Jazz it Up

Jazz today with the 6th graders was really fun. It was interesting watching them work at a new warm up. Most of them were pretty bashful, but a few showed promise. The jazz unit will be totally different from the modern was, which proved to be very shocking for them today. They were understandably afraid to fully isolate their rib cages and roll their hips (especially Joseph.) After warmup, we started working on choreography. Ms. Donk is setting an original piece on them that is based off of "One," from A Chorus Line. The choreography is so much more intricate than the last piece they did, and if you miss one beat or step, you're completely thrown off. Even I was having some difficulty with remembering the little bit of choreography we worked on today. But even though it was tough, they kept at it and didn't give up, and that's what I like to see. They were persistent when I know they didn't want to be. And after a while, they began to get the hang of it. It's going to be a really fun piece once we have the movement into our memory, and don't have to worry about trying to remember what comes next.

Another difference between this piece and the last is that this piece involves a prop. Each dancer has a top hat that they use on almost every count of the piece so far. This also presents another challenge for them, because most of them have never used props before. They were tempted to play with the hats when they should have been paying attention, but after they saw how intricate the choreography was they immediately focused. This new unit should be a fun one...