Folklife Resources for Educators

Materials Related to Dance

There are 21 titles in this list.

Alaska Native Dance
by Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations
http://www.echospace.org/articles/285/sections/709

Curriculum resources for exploring similarities in the midst of diversity by introducing students to native dances performed by Alaskan cultural groups. Accompanying videos document a variety of dance forms performed by five native groups, with background about the characteristics of the dances and the cultural contexts and restrictions governing their performance. Curriculum ideas can be used in the classroom for teaching social studies, music, fine arts, geography, and physical education.

Sponsoring Organization:
Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations


http://www.echospace.org/

American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music
by Costa-Kim, Patricia
http://americansabor.org/classroom

Classroom curriculum and educator resources for middle and high school students focused on Latino music and culture found in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Antonio, Miami, and New York City. Topics include the social and cultural history of Latino music, Latino music's impact on American popular culture, the vocabulary and styles of Latino music, and Latino musicians. Although created to accompany an exhibition of the same name, the educational materials can stand alone. The site includes lessons, activities, and word games, video and audio recordings, biographical information on Latino musicians, interpretive maps, and bilingual accompanying resources. Most of the materials on the site can be found in both Spanish and English and in PDF-format.

Sponsoring Organization:
Experience Music Project
325 5th Avenue N
Seattle WA 98109
(206) 770-2776
http://www.empmuseum.org/index.asp

Other Organizations:
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES)
470 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Suite 7103
Washington DC 22024
(202) 633-3168
http://www.sites.si.edu/

Association for Cultural Equity - Teaching Resources
by Association for Cultural Equity
http://www.culturalequity.org/rc/ce_rc_teaching.php

Educational resources and activities for use in the Pre-K through 12 classroom, based on archival materials in the Alan Lomax Archive. Can be incorporated into the curriculum areas of history, geography, language arts, social studies, visual arts, music, and dance. Includes lesson plans and streaming video for four of Alan Lomax's films in the American Patchwork series: "Appalachian Journey;" "Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old;" "Jazz Parades;" and "The Land Where the Blues Began." The site also includes classroom activities with streaming audio, focused on a variety of musical genres and characteristics, with examples recorded by Lomax in Spain, Italy, the Bahamas, England, Scotland, Trinidad, and the American South.

Sponsoring Organization:
Association for Cultural Equity
450 West 41st Street, Suite 602-606
New York NY 10036
(212) 268-4623
http://www.culturalequity.org/

Choctaw Dances
by Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations
http://www.echospace.org/articles/123/sections/189

Curriculum resources for exploring three types of Choctaw dances—social, animal, and war—that serve to bind Mississippi Chocktaw communities, honor the natural environment, and express cultural solidarity. An accompanying video illustrates some current traditional activities that connect the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians with their past, including dance, the use of traditional instruments, and participation in games such as stickball. Curriculum ideas can be used in the classroom for teaching social studies, dance, music, geography, and physical education.

Sponsoring Organization:
Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations


http://www.echospace.org/

Dakotah Storyteller: Mary Louise Defender Wilson
by Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education
http://locallearningnetwork.org/guest-artist/mary-louise-defender-wilson/

K-12 curriculum ideas for studying the life and artistry of 1999 NEA National Heritage Fellow Mary Louise Defender Wilson, storyteller and performer of songs, dances, and legends of the Dakotah (Sioux) and Hidatsa people. These materials can be used in the curriculum areas of language arts, geography, social studies, history, visual arts, and science. Includes audio recording of Wilson telling the Dakotah story “The Woman Who Turned Herself to Stone,” a transcript of an interview with her, background on Native American storytelling and language, and additional resources.

Sponsoring Organization:
Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education
c/o City Lore
72 East First Street
New York NY 10003
http://locallearningnetwork.org/

Folk Artists: New Roots
by Institute for Cultural Partnerships
http://www.culturalpartnerships.org/fan/

Educational web pages designed for use with students in grades 5-8 which provide activities and primary source materials about recent immigrant and refugee communities in Pennsylvania. A 12-page teacher's guide, "Using the Folk Arts of Newcomers in Your Classroom," offers curriculum suggestions and activities for exploring traditional forms of culture found in the Ahikskan Turk, Bosnian, Chinese, East Indian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Sudanese, and Vietnamese communities in Pennsylvania. Accompanying the guide are stories and videos, some in Spanish, of individual Puerto Rican, Chinese, and Mexican individuals, representing dance, foodways, and other cultural and artistic traditions. The guide correlates with Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and the Arts and Humanities.

