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Health & Fitness

Scotland School Discovers the Fun of Line Dancing

By Rayda Krell, Scotland School Parent

Dance is a required part of the physical education curriculum in Connecticut elementary schools.  For the past four years at Scotland Elementary School, professional dance instructors have been invited to the school to teach a different style of dance each year.  In recent years students have learned African dance, Broadway dance, Modern dance, and Ballroom dancing.  The program is paid for by the school PTA and supported by the physical education teacher, Christian Truchess. 

This year, Pamela Lavender, a 4th grade teacher at the school, suggested the students learn Line dancing.  Ms. Lavender had recently started Line dancing and knew that it is fun, great exercise, and something people can enjoy throughout their lives.  School principal, Mark Solomon, liked the idea and they brought in Jill Weiss, a Line dance instructor from Free Spin Dance, who teaches in many venues including a weekly workshop at Vitti’s Dance Studio in Danbury.  Scotland kindergarten teacher, Megan Reddinger, is also an avid line dancer and assisted with the program as did literacy coach Jennifer Southworth.

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During the week of March 20th all of the students were introduced to the concept of Line dancing through an opening assembly and demonstration by the Line dance teacher Jill Weiss with help from Ms. Lavender, Ms. Reddinger and Ms. Southworth. Ms. Lavender’s class also participated in the demonstration. Following the demonstration assembly each class had four Line dance lessons over the next two weeks. The lessons took place during the class’ physical education time. The program concluded with a spectacular Line Dance Recital on April 11th where all of the students participated.

When Ms. Weiss began the first week of classes with the students, she iterated three benefits of line-dancing: it is great exercise, makes you smarter, and most importantly, it’s fun!  Each grade learned a few different dances.  It was important to Ms. Weiss that all students have success learning the dances, so in the beginning she tried to keep it simple.  She quickly learned that the students were great dancers, so she was able to teach them progressively more challenging dances, including a few that are difficult for many adults.

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The two-week program culminated in a “Line Dancing Spectacular” recital where parents were invited to attend.  There were two recitals, one for grades K–2 and another for grades 3–5.  Grades K–2 performed 8 dances and grades 3–5 performed 5 dances. The kindergarten class kicked-off the event with the “Hokey Pokey” and a more traditional western line dance called the Cupid Shuffle, performed to a fun country song.  Favorite dances that several of the grades learned were line dances that could be performed with the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.  Another favorite of several grades was dancing the Cowboy Charleston to the song “Nitty Gritty” by Kimberly Cole. 

The 3rd–5th graders ended the recital with a big combined finale of a dance called “Pick a Bale” that becomes progressively faster as it continues.  It was a highlight of the performance to see half of the students in the school perform to one song and many of the teachers joined in. 

Mr. Solomon remarked that students enjoyed the program so much that they were often seen spontaneously practicing the dances when they arrived at school in the morning.  Mr. Truchess also commented on how much the kids liked the program, “I was amazed with was how quickly the kids picked up the dances and retained the moves.  I also noticed their enjoyment of the dances because I would even catch them doing the moves in the hallway.” 

The program was so successful that many kids would like to see more line dancing opportunities in the community.  Ms. Weiss will be offering an after school line dancing program in the fall, and was so inspired by the students, she is considering adding a family line dance component to her ongoing weekly Sunday evening workshop at Vitti's Dance Studio.  All interested families can contact Jill Weiss at jill@freespindance.com for further information.  It is very likely that many Scotland School families will be there!

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