Cuesheet: Rhythmic Circus: Feet Don't Fail Me Now!
Tap into the funk with four homegrown hoofers from Minneapolis, complete with a trunk full of tap shoes, funky costumes, and a big brass band. Join them for a joyous parade of genre-hopping music and hard-hitting percussive dance.
Dance, Physical Activity, Music

Cuesheet: Arch8 from the Netherlands: TETRISplus
Balance. Communication. Cooperation. This is what dance is all about, and no one shows it off quite like the Arch8 company from the Netherlands.
Dance, Geometry, Europe, Physical Activity

Gear: Pointe Shoes
What makes dancing en pointe possible? Footwear called pointe shoes. With their flat, stiff fronts and special construction, pointe shoes give ballerinas the footwear that helps them stay on their toes and wow audiences
Young Artists, Science, Physical Activity, Jobs in the Arts, Dance, Ballet

Article: Good Moves for Young Dancers
Expert tips for preventing—and treating—injuries in young dancers
Dance, Family, Physical Activity, Young Artists, Ballet

Article: Keep Moving: Keep Kids Dancing
Help make community connections to bring dance to your child's classroom
Dance, Physical Activity

Tipsheet: Social Dances for Upper Elementary
Some fun social dances to try with your upper-elementary-level students
Dance, Education, Music, Physical Activity

Tipsheet: Reading Into Action
Make reading part of your physical education class and exercise students' bodies and brains!
Physical Activity, Literature

Tipsheet: Five Easy Social Dances for Early Elementary
Channel your students’ love of movement with these easy social dances
Dance, Education, Music, Physical Activity

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Systems of the Body: Movement and Choreography
In this lesson, students will create movement patterns that express information about the basic systems, organs, and processes of the human body
Choreographers, Dance, Physical Activity, Science

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Exploring Pottery Techniques
This lesson introduces students to the age-old techniques used in constructing and decorating a burnished coil pot
Visual Arts, Physical Activity

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Acting Up, A Melodrama
In this lesson, the students practice some melodramatic movement.
Physical Activity, Theater

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Baila! Latin Dance in the Spanish Classroom
Learn about a variety of Latin dances through oral group presentations. Each group will research and present one dance.
Dance, Latin America, Physical Activity, World Cultures

Grade 5 Lesson: Moving Tales
Students practice using their bodies to communicate through movement, improvisation, and pantomime games. Groups then read and interpret an assigned Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale
Dance, Folklore, Literature, Physical Activity

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Who Has Seen the Wind?
In this lesson students are introduced to and encouraged to explore characteristics of the wind through poetry and van Gogh’s paintings
Nature, Visual Arts, Science, Physical Activity

Grades 3-4 Lesson: The Monkey Dance: Exploring Balinese Culture
The Kecak is a Balinese dance drama based on the Hindu epic Ramayana, which was compiled between 500 and 400 BC.
Asia, Dance, Physical Activity, World Cultures, Animals

Grades 3-4 Lesson: All Around the Baseball Field
Students construct a mock baseball field and from there explore the sport of baseball through art, movement, and sound
Sports, Geometry, Physical Activity

Video: Hip-Hop Meets Modern: Dance is not Dance
What happens when Turkish hip-hop dancers travel to the United States on a modern dance exchange program? Hip-hop dancers discover the transition to modern dance is not an easy one, since the two forms are based on very different styles.
Dance, Hip-Hop, World Cultures, Europe, Young Artists, Physical Activity

Video Series: Matt the Chihuahua
Meet Matt, and actor who has been cast in a role as a chihuahua. How does he prepare for that?
Animals, Theater, Physical Activity, Young Artists

Video Series: Galumpha, The Human Jungle Gym
Galumpha, "The Human Jungle Gym," brings to life a world of imagination, beauty, muscle, and merriment
Dance, Physical Activity, Theater, Music, Jobs in the Arts

Everyday Arts Challenge: Safari Stretch
Act like a giraffe. Eat leaves. Stop for a drink. Enjoy the view. What other activities do you do in your typical giraffe day?
Animals, Theater, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Sea Legs
Walk like a pirate on his ship during a storm. How do you move your feet? Legs? Remember, the waves are rocky and you need to keep your balance!
Theater, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Rock Out
Turn up your favorite tunes and play the air guitar.
Rock & Roll, Music, Popular Culture, Physical Activity, Musical Instruments

Everyday Arts Challenge: Sinking Sprint
Pretend you’re running over quicksand. Yikes! How fast do you move your legs to keep from sinking? How high do you kick them?
Theater, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Noodle Stroll
Pretend you’re walking on spaghetti with bare feet. Is it easy or hard to get around? How many noodles get stuck between your toes?
Theater, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Music Muscles
Walk like you’re the drum majorette, or leader, of a marching band. Is it easy or hard? Remember to stand up straight, lift your knees, and strike up the band.
Music, Sports, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: On the Prowl
Act like a wolf. Run. Dig. Howl. What other activities do you do in your typical wolf day?
Theater, Animals, Physical Activity, Language