Sponsoring Organization:
Institute for Cultural Partnerships
3211 North Front Street
Harrisburg PA 17110-1342
(717) 238-1770
http://www.culturalpartnerships.org/

Grenada and Carriacou Teaching Resources
by Association for Cultural Equity
http://www.culturalequity.org/rc/ce_rc_teaching_grenada.php

Educational materials for use in the K-12 classroom in the curriculum areas of music, dance, and language arts, based on archival collections from the Lesser Antilles in the Alan Lomax Archive. The site includes classroom activities focused on a variety of musical genres and characteristics, with video and audio examples recorded by Lomax in Grenada and Carriacou in 1962 and 1991.

Sponsoring Organization:
Association for Cultural Equity
450 West 41st Street, Suite 602-606
New York NY 10036
(212) 268-4623
http://www.culturalequity.org/

Iowa Folklife -- Volume II
by Iowa Arts Council
http://www.uni.edu/iowaonline/folklife_v2/

Online curriculum resource guide for K-12 students and educators that explores the traditional music, foods, dance, rituals and crafts of Iowa's diverse cultures. A companion resource to "Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions," it includes content pages, audio samples, suggested readings, lesson plans and other online resources. Lesson plans and accompanying materials focus on the blues, Gospel, Latino music, Old Time music, Polka, First Nations Peoples, Vietnamese Tet, and cultural traditions from Laotians, Danes, Bosnians, and Asian Indians who have settled in Iowa.

Sponsoring Organization:
Folk & Traditional Arts Program
Iowa Arts Council
Des Moines IA 50319-0290
(515) 242-6195
http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/programs/folk-and-traditional-arts/resources.shtml

Other Organizations:
Iowa Arts Council
600 E. Locust Street
Des Moines IA 50319-0290
(515) 281-6412
http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/index.shtml

Junior Appalachian Musicians: Celebrating the Musical Heritage of the Southern Appalachians
by Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc.
http://www.jaminfo.org/index.html

Web-based educational resources for grades K-12 providing lesson plans, instructional videos, and sound recordings to encourage students to participate in and learn about stringband, old-time, and bluegrass music and dance traditions of the Southern Appalachians. Includes instructional audio files and videos for performing old-time music on banjo, dulcimer, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin, plus interviews with old-time musicians.

Sponsoring Organization:
Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc.
608 W. Stuart Dr.
Galax VA 24333
(276) 238-0526
http://www.jaminfo.org/index.html

King County and Western Washington Cultural Geography, Communities, Their History and Traditions
by Northwest Heritage Resources
http://www.northwestheritageresources.org/

Ten-week curriculum unit of forty lesson plans (85 p. PDF), with accompanying essays on cultural background and traditional art forms, plus a searchable database of Washington state traditional artists. Designed for use by 7th and 8th grade Social Studies teachers for the Washington State Culture and History curriculum. Curriculum unit focuses on the traditional art forms of Cantonese Opera, Kathak Dance, Hmong Basketry, and Oud Music of the Arabic World. Cultural background essays describe communities of Puget Salish, Chinese Americans, Asian Indians, Laotian Americans, and Arab Americans living in Washington state.

Sponsoring Organization:
Northwest Heritage Resources
3505 NE 187th Street
Lake Forest Park WA 98155
(206) 306-1181
http://www.northwestheritageresources.org/

Learn NC
by UNC School of Education
http://www.learnnc.org/

K-12 teaching and learning resources from the School of Education at the University of North Carolina. Includes lesson plans and learning materials (text and multimedia) on all curriculum areas for use by students independently or as part of classroom instruction. Resources can be browsed by grade level, subject area, and curriculum objective. Lesson plans include folklore, traditional culture, and many other topics. All lesson plans are aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

Sponsoring Organization:
LEARN North Carolina
The University of North Carolina, School of Education
Chapel Hill NC 27599-7216
(919) 962-8888
http://soe.unc.edu/

A Lyrical Life: The Struggle and Hope of South Sudan -- Teacher's Guide
by Susan Eleutario, Troyd Geist
http://www.ndstudies.org/media/a_lyrical_life_the_struggle_and_hope_of_south_sudan

Teacher's guide for "A Lyrical Life: The Struggle and Hope of South Sudan," a documentary about the culture, history, music, and dance of the Ma'di people of southern Sudan and northern Uganda. Issues brought up in the video and lesson plans include religious conflict, slavery, race, genocide, displacement, war, and refugee status in southern Sudan. Also featured are the renewal of hope and the reconciliation process that is taking place in Africa and in America in places like North Dakota, where the featured musicians currently live. The video is approximately 26 minutes long and is available on the website. Lesson plans in the teacher's guide (22 p. PDF) have benchmarks and standards for grades 9-12 for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Music.

