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'Elegant': Fifth-graders find that they enjoy dancing
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Mary Shea Mitchell and Chris Smoot work on their dance moves.
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Published: October 10, 2009
After the first session of a pilot program that has fifth-grade boys and girls dancing with each other, the students couldn't get to the hand sanitizer fast enough to wash off the "cooties" from their dance partners.
That changed quickly, said Peter Wilbur, a fifth-grade teacher at Arts-Based Elementary School.
The students soon found that they enjoyed it, he said.
"For them to do that and handle it professionally and move on with the rest of the day is a big deal for fifth-graders," Wilbur said.
The students readily acknowledged Wilbur's points.
When they first started, Asia Leach said, she and her partner said to each other, "Let's do this so we can get it over with."
But since, she said, she has learned how to "express my feelings in a dancing way."
"When I first started, I was a little bit nervous," said Elizabeth MacMillan. "But now I kind of look forward to it. I like the dances. They are lively and fun."
So far, students have met twice a week for three weeks to learn such dances as the fox trot and rumba. In Thursday's class, they learned the tango. Teacher Ann Holton Guill -- who is also working with students at Cook Elementary School -- uses an approach developed specifically for young people by a New York ballroom dance teacher named Pierre Dulaine.
Along with instructions developed with young people in mind, Dancing Classroom, as it is called, includes terminology designed to make things easier for them to visualize. For instance, the position in the tango in which the dancers raise their arms and hook them over their heads is called the Scorpion. Other terms include Chopsticks and Crispy Chicken Wings.
Since Dulaine developed Dancing Classroom about 15 years ago, it has expanded to 400 schools in 13 cities. For Guill, a major part of the attraction is the fringe benefits that learning to dance with a partner bring -- teamwork, self-confidence, respect for others.
"I really, really am sold on it -- what it does for the children and their families and their schools," Guill said.
Guill, 57, is both a lawyer and a dance teacher. She became interested in the program after seeing a documentary. For her, it offered the possibility of doing what she loves while giving to others, and, this summer, she went to New York to take the training to become an instructor.
At the moment, Guill is volunteering her time. In the long run, she would like to see other schools in Forsyth County and the rest of the state offer the program to their fifth-graders. With that in mind, she is working to establish a nonprofit organization that would eventually include other instructors.
Students at Cook have had equally positive experiences. Ted Burcaw, the principal at Cook, said that the program has improved the students' manners and social skills, helped them develop respect for each other, developed a stronger sense of community within the class and helped students become more self-confident.
"I can't say enough about the value of this program," Burcaw said.
Third- and fourth-graders have been coming up and asking when they can start dancing, he said. At Cook, dance isn't a regular part of the curriculum. At Arts-Based, all students work twice a week with dance teacher Jan Adams.
Adams said that what she teaches the students is based on modern-dance movements and is tied to the broader curriculum. For instance, students might pretend they are sea creatures and move as they imagine that sea creatures move.
"I use dance for a lot of different purposes," Adams said.
The Dancing Classroom program, she said, has been a strong addition to what she does.
"It really has that civilizing effect," she said. "It's great to see them be elegant with each other."
kunderwood@wsjournal.com | 727-7389
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