Everyday Arts Challenge: Slow-Mo
Pretend you are running…in slow motion. Is it easy or hard? How do you move your arms, legs, and even face to pull this off?
Physical Activity, Theater

Everyday Arts Challenge: Changing Channels
Change the dial on your car’s FM radio and find a song you’ve never heard before. Take a listen. Dance in your seat to an unfamiliar tune.
Rock & Roll, Music, Dance, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Chilly Toes
Pretend you’re walking on ice cubes with bare feet. Brrr! Are you moving fast or slow? Careful not to slip!
Theater, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Chow Call
Create a cheer about your favorite dessert. Add some dance steps and arm movements. How many different dessert cheers can you compose?
Theater, Sports, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Do a Little Dance
It’s hot. It’s summer. It’s time to water the grass. Be a human sprinkler. Get into a rhythm. It’s the sprinkler dance! Make sure to cover the whole lawn!
Dance, Physical Activity, Nature, Plants

Everyday Arts Challenge: Animal Instincts
Inch around like a caterpillar. How quickly do you get places this way? Remember though, in time you become a butterfly. What’s it like to suddenly be able to fly?
Animals, Physical Activity, Theater, Nature

Everyday Arts Challenge: Anybody There?
Walk like a ninja. Remember, you must be quick and silent as if you’re invisible! How long can you go undetected?
Japan, Physical Activity, Theater

Everyday Arts Challenge: Bird Brain
Act like an eagle. Soar. Swoop. Nest. What other activities do you do in your typical eagle day?
Animals, Theater, Nature, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Brow Beat
Look in a mirror. Move your eyebrows around. Using only your brows, can you move them so you look surprised? Angry? What about curious?
Physical Activity, Comedy, Tragedy

Everyday Arts Challenge: Body Beats
Snap your fingers. What kind of noises can you make? Create a beat. Try adding some words to make a song.
Music, Physical Activity, Hip-Hop

Everyday Arts Challenge: JELL-O Wiggle
Pretend you’re dancing on JELL-O. How well do you wiggle in JELL-O? Is it easy or hard to keep your balance?
Dance, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Jock Jams
Choose a song and use moves or actions from a sport to dance along? What sport did you choose? Now try another. Can you teach someone else the dance?
Sports, Dance, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Howdy Partner!
Walk like a rodeo cowboy or cowgirl. To get it right, how do you move your feet? Legs? Arms? Now try riding an imaginary horse.
Animals, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Mail Call
Waddle like a duck on your way to pick up the mail. To get it right, how do you move your feet? Legs? Hips?
Animals, Theater, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Makin’ Moves
Create a new dance move. What kind of music does it go with? What do you call it?
Dance, Music, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Long Legs
Perform a grand jeté, or leap, like a ballet dancer. Measure the distance you go. Does it help to have a running start?
Ballet, Sports, Physical Activity, Dance

Everyday Arts Challenge: Hot Hot Hot!
Pretend you’re walking on hot coals with bare feet. Yikes! How fast do you go to keep from burning your feet?
Theater, Physical Activity

Everyday Arts Challenge: Hand Jive
Sing your favorite song a cappella, or without instrumental music. Clap the beat in the background.
Music, Physical Activity

Arts Quotes: Alice Abrams
"In life as in the dance: Grace glides on blistered feet."
Dance Legends, Dance, Physical Activity

Arts Quotes: Fred Astaire
"I just dance. I just put my feet in the air and move them around."
Dance Legends, Physical Activity, Dance, Movies & Movie Stars

Arts Days: August 17, 1973: Kung Fu Mania Kicks Off
The violent yet elegant Chinese martial art broadly known as kung fu reached a huge new audience with the release of this film. Bruce Lee, its star and an acclaimed master of several martial arts, shot to international prominence.

Lee’s movie character uses his physical strength and philosophical gifts to dispatch a bad guy named Han, who dwells on a private island. Spectacular fight sequences show Lee dispatching Han and his henchmen with everything from roundhouse kicks to scary claw-like weapons. The action was a bit too rough at times, in fact; several actors were hospitalized during filming.

Though Lee died shortly before the premiere, Enter the Dragon kick-started the kung fu film genre popular to this day.
China, Innovators & Pioneers, Physical Activity, Popular Culture, Movies & Movie Stars

Arts Days: November 02, 1898: Gimme a U! Gimme an M!
Back in 1898, a student at the University of Minnesota named Johnny Campbell led a crowd in a fervent chant meant to fire up their football team, the Gophers. This then, believe it or not, was the birth of organized cheerleading, which has evolved significantly over the years to become a sort of combination of sports and art that includes complex dance routines and physcial stunts.

It's technically considered a sport, and is heavily dominated by female participants. But back in Campbell’s day, the first “yell leader” squad was comprised of six young men, who encouraged the crowd to support the athletes on the field. For decades, in fact, cheerleaders were almost always male. And guess what? The cheer Campbell made up that day—“Rah, Rah, Rah! Sku-u-mar, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-so-tah!”—is still a favorite used today by the Gophers’ cheerleaders.
Innovators & Pioneers, America, Sports, Physical Activity, Choreographers