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  • I loved this. However it is tricky to implement these dances to my kids.  The dances of this time are starting to move towards dances that would have been conducted in "speakeasies" which today would equate to going downtown to the bars on the weekend.  Also a very integral part of this era is understanding the "flapper" and their sexual liberation.  This may be fine to discuss with some students, but others are not mature enough to carry on a dialog about sex. 

    Do I want to do these dances? Of course! Do I like a little party every now and then? Yup. But it may not necessarily be appropriate to teach the actual dances to the kids (especially the more intimate they become). Dances being conducted today at proms and school dances have very little limitations.  In fact most of these school dances have been reduced to a series of moves that emulate sexual movements. So yes, dancing the "Slow Drag" at the Cotton Club is a far cry from the "Tripod" (don't ask) at RumRunners, but the intentions are very similar and are simply separated by contemporary social conventions on morality.

  • I loved watching Nellie and Bob demonstrate for us.  My grandparents have been married over 50 years and at their 50th anniversary party I got to watch them dance and it was so beautiful and they looked so in love.  I remember being amazed watching them.  I also knew that it was an older style of dancing.  Watching Nellie and Bob was a flashback.  That is exactly how my grandparents dance.  it's so intimate.  Personally, I get lost in it.  It seems as artistic to me as the waltz.  

    As a music teacher, I love fusing these styles of music together, but I've not done a lot of dancing with it.  The kids always want to know which one came first and it's so fun to share that all of these styles were evolving at once from within each other.  It's an incredible thing to bring to life for them.  I am excited to use the dance we learned with my kids.  And the "no touching" will be a great way to start :)

  • I love this era of dancing and music because it is so energetic!  I also love that the dance steps start to get a little more complicated.  I have been able to really bring some of these dances into my music classroom and the kids love it!  I like to take the dances from this era and put them with modern music - super fun!  There's so much history involved in these dances and I think I need to bring that out more in my lessons.

  • I love the music from this era--it really encapsulates a time period of great change.  The dances were great to watch (I couldn't participate due to a gimpy ankle) but I can see why they were so popular.  What fun to see how the dance migrated from only being done by the royalty/court to the common person!  

  • On the issues of race and the progression from old dance/music to new. I recalled an old episode of Southpark, quoted below for discussion:

    Mr. Garrison: Chef, what did you do when white people stole your culture? 

    Chef: Oh, well, we black people just always tried to stay out in front of them. 

    Mr. Slave: How did you do that? 

    Chef: Well, like with our slang. Black people always used to say, "I'm in the house" instead of "I'm here." But then white people all started to say "in the house" so we switched it to "in the hizzouse." Hizzouse became hizzizzouse, and then white folk started saying that, and we had to change it to hizzie, then "in the hizzle" which we had to change to "hizzle fo shizzle," and now, because white people say "hizzle fo shizzle," we have to say "flippity floppity floop." 

    Mr. Garrison: We don't have time for all that, Chef! Oh, if only those Queer Eye For the Straight Guy people understood what they were doing. Wait. That's it! I know exactly what to do! Come on, Mr. Slave! Let's get back to our flippity floppity floop. 

    Chef: Oh no! Dammit! Don't call it that! 

  • The timeline and description of music/dance genres were just enough to get me excited and more interested in the intertwining of the history and music.  It's not clear to me yet how I can use this in my JH/HS Choir, Emsembles, but I WILL keep thinking.

    It was interesting to me to watch the dance couple sampling different historical steps and begin to recognize possible understandings of when, and why the church began to ban dancing.  The dancing is definitely fun and would bring a lot of fun to communities interested in joining to enjoy music, rhythm, movement (hmm.... sounds a bit like Dalcroze on steroids....).  Church leaders may have foreseen problems coming out of the closer body contact and chose to ban all rather than try to legislate the good and bad.

    All these discussions and demonstrations bring the history to life.

  • I learned this in a brain research class: All information enters the brain through the brain's emotional center. All of it. I believe that is why making emotional connections to subject matter results in deeper learning and better retention.The more we can help kids make an emotional connection, the better they will learn and retain. Elizabeth's "stock market crash" simulation is a perfect example. Kids cried.

    This historical era was wrought with emotion. Think of the emotional impact of events like World War I, Prohibition, Roaring Twenties, labor issues, rapid technological advancement including the emergence of air travel - to name a few. Dance and music are perfect entrees to making emotional connections to historical events.

  • More fun!  I am very uncoordinated, so I would have liked one more run-through…that may be Thursday!  The historical content was extremely interesting.  When we go over time periods, there never seems to be enough time to talk about the good and exciting stuff.  So, no matter how many times I’ve studied parts of American History, I have missed the music and dancing.  Wonderful, wonderful.

  • I have been trying to devise a way to lead up to my swing and big band unit. I think it would be super helpful to spend more time talking about the great depression and WWI. I really loved the quote, "we are ready to take our place among the nations who enjoy." it really sets the mood for what this era was all about. It was a time of jubilation and loving life. I think that it is really important to convey those feelings, and make connections to modern times with our students. Think of the dialog!
  • Reflection #5 (WWI, 1920s & the Progressive Era):  I thought the most interesting part of this session was the reiteration of how history and dance continues to repeats itself although it tries to progress to the next level. During the colonial time, those traveling to America wanted to get rid of the British ternary and they ended up setting up the same activities and traditions they had traveled so far to be freed from. Dancing also tried to change and often ended up progressing to a new variation on the same dance. Much of this session can be taught in the classroom with the help of videos. I’m not sure how to teach some of the dances (except the Charleston) in the classroom (nor do I know if it’s appropriate), but the exposure to different dance and music throughout history is invaluable. 

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