DRAMA MODE:
DANCE/MOVEMENT
PURPOSE: To know a Russian dance.
To experience the relationship between feelings and body movements.
ACTIVITIES:
There are many ways to teach students a dance. A “professional” can be called in to teach the dance. The teacher can learn with the students and practice with the students when the Dance teacher is not there. The Music teacher or Physical Education teacher can teach the dance. There are many books which describe dance steps. The teacher can practice on her own and teach the students herself.
The following dance, a Russian Troika, was dictated over the telephone to me by Ada Wilson, a member of an International Dance group. (She lead an excellent Folk Dance Workshop for New Haven Music and Arts Teachers.) She will go over the dance in person with me before I teach it to my students in the next school year.
I am not concerned if my students do not dance the dance like the Russians. I am concerned that they participate and dance it to the best of their abilities and get a feel for the sound and movement of the people of Russia. A cassette tape of a Russian Troika, courtesy once again of Ada Wilson, will be available at the Institute Office on Wall Street.
There should be at least 18 people. They need to be in groups of three. (If the group is not evenly divided by three, improvise with a group of two or four.) Arrange groups of three, holding hands, making a circle. (Three in front of three, in front of three, etc.)
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1) Eight big leaping steps forward.
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2) Eight big leaping steps backward.
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3) Person in center lifts left hand, making an arch with his/her partner on the left.
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4) Person on the right goes through the arch, in eight steps.
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5) Person in the center turns under arch in place—in eight steps, then all hold hands.
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6) Center person lifts right hand, making an arch with his/her partner on the right.
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7) Person on the left goes through the arch, in eight steps.
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8) Person in the center turns under arch in place—in eight steps, then all hold hands.
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9) Grapevine 16 steps clockwise (right foot crosses in front of left, left foot back left, right foot crosses in back of left.)
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10) Grapevine 16 steps counter clockwise (left foot crosses in back of right, right foot back right, left foot crosses in back of right.)
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11) REPEAT from the beginning. This time on the 8 big steps forward, the middle person takes bigger steps and walks into the middle space of the three people in front of him or her. This changes the three people all the time.
