Rejuvenation Through Movement

Sing like no one is listening
Dance like no one is watching
Live like life is heaven on earth

This famous quote describes in a few words what many feel after singing and dancing. In addition to providing connection and community, singing and dancing can increase musicality and technical excellence in our students. Studies show that “dance helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, help develop new neural connections” as well as increases “executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition.” In fact, combining dance with music “constitutes a ‘pleasure double play’. Music stimulates the brain’s reward centers, while dance activates its sensory and motor circuits.”1

When we use lesson time to dance, we are not only turning the studio or classroom into a theoretical “heaven on earth,” but our students are also releasing more feel-good hormones, making practice intrinsically motivating. They are building long-term memory, making learning last longer, and they are building spatial recognition, making technical skills more precise.

Dancing is not just a nice aspect to add to lessons, it is a key to making learning more joyful, natural, and long-lasting. The teacher doesn’t need to be a professional dancer or even in peak physical shape. All forms of dancing can be adapted to individual needs and the abilities of teachers and students. To activate the benefits listed above, I use three basic forms of dance in my private and group lessons: Choreographed Dance, Basic Movement, and Technical Movement. These forms of dance build community, increase musicality, and improve technique, respectively.

Choreographed Dance: Dancing to Build Community

Throughout history, community dancing has brought people together. Choreographed dances are dances where the movements are performed in a prescribed order. They teach students to move to the beat, to follow the group, and to understand the form of the music. Choreographed dances also build a sense of community and belonging in the participants. Here is a simple choreographed dance that can be used with any piece containing eight-measure phrases. You may recognize it as the 1950s popular dance The Hand Jive.

2 pats on the leg
2 claps with the hands
2 slides with the palms down and the hands crossing over one another
2 slides with the opposite hand crossing above the other
2 pounds with the fists in balls and one hand on top
2 pounds with the opposite hand on top
2 points with the hand in a thumb-up position, move the hand over the shoulder
2 points with the opposite hand in thumb up position, move over the corresponding shoulder
Repeat.

This is perfect for any song with eight-measure phrases. Students can listen to a recording, listen to their peers play it, or (my favorite) sing along while performing the actions. For my studio’s winter concert, we performed this hand jive to Perpetual Motion. The beginners sat crisscrossed while performing the dance, the early Book One students stood behind playing the ends of each phrase, and the late Book One students played the entire melody. It was a joy for all.

A choreographed dance to Minuet 1 is a favorite for students. This dance is simple enough for a student to learn in one lesson. In recurring lessons, parents and students can dance to the music with confidence, understanding that when the music changes, the pattern repeats. To set up the dance, first create two lines facing each other so that each student has a partner in the line across from them. Complete the following motions for the corresponding measures of the piece:

Mm.1–2: Walk toward each other and bow
Mm. 3–4: Walk away from each other and bow
M. 5: Hop to the right, bounce, bounce
M. 6: Hop to the left bounce, bounce
M. 7: Spin around
M. 8: Bow
Repeat

You can create your own choreographed dance by combining simple movements in predictable patterns. Predictable movements include walking in, walking out, walking right, walking left, spinning, bowing, clapping high, clapping low, jumping, swinging your partner, etc. These are just some options for creating your own choreographed dance; your options are only limited by your imagination.

Basic Movement: Dancing to Build Musicality

Dancing does not need to be choreographed in a predetermined, prescribed set of steps to be beneficial. Basic Movement dances consist of everyday movements done to the beat. Basic Movement dances teach children to activate all parts of their body, to move to the macro and micro beat, to put the beat in their upper and lower bodies, and to follow the leader. Unlike choreographed dances, Basic Movement dances allow children at all phases of rhythm development to participate at their own skill level. For example, if a child hasn’t developed the ability to keep a beat, they can still participate without holding the other participants back or standing out.

