Folk Dance in a Time of Social Distancing

By Kris Olson, Lubbock, TX

For many of us, folk dancing is an important part of our music classes. How do we continue to give children experiences in folk dance at home with no partners with which to connect? No large groups with which to create geometric figures? No satisfying feeling that comes from the individual being imperative to the success of the whole? We can’t. However, there are other important facets of folk dance that are worthy of online adaptation.

THE MUSIC - I feel it’s important for my students to hear and move to traditional music. I use the word traditional in a very broad sense to mean from a folk tradition. I want my students to hear music they might not otherwise hear. Many of these tunes evolved because musicians and dancers were interacting, how cool is that? Moving to traditional music gives children opportunities to internalize those things we want them to possess, those things that were important in leading “elemental” dancers in a dance: strong sense of pulse, sense of common phrase lengths and meters (culturally specific), recognition and anticipation of recurring rhythmic and melodic cues. 

THE WHOLE BODY - There is nothing like moving our whole body as a way to strengthen our rhythmic chops. Brain and body, all engines firing! Moving helps our well-being. Some kids may have new opportunities for outdoor play with stay-at-home orders, while others may have become more sedentary because they have not found alternatives to playing with friends or organized sports.

THE FORM - Folk dancing has simple repetitive forms. This is a beautiful scaffolding structure for changing an imitative dance into a creative dance. Don’t just think about using the form of the music, but think about the form of the dance. What moves go in what order and when? How can that be changed?

Here are some suggestions for how you might adapt folk dancing to your online lessons: 

Create a pretend-story dance which is accompanied by a traditional dance tune. I know there are many of these dances out there.  Some of the things I like to include in these dances are:  beat based movement, division of the beat (twice as fast, twice as slow), movement that copies the form, scenarios that tap into pretend mode, repetitive movement patterns, simple body percussion, props.

Adaptation by Kris Olson
Music: Minoesjka (Children’s Dances of Terra Del Zur, The Best of The Shenanigan’s ’80-’90 Vol. 1)

Add a creative movement section. Doing folk dances by yourself is dull because the interest in these dances comes from bodies in space. Creativity spices things up and motivates kids to dance because now it’s their dance. The improvisation in the third video in this set is silly. That is purposeful in order to motivate kids to get moving. The important concept here is not the moves the students do, but the way they time those moves to fit the musical sections. You are welcome to share this sequence of longways set videos with your students. The music is by Laura Flanagan who has graciously given AOSA permission to share her SoundCloud file of Lucy Farr's/ Apples In Winter/Music On The Wind with your students as well (Laura Flanagan, fiddle, Peter Daffy, guitar; from the CD, The Great Southern Ocean) .
 
You might consider adding a lesson to help students recognize the A and B sections in each of the three tunes. This is also an opportunity to share a little about the culture of the Irish music scene. When people who love to play Irish music get together to play informally, it’s called a session and there are many of them that occur regularly in cities everywhere. It’s common to hear two or three different tunes in a row at these sessions. By choosing pieces with a similar feel and combining them, a jam can last longer and stay interesting.