have done very little dance or none at all. Often, classes are shown instruction videos and students are asked to follow along. Teachers welcomed my workshops as there is a "real live instructor" present to help the kids --- steps are walked through at the pace of the students; steps are "dissected" and shown to the students so they understand how to do them. Students loves the sessions during which they get to listen to exotic and appealing music they don't hear anywhere else; they learn a lot of basic steps which they can use with music of their choice. Three years ago, a grade 7 boy signed up to do my folk dance elective at Hillcrest Elementary School and was disappointed the first day when he found out that I was not going to teach him break dance. I explained that the steps in all the dances I teach can be adapted to most genres of dance. He did not believe me at first; but by the end of the four weeks, he was incorporating these "simple" steps into his break dance moves!
The second round of elementary school workshops is about to start. In the next five weeks, I will be visiting six classes from grade 3 to grade 6. By the end of spring, about 500 elementary school students in Owen Sound will have experienced the joy of international folk dancing!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Summer Transitioning to Fall
So, summer is almost over. Tomorrow, we will have our last outdoor session. It has been fun dancing at Harrison Park. We have drawn attention from curious public every week. While most people just stood and watched us from a distances, a lady actually joined in on a few dances. It was Summerfolk weekend. This festival visitor from Guelph was pleased to find us at the park where she was camping for the weekend. "It has given her festival weekend a nice start"! We have had teenagers and children who were too shy to join us by tried their very best to imitate our moves.
The next three weeks, we will be visiting nursing homes in Owen Sound. demonstrations in public events aside, this is going to be the first time Grey Bruce International Folk Dancers perform for an audience. We hope to get some old folks up and dancing with us!
The next three weeks, we will be visiting nursing homes in Owen Sound. demonstrations in public events aside, this is going to be the first time Grey Bruce International Folk Dancers perform for an audience. We hope to get some old folks up and dancing with us!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Let's Get Ready For One World Festival!
Well, tomorrow is the day! At 10am and 11am, we will be leading workshops at One World Festival Grey Bruce. The Dancers are going demonstrate a few dances --- Ciuleandra, Hine Ma Tov, Sapri Tama and Yedid Nefesh --- and teach participants some beginner level numbers. Below are videos of dancers we will be teaching, just in case anybody wants to learn it ahead of time :)
Alunelul(Romania)
Kambos(Greece)
Kulsko Oro(Bulgaria)
Shibolet Bassadeh(Israel)
Zemir Atik(Israel)
Alunelul(Romania)
Kambos(Greece)
Kulsko Oro(Bulgaria)
Shibolet Bassadeh(Israel)
Zemir Atik(Israel)
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Tees with Logos
Yesterday, Sharon spent another 2 hours helping me create more logos and make the t-shirts. Together with the logo without graphic image --- the one on the back of the hoodie, there are three logo designs available.
The nice thing about getting the samples done at her store is that, now that she has the logos on file, GBIFD members can just go to The Great Canadian T Shirt Company and pick a t-shirt/sweater of their preferred styles, colors and sizes. They can even choose colors for the logos.
The nice thing about getting the samples done at her store is that, now that she has the logos on file, GBIFD members can just go to The Great Canadian T Shirt Company and pick a t-shirt/sweater of their preferred styles, colors and sizes. They can even choose colors for the logos.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
It's Spring Time
Well, it does not look like it, but today is actually first day of spring.
I thought I would share this dance with you: Garoon from Israel. I learned it when I was in secondary school in Hongkong back a long while ago. Naturally, we have a Chinese title for the dance --- Spring Time.
Last summer, GBIFD did Mayim in one of our summer outdoor sessions in the hopes of its bringing us some rain. Well, it worked a week later! So, maybe, just maybe, if we do Garoon, spring weather will eventually arrive.
I thought I would share this dance with you: Garoon from Israel. I learned it when I was in secondary school in Hongkong back a long while ago. Naturally, we have a Chinese title for the dance --- Spring Time.
Last summer, GBIFD did Mayim in one of our summer outdoor sessions in the hopes of its bringing us some rain. Well, it worked a week later! So, maybe, just maybe, if we do Garoon, spring weather will eventually arrive.
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