South American dance workshops

South America is such a large and varied continent, so it has loads of different dance styles to try. During our South American dance workshops we talk first about the culture and history of the country and it’s dance. We show props and photos to make the subject come alive for the students.

We had a great day at Field Park School in Worthing this week teaching lots of South American dance workshops.

They are studying South America as one of the Olympic continents, so our workshops fitted in well with their theme.

We taught a whole day of workshops to KS1 classes.

Year 1

There workshops were dances from Peru, and based on their traditional dance. There were lots of circles for the girls, imagining they were spinning their flowery dresses around. The boys did lots of posturing and fancy footwork.

Year 2

This year group had Brazil, so we did a carnival themed dance fresh from Rio! We had some Samba moves, a bit of Salsa and lots of shimmying in there. Lots of energy was required!

Year 3

They were studying Chile. Their traditional dance is called ‘Cueca’ (pronounced Kweka) and is danced with handkerchiefs held in the air. It is a dance loosely based around a cockerel and a chicken, a kind of mating ritual where the cockerel shows off his fancy footwork and the chicken decides if he passes the test! It was a lot of fun.

Carnival Parade

In the afternoon the children dressed up in their carnival costumes and did a dancing parade around the playground to parents. A very lovely day on the (rainy) south coast.

(April 2012)