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  • I loved the way that Gabe presented hip hop to us. His emphasis on swagger was so appropriate for this class. If we want to be successful in teaching any area of dance to our students, we need to be wiling to show off our swagger or courage. That's not to say that we don't have our fair share of butterflys, but if we are committed and enjoy what we do, it will be all the easier to get our kids hooked on some truly positive opportunities.
  • My older borothers loved Elvis.  I remembered when he died.  I heard it on the radio, but didn't really believe until I saw it on TV.  (A more reliable source, I thought.)  American Band Stand was a show we would watch on occasion, but I loved "Casey" Kasem's Top 40 weekly radio show.  Stephanie's videos of the Osmonds reminded of the Donnie and Marie Barbie dolls I played with growing up and watching thier variety show too.  I was so happy when I finally got a Sony Walkman.  I was mobile and I could listen to whatever song I wanted and no one else could hear it.  I would listen to Micheal Jackson's Beat it for my warm-ups before my races, to get me psyched up.  I think dancing is an incredible show of talent, rhythm, and athleticism.  I so enjoyed the show Stomp when it came to Anchorage and the students enjoy their videos when I sub too.  I would love to have Gabe or any of the other instructors as a guest teacher in a high school Lifetime Personal Fitness class.  Dance fits perfect with the theme of the class being a life long fitness activity.

  • What a great day!  I came home and was showing off my disco and hip hop.  My family laughed, in a nice way…I think!  Maybe I’ve created my own style of dance, klutz-o!  It is a good thing I don’t have bigger feet!

     

    I had the best time the last two days!  Everyone was happy and smiling.  I can only imagine how much fun my kids will have doing some of these dances.  Luckily I’ll have someone at my school who will help to remind me if I forget anything!

  • Hip hop before today... I couldn't even began to describe it let alone try to dance it...thanks Gabe. What a great way to make a connection with the kids. This would be a great end of year presentaion/guest with the music and dance of today.

  • I loved the disco. What a great and sort of silly era of dance.  We did a staff dance at the end of the school year and we totally incorporated many of those moves!  We had the lawn mower, the jerk, the pony, swim, etc... it was great!  The teachers could connect and the students got the biggest kick out of it!  It was great to add some new moves!  Now I'm thinking we need a disco teacher dance next year.  Fun!

    Hop-hop... well my kids always want to learn about it, but you try finding examples that are elementary school friendly. Yikes!  I have been successful on a few intro's to raps or hip-hop songs but it's difficult.  I always look at the meaning too.  It may not have bad words but if the meaning is questionable, I won't use it in my classroom even if the kids don't really understand it.  As for me dancing it... I felt super uncomfortable.  I am not a modern type of dancer.  Actually, I've never considered myself a dancer, but I guess there's a little bit of it in me because I have somehow always been singled out for dancing.  I enjoy it but I would rather hip-hop in my kitchen rather than in my classroom.  But Gabe did help me understand it better and I would feel ok with explaining many of the moves he did with us AND I would love to contact my PTA about having his organization come and teach my kiddos some hip-hop dancing.  They would have so much fun.  I think it is worth it to step out of my comfort zone for the betterment of my students.  As he said... they think we don't understand them or the music they listen to because we are "old".  I may not be hip on the new music but I certainly am willing to learn :)  A great experience!

  • I loved the disco dance and instruction! Stephanie, you teach each step and the progression of steps very clearly . In the end all of us were dancing and having fun. The guest hip -hop artist was terrific.  I can see that having him come to my class would be inspirational to the kids.  I liked the way Stephanie included video clips for us to watch, it made the dances we were about to do come alive.

  • I left the short hip hop lesson feeling like there may even be hope for me to successfully hip hop dance if I practiced isolations and built specific muscles.  I have awkwardly tried to imitate moves but it never comes off tight or smooth looking.  I'm glad Gabe talked about actual things that can be done to remedy lame hip hop dancing.  I also think that having someone come to the class and share this type of dance would be great for the kids, both as a form of expression and exercise but also to model learning an art form that is outside of my own experience and comfort zone.

  • I can't wait to tell my two just-graduated-from-college sons that I was learning to hip-hop dance today! Not only is this out of character for someone of my generation, but also because of my musical inclinations -- I am a serious Classical musician (oboist). Nonetheless, I do have to say that I love many kinds of music and enjoyed everything we heard and danced in this class. It was delightful having Gabe to demystify the hip-hop dance genre; I won't feel nearly so intimidated by it next time I encounter it. And as for disco music, well, I never really cared for it all that much, but learning some dance moves today was very fun.

    Even though I would love to see this class spread out over more time, speeding through all these different music and dance styles so quickly made it easy to see and experience the relationships between the different dance styles as well as make connections with their social contexts. Brava to our two teachers!

  • Loved the hip hop now that I know what it is.  I suggested that Gab look at Laban's writtings.  The naming of the exaggerations  is what I have done with theatre creative movement.  "How a fox walks and what parts will you need to emphasise"is what I do.  great learning for me

  • I like hip hop and I can relate to it because I listen to it. It is something people do to have fun and express themselves. I like when the speaker said that anyone can do hip-hop. The isolation is what makes it unique. I currently teach my students little hip hop moves and will continue after taking this class.

    Once again hip hop incorporates music from other genres and other time periods. I really enjoyed this portion of the class.

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