This week I began teaching kids dance through Leaders of Tomorrow Youth Center. I had unlimited options for the specific genre of dance I would teach. I chose to teach mindful movement that incorporated lessons about expressing emotion and fighting for justice.
On the first day I asked the students, “how can you tell a story through dance and how can you show emotion through dance?”
I showed them a video of a performance by a dance group called Attraction, who performed on Britain's Got Talent. The shadow dancing performed by Attraction gave the students an example of showing emotion through dance. One student was crying by the end of the video, because part of the dance alluded to death and the student's grandfather had recently passed away. We discussed that death is part of life's natural journey. The students learned that emotions can be better understood through dance and dance can be used as a coping mechanism to handle difficult emotions.
The students were then able to practice dancing according to specific scenarios. If you'd like to know more about this activity, please refer to "LTYC Lesson Plans" at the top of the page.
On the last day of teaching this group, we talked about activism and how we can dance as a form of activism. I showed them a video of Shamell Bell's Street Dance Activism. I asked them to identify at least three difference social or political issues they could dance for. For example: Racism, Gay rights, Environmental rights, etc.
The students were then taught a dance that I had choreographed. We called it our "Peace Dance." Our Peace Dance incorporated yoga poses that were taught to them. The song we danced to was "Imagine" by John Lennon.
It is absolutely necessary to teach children that they can fight for justice in a peaceful, creative manner.
"I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will be as one."
-John Lennon