Consider these basic movements that can form a Basic Movement dance:

bend
freeze
gallop
grow
hop
jump
kick
lean
leap
march
melt
rock
shake
skip
slide
spin
stomp
stretch
sway
tiptoe
twist
walk
wiggle

The Two Grenadiers offers opportunities for students to dance with basic movements. Sing along or listen to the recording as you move.

Part A, mm. 3–10: march
Part B, m. 11–22: sway
Part C, m. 23–30: jump
Part D, m. 31–34: tiptoe
Crescendo, m. 34–36: move from tip toes to stomps.
Part C recap, m. 37–end: jump

Basic movement dances like these can be done with any of the pieces that you love. While more advanced pieces can have several movements, like The Two Grenadiers, you can repeat a piece like Lightly Row with different movements each time.

Technical Movement: Dancing to Build Technical Skills

Movement can also be utilized to teach children about the body and technical skills on their instrument. These motions teach about the body, build technical skills and, when done with music, become a dance. The following moves apply specifically to violin technique, but the principles apply to all instruments.

Finger tapping: Bring the thumb to the tip of each finger. The hand builds dexterity and the brain begins to understand how the joints of the hand work.

Knuckle bends: Point the hands towards the ceiling in front of you and slowly round and straighten the fingers. This teaches the hand the form of round fingers for the instrument and teaches the brain about the knuckles in the hand.

Butterflies: Bring both arms together in front of you with the elbows and wrists touching and palms touching. Slowly open the palms to face you while keeping the elbows and wrists together. Repeat. The body learns how to rotate the arm for violin playing while building those muscles.

Genie Arms: Place arms in front of you with hands touching opposite elbows and forearms parallel to the floor. Move arms up and down. This activates the whole arm motion necessary to cross strings on the violin.

Head Bobbing: Nod the head “yes” to the beat. This teaches the head to drop weight, eventually into the jaw rest, while teaching the brain how the head connects to the spine.

Head Turning: Shake the head “no” to the beat. This releases tension held in the neck and allows the body to feel the weight and natural position of the head on top of the spine.

Bird Wings: Bring arms all the way out to the side and move the arms up and down like a bird. This strengthens the arm muscles as well as teaches the brain how the arm is connected to the collarbone and shoulder blade.

Elephant Ears: Take the arms to the sides and bend the elbows so the fingers point to the ceiling, the hands face forward, and the forearms are perpendicular to the ground. Bring the elbows towards each other and then out to the side again, creating “elephant ears” flapping.

Squirrel Hops: Make a “bow hold squirrel” (or “bow hold bunny”) by placing the pads of the middle fingers against the tip of the thumb on the right hand. In a seated position, jump the squirrel from the left knee to the left shoulder, or anywhere else.

These are only a small sample of the plethora of technical movements that can be used to build technique. Now, let’s consider how to add them to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to create meaningful movement.

Section A: Finger Tapping
Section B: Knuckle Rounding
Section A: Finger Tapping

Or

Section A: Head Turning
Section B: Head Bobbing
Section A: Head Turning

Or

Section A: Bird Wings
Section B: Elephant Ears
Section A: Bird Wings

Twinkle is only one song of many within and without the Suzuki repertoire that can be used to build technical skills. To make a technical movement dance of your own, pick a song of your choice, pick two or three technical movements of your choice, and put them together in a dance.

Conclusion

Dancing is an important part of the human experience and has many benefits that can support our students in their instrumental study and the rest of their lives. Dancing in group and private lessons can be in the form of a formal choreographed dance, an informal movement of basic motions to the beat, or a drilling of technical skills to the beat with music. All forms of dance bring more joy to the studio or classroom and more ease in playing the instrument. I invite you, before you turn the page, to make a lesson plan, right now, that includes movement. Dance like no one’s watching and turn your classroom or studio into a heaven on earth.

Notes

[size=70]1 [/size]Scott Edwards, “Dancing and the Brain,” Harvard Medical School, 2015, https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/dancing-brain.