Sponsoring Organization:
North Dakota Council on the Arts
1600 E. Century Avenue, #6
Bismarck ND 58503-0649
(701) 328-7590
http://www.nd.gov/arts/

The Music District - Teaching Guide
by Paddy Bowman
http://www.folkstreams.net/context,275

Teaching guide to accompany an excerpt of the film “The Music District,” created by filmmaker Susan Levitas in 1996. Nine minutes of the 56-minute film are chosen as a focus for the teaching guide. This excerpt profiles the "Junk Yard Band," a Go-Go group who explain and perform a pop music genre popular among African American youth in Washington, D.C. As Go-Go bands became popular in D.C. clubs and communities in the 1980s and 1990s, young people started break dancing contests and developed a distinctive musical style combining call-and-response lyrics with funk, jazz, rhythm and blues, and popular music. The discussion guide and film explore the topics of African American popular music and dance found in a vibrant urban youth culture noted for its creativity and improvisation. The entire film is also available as streaming video on folkstreams.net.

Sponsoring Organization:
Folkstreams


http://www.folkstreams.net

Oral Traditions
by Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations
http://www.echospace.org/articles/127/sections/193

Curriculum resources for the study of Tlingit oral traditions for grades 5-8. The materials focus on the interconnections of story and dance in the Tlingit culture of Southeastern Alaska and include a video that features Tlingit oral tradition. Topics covered include how oral tradition tells us who we are, where we came from, and how it serves to communicate important cultural values. It also focuses on how the Tlingit people use art, song, dance, and storytelling to express their identity. Curriculum suggestions conform to National Standards for English Language Arts.

Sponsoring Organization:
Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations


http://www.echospace.org/

Performing Asveq (The Walrus Hunt)
by Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations
http://www.echospace.org/articles/129/sections/195

Curriculum resources for grades 5-8 focused on how young people of Inupiaq and Yupick heritage express their cultural identity through song and dance. Topics covered focus on performing arts that provide a direct way to participate in one’s cultural community, to preserve culture for future generations, and to express joy in being a part of a culture. An accompanying video illustrates a song and dance describing a walrus hunt developed by students from an Anchorage high school. Curriculum suggestions conform to National Standards for English Language Arts and can be used in the classroom to teach social studies, music, and performing arts.

Sponsoring Organization:
Echo: Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations


http://www.echospace.org/

Show-Me Traditions: An Educators Guide to Teaching Folk Arts and Folklife in Missouri Schools
by Eleutario, Susan
http://maa.missouri.edu/mfap/articles/showme_new.pdf

Educational guide with eight lesson plans and accompanying activities for fourth and fifth grade students that introduces concepts of folk arts and folklife in general and Missouri traditional art forms and artists in specific. The guide is organized as follows: Section I: Defining Folk Arts and Folklife; Section II: Discovering Folk Arts in Everyday Life; and Section III: Folk Artists in Missouri. Background information is provided on Missouri traditional arts and artists from the fields of Bluegrass music, Colombian-American dance and costume, Ozark riverways and boats, Irish-American music and dance, cowboy and spoken word poetry, German-American bobbin lace making, Missouri fiddling and old-time dance, and African-American storytelling. Site includes links to audio and video recordings plus additional background resources. Missouri curriculum connections are noted for Communication Arts, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Music, and Physical Education. (56 p. PDF)

Sponsoring Organization:
Missouri Folk Arts Program
21 Parker Hall
Columbia MO 65211-2330
(573) 882-6296
http://maa.missouri.edu/mfap/

Teacher's Guide to "In My Heart, I Am a Dancer"
by Debora Kodish, Deborah Wei
http://www.folkloreproject.org/programs/education/dancer/index.php

Curriculum guide to accompany the publication, "In My Heart I am a Dancer," about the Cambodian community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Topics include Cambodian classical dance and costume, and the history and culture of Cambodia. Created for use with children in grades K-4 and also with older students. The guide includes background for teachers in working in the classroom with folk arts plus lesson plans, activities, and questions for students as they read the text.

