FARMINGTON – More than one hundred fourth grade students at Cascade Brook School danced the afternoon away on Friday in a gymnasium packed with audience members. The performance was their final presentation after a week of learning moves from professional dancer and teaching artist Karen Montanaro.
“Culture is built on ideas, beliefs and things that individuals in a group hold as important,” the fourth graders chanted together, in sync with a series of hand gestures.
Montanaro has led the Dance/Culture Connection workshop in schools throughout Maine, giving hundreds of young students the opportunity to get a leg up when it comes to confidence and community building.
“It gives young people a chance to tap into and express what they do best, and that is MOVE. When children are allowed to do what they do best, they are allowed to be themselves, to know themselves, to feel good about themselves and to apply themselves to whatever they do,” Montanaro wrote in a letter home to parents.
The five, fourth grade CBS classes learned dance moves that required them to work together, be bold in front of a full audience and regulate their bodies in a way they don’t often get to do during the school day.
Fourth grade teacher and organizer of the event, Sarah Carlson, said she was inspired to bring Montanaro’s work to CBS after seeing the positive effects it had on students at Mallett School several years ago.
“What we are finding is that, in general, kids these days aren’t as in tune with their bodies as they used to be,” Carlson said.
Montanaro led the group with deliberate motions and mouthed instructions that hooked even the shyest kids into the routine. The at times abrupt dance moves exemplified the level of self control the young students were using to put on the show- leading to a sea of eight, nine and ten year olds who were in rhythm, on cue and connected to one another.
“Kids are shining today who don’t normally let themselves shine,” Carlson said.
Carlson hopes that CBS educators will continue to use the moves as exercise breaks during class- a habit that the many elementary schools are incorporating more and more into their daily routines.
“Lots of seeds were planted this week. We’re really hoping this will become a part of the school culture,” Carlson said.
Wonderful! Thank you Sarah (and Karen, of course) for bringing this important opportunity to our kids. To express ourselves boldly as individuals while remembering that we are all in a much Bigger Group is an important lesson for All.
Thanks for your thoughtful article, Amber. Just a minor (but very important) edit . . . the definition of culture that the kids learned is this: Culture is built on ideas, beliefs and things that INDIVIDUALS IN A GROUP hold as important.
Thanks for the prompt correction! :-)
Karen Montanaro’s work is transformative. She’s absolutely brilliant. The personal testimonies speak for themselves. In this time of education’s artistic drought and cultural siege, it is good to know that one as passionate as Karen, who has devoted her life to the arts, is fighting for our kids’ souls.