Lesson 3: Story Dance

Prop: feather duster

To introduce, I ask them who has been to a museum? (if I haven’t already done this when we read the Ella book.) What kind of museum have you been to? In Boston, there is the Childrens' Museum, the Science Museum, the Zoo (an animal museum), the Aquarium (a fish museum), and the Art Museum. What is in an art museum? Paintings ….and sculptures! I then show pictures of sculptures and we try making those with our bodies. At first all of my pictures look like people, but I make the pictures increasingly abstract and we still try to do those, either alone or with a group. Then we do a story dance. The original source is unknown but here is my version, in the dialogue that I tell as we do the dance. (Stage directions are in italics)

“Once upon a time there was a museum with many fantastic statues. People come to see the statues, say many nice things about them. (Teacher walks around and describes and compliments shapes.) At closing time, a voice comes on the loudspeaker (hold your nose) and says “It is 5 o’clock, the museum is closing. Please proceed to your car, drive safely, and wear your seat belt. The museum will reopen tomorrow at 9AM.”

Every night a janitor comes in to clean the museum First, he/she dusts all of the statues (Dust all the children with a feather duster The children love it!) Then the janitor goes to the other rooms and cleans the paintings, old furniture, jewelry, and everything (Pretend to dust a wall, with your back to the dancers ) But one night, at midnight, on the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year that the museum was open, some quiet (low volume) music began to play. The statues began to wiggle a little and jiggle a little, and then they jumped off of their pedestals, (volume up) and began to dance around the statue room. The janitor was in the other room and thought he/she could hear something in the statue room. (look) Nah! (Use the freeze music and dust the walls. Look back to see what is happening during the freezes, but the statues "freeze" and she never sees them move. But she makes noises and comments like “I think I hear something in here!” At one point, I usually run out of one door and back in time for another freeze. The dancers are amused.) All night long the statues danced and danced and the janitor cleaned and cleaned.

In the morning, (the last segment of the song) the janitor went home. The statues went back up on their pedestals and assumed their shapes, but they were all in different places. Huh?!? Nobody knew the mystery of the fantastic statues that danced at midnight."

This story can be adapted for performance by having kids choose their favorite art pictures and 'come out' of them I print their choices from the various art books or children’s books they own and stick them on the walls. You could project them if you have a way to do that. The janitor could be a teacher or assistant and have a little broom solo. You don't have to tell the story aloud because the dancing makes the story clear.

Jeanne Traxler is the director of Peanut Butter & Jelly Dance Company, founded in 1975 and dedicated to bringing dance to children and children to dance. During the time PB&J has been on a pandemic hiatus, Jeanne directed inschool dance performances and teacher workshops, taught creative movement classes for children, and directed a small company called SMALL FEETS in which children worked collaboratively. In 2018, Jeanne was named the Boston Dance Alliance Dance Champion for her work with young dance students and on the Children's Dance Festival. Jeanne and her companies have taken part at daCi conferences in Finland, Philadelphia and Provo and at NDEO national conferences. She also served on the daCi USA board for many years as treasurer. Currently Jeanne is the in-house dance teacher for the Baldwin Early Learning Center of the Boston Public Schools