Sponsoring Organization:
Philadelphia Folklore Project
735 South 50th Street
Philadelphia PA 19143
(215) 726-1106
http://www.folkloreproject.org/

Other Organizations:
School District of Philadelphia
Education Office, 440 N. Broad St.
Philadelphia PA 19130
(215) 400-4000
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/

Teaching Folklife: Educational Materials for Students and Teachers
by Hayden Roberts
http://www.arts.state.tn.us/images/folklife/Teaching%20Folklife.pdf

This educational resource contains lesson plans designed to introduce teachers and students to a basic understanding of traditional culture in Tennessee. It is most useful for students in the 4th through 7th grades. The guide includes five lesson plans: I) Introduction to Traditional Culture; II) Storytelling and Oral History; III) Folk Arts and Crafts; IV) Traditional Music; and V) Foodways. The resource includes a glossary of folklife terms and readings brought together from a wide variety of sources on the topic of Tennessee traditional arts. Materials in the guide can be used in the classroom for teaching Language Arts, Music, Visual Arts, Social Studies, and Math.(179 p. PDF)

Sponsoring Organization:
Tennessee Arts Commission Folklife Program
401 Charlotte Avenue
Nashville TN 37243-0780
(615) 741-1701
http://www.tn.gov/arts/folklife.htm

Other Organizations:
Tennesee Arts Commission


http://www.arts.state.tn.us

Tradition: Tennessee Lives and Legacies Teacher's Guide
by Dana Everts-Boehm
http://www.arts.state.tn.us/resources/tradition_teachers_guide.pdf

Teacher’s guide designed for grades 3-12 which enhances the understanding of Tennessee’s folklife heritage. Originally developed to prepare students for visiting an exhibition of the same name, the guide can stand on its own as an educational resource. The materials include profiles of Tennessee folk artists from a variety of regional and ethnic backgrounds, representing Cumberland Plateau old-time fiddling, Middle Tennessee buck dancing, African American blues, Choctaw beadwork, the making of Mennonite sorghum, and Mexican needlework. The guide also introduces students to the basic concepts of folklife, tradition, folk group, family folklife, tradition bearer, folk artist, and fieldwork. Accompanying forms and guidelines on interviewing family members and presenting findings in the classroom are included. The materials conform to Tennessee State Curriculum Standards for Art, Social Studies, Modern History, and Science. (24 pp. PDF) For a DVD of photographs of Tennessee traditional artists, including those in the teacher's guide, contact: dana.everts-boehm@tn.gov

Sponsoring Organization:
Tennessee Arts Commission Folklife Program
401 Charlotte Avenue
Nashville TN 37243-0780
(615) 741-1701
http://www.tn.gov/arts/folklife.htm

Other Organizations:
Tennesee Arts Commission


http://www.arts.state.tn.us/

Traditional Arts and Culture in the Cambodian Community in Philadelphia
by School District of Philadelphia
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/curriculum/supports/philavoices/cambo_grade6.pdf

A grade 6 module developed for use in the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, aligned with the District's Core Curriculum on the folk arts of the Cambodian community in Philadelphia, with emphasis on Cambodian classical dance. The module includes background information on the country of Cambodia. (31 p. PDF)

Sponsoring Organization:
School District of Philadelphia
440 N. Broad Street,
Philadelphia PA 19130
(215) 400-4000
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/

Other Organizations:
Philadelphia Folklore Project
735 South 50th Street
Philadelphia PA 19143
(215) 726-1106
http://www.folkloreproject.org/

Wisconsin Folks
by Wisconsin Arts Board
http://arts.state.wi.us/static/folkdir/index.htm

Website for students, educators, and the general public featuring traditional artists, art forms, and cultures of Wisconsin. Includes background on regional and ethnic traditional crafts, foodways, music, and dance. Information on the site has content for 4th, 8th, and 12th grade themes in Social Studies, the Visual Arts, Music, Dance, English, Information and Technology Literacy, and Business, correlated to Wisconsin Model Academic Standards and Benchmarks. Also includes contact information for engaging Wisconsin traditional artists and performers for public and classroom presentations.

Sponsoring Organization:
Wisconsin Arts Board
101 E. Wilson Street
Madison WI 53702
(608) 266-0190
http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov/static/