Today was our fourth rehearsal for the Performance Project at Redding Elementary located in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. I am working with a class of 3rd graders who are relatively new to dance having just completed a ten-week workshop with the Dance in Schools program this fall. They are an incredibly diverse group with multiple language spoken in their classroom.

Each week I find myself looking forward to our rehearsals. I teach all over the Bay Area, and while this group of students is not the most experienced, they have an eagerness that I find refreshing.

We are creating a dance that covers several different Asian forms of dance including components of Tibetan and Mongolian dances. I was very pleased that the students remembered their places from last week without any prompting. Our first run-through was fantastic!  It was great to be able to move forward rather than backtracking. Today we started working on formations, which it so happens are symmetrical—a concept the students are currently working on in their academic studies. Their classroom teacher pointed this out as the students were learning the patterns. I really appreciate when we can provide clear connections for learning across disciplines.

We also practiced a new turning move—fun and challenging! I think we were all dizzy by the end.

One of our lessons as a group today was about stamina and focus. It was toward the end of the school day and as we were rehearsing in the school cafeteria, students started to wander in for the after-school program. I could see the dancers becoming a little distracted and less confident in their movements. Many of them have never performed in front of an audience before. It was a reminder for me that as much as we are preparing steps, we are also working to build many other skills. I am so proud of what we have achieved so far!

Warming up

Starting positions off stage

Having fun!

Practicing our Tibetan dance