What dances are taught to kids in school?

mjnemeth

mjnemeth

Member
I remember learning square dances, box step and "rocking n roll" (double step ECS) in the 1959 and 60 in NJ. My son who is now 30 only remembers square dances in Maryland.
I know a local high school in NJ teaches lindy hop. And its a requirement in South Carolina to learn Carolina shag!

So what did you learn when you were in school and what are they teaching in school now?
 
Dance was not taught at any pre-collegiate school I ever attended. I think the only thing I really learned from P.E. back in the day was to hate running, which was something of a shame.

I can speak with less authority on what's done locally these days, although our local adult champ level dancer just started teaching a class at one of the local schools. I think that's very much an exception rather than the rule though.
 
I was not taught dance in school. I do know a friend who is now teaching dance to middle schoolers. Oh how I wish I was a child again.
 
None that I remember. Unless you count the hokey-pokey and the chicken dance. And that would have been in music class or kindergarden and nursery school. PE was all Presidential Physical Fitness stuff (which I failed miserably. I will never run a mile in under 12 minutes and I have never been especially flexible or able to do pull-ups.) Or various forms of team sports involving a ball. Or ill-advised semi-surpervised access to gymnastics equipment. Or the rope. I never understood why I was supposed to climb rather than just swing on it, which seemed like more fun and all I was capable of doing anyway.
 
I never got to dance in school, but I was also at a very rigorous prep-type school.

My brother went to the local high school though and they have a class called "dance tech" which you can take as PE or as an elective. They learn (basic) lyrical, jazz, and hip hop. They usually also learn "ballroom" but it's pretty butchered... :( They call any partner dance ballroom. Amazingly, they do have an equal number of guys and girls though!
 
The school of my children (high school) got a chargeable sport course in hip hop. There is also an optional course adapted to the wisches of the students. I think they train ballroom essentials and salsa. The theatre course also got a dance section.
 
They taught square dance when I was in elementary school, but that was more of the music teacher's doing than anything else... I'm glad I was tall, the combined classes were my 3rd grade music and a 5th grade gym.

We also had a 2 week selection my senior year of high school that the options were dance, weight room, or yoga for the girls. Learned line dances, promptly forgot them.
 
My junior high was 90% Jewish so they managed to slip in some Israeli folkdances.

On a related note, I'm currently in Budapest (I teach Hungarian folkdancing in the US) and here they take folkdancing very seriously in high school. Every school has a dance group that does really difficult Hungarian folkdances, and boys that can do legenyes (a high energy men's solo dance) are considered varsity athletes.
 
I remember the Hokey Pokey back in the first grade. There was some square dancing. One 6th grade teacher had her pupils do these group dances. Anyone ever do the Stroll?
 
We were taught the very basic waltz box and line dancing in middle school. Which now, like danceronice said it was and is mostly about Presidential Physical Fitness test.
 
Spitfire said:
I remember the Hokey Pokey back in the first grade. There was some square dancing. One 6th grade teacher had her pupils do these group dances. Anyone ever do the Stroll?
Click to expand...
Yes I forgot about the Hokey Pokey probable in first like you. I remember the box and rock was
in the 5 grade maybe the 6 too. After teaching them several days they had had a "tea dance"
near the end of the day it continued past the end of school too. Did that more than ones
 
I learned square dancing in elementary school and historical dances (for lack of a better term) like the minuet and gavotte in middle school and tap in high school (which was an elective). My children attend a prep school which offers dance through high school. In elementary, the children are taught what I would describe as collaborative movement, in middle school they have learned musical theater type choreography and dance of various cultures - Indian, Native American, etc.
 
ktia85 said:
We were taught the very basic waltz box and line dancing in middle school. Which now, like danceronice said it was and is mostly about Presidential Physical Fitness test.
Click to expand...

Lol, have NO idea what they do in schools now (I was in middle school and grade school in the '80s.) I heard they got rid of/revamped the Presidential test.
 
That presidential test was the bane of my existence. If DS's elementary and middle schools careers are anything to go by yes, doi, you're right. Ding. Dong. The evil test is dead! (OT: In retrospect, the test really wasn't all that much about fitness. Meaning some subset of fit people can climb a rope. Sure. But not being able to climb a rope doesn't make you unfit. My morbidly obese GF just happened to be able to run fast, so she passed the test. Never mind that she may well die of a heart attack way too young. Maybe that's why I hated it. It didn't really measure much of anything relevant to actual fitness, IMV.)

To answer the question, both DS and I, raised in different decades (heck! centuries :lol:) and in drastically different school districts in different states, both had square dance in elementary school and pretty much nothing thereafter. I remember a couple weeks of dancerize in high school -- the only two weeks of PE in my entire pre-k to 12 career that I did not abominate, btw. Maybe that shoulda told me something. :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Dance Ads

Advertise on Dance Forums Reach dancers, teachers, studios, event organizers, and dance-friendly brands. View ad options
Back
Top