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DANCE WITH SANNA

2011.12.16 08:50:16

2012 was fun:

Apr. 10, 2012: Romona Elem. School 3rd-grade Family Dance, Wilmette, Ill.

Apr. 11: Harper Elem. School 3rd grade Family Dance, Wilmette, Ill.

Apr. 14: Tri-City Kodály Educators, Columbus, Ohio

Apr. 26-29: Nat’l Folk Organization conference, Bethesda, Md.

June 18-22: Silver Burdett/Pearson workshop, Appalachian State Univ., Boone, N.C.

July 9-13: Central Connecticut State Univ. summer course, New Britain, Conn.

Sept. 27-30: Pourparler dance and music educators conference, Salt Lake City, Utah

Aug. 14: Ravinia Educational Foundation workshop, Chicago, Ill.

Oct. 12-14: Virginia Kodaly Educators workshop, Arlington, Va.

Nov. 8: Walden School dance classes, Pasadena, Cal.

2013

Feb. 1, 2013: District Inservice with Silver Burdett/Pearson, Ft. Worth, Tex.

Feb. 9, 2013: Professional development workshop, Trinity International Univ., Deerfield, Ill.

Feb. 26, 2013: District Inservice with Silver Burdett/Pearson in Cicero, Illinois

Mar. 21-24, 2013: National Folk Org. conference, Las Vegas, Nev.

April: A month in Provence!

June 17-21: Silver Burdett/Pearson workshop, Appalachiian State University, Boone, N.C.

Aug. 25-31: Mainewoods Dance Camp, Portland, Maine.

Oct. 17-20, 2013: Pourparler dance and music educators conference, Dummerston, Vt.

Oct. 27-30, 2013: NAfME (formerly MENC) conference, Nashville, Tenn.

Nov. 13-16: American Orff-Schulwerk Professional Development Conference, Denver, Co.

2014 (so far)

March 14-16, 2014: San Antonio Folk Festival, San Antonio, Tx.

more to come. . . .

(for details, click on Workshops).

Tags: Folkstyle Workshops

2011.12.16 03:42:10

CHINA STORIES: MEN AS EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS...

It was exactly one year ago on Nov. 17, 2010, that Mars and I flew home from Beijing, after 17 fascinating days in China, our first time there.
I had been asked by Professor Zhouya Xu, Director of Early Childhood Education at Nanjing Normal University, to come and share my repertoire of world dances with her students and early childhood teachers of southern China. I was honored to teach for four afternoons in Nanjing (250 in the workshop), and two afternoons in Dongguan (more than 300 in the workshop).

We returned with much affection for our new Chinese teacher friends, and just tickled to know that a lot of Chinese youngsters will now be enjoying “Sasha,” “Yesh,” “I Love a Rainy Night,” and other favorites. And we also returned with great respect for the Chinese government’s care for early childhood education there.

For instance, a few years ago the education officials decided that there were not enough young men teaching early childhood education—how’s that for a concept?! (In China, they call it “kindergarten”—children 2 to 6 years old.) The word went out that men picked to prepare for such a career would receive free university tuition, free housing, and good jobs. 13,000 guys applied and 300 were chosen, some of whom were in my workshops.

They are hot, these guys! They sing and dance like professionals, they love the little kids—not that the young women weren’t also terrific, but how great for the youngest children to see so many exceptional men teachers, also. Wouldn’t it be marvelous if there were such official encouragement and support in the U.S. for men to teach little kids?! Or anyone?!