Monday, July 25, 2011

Dancing Words Creates Dancing Pants

I have written before about how much I love Shel Silverstein's poetry and how poetry or words can inspire movement.  Well, my dear friend was teaching a summer dance workshop and called me up with an urgent request.  She wanted to know if I could suggest a Shel Silverstein poem that her jazz dance class could use to create a dance.  I nearly leapt out of my chair with excitement.  (Okay - I did leap out of my chair.)  I have many books Shel Silverstein wrote but my absolute favorite is Where The Sidewalk Ends.

I began to suggest to my friend almost ever poem on every page of the book.  His poetry is so descriptive it just about begs a dancer to move to the words.  She decided on the poem Dancing Pants

Dancing Pants by Shel Silverstein (page 126 in Where the Sidewalk Ends)

And now for the Dancing Pants
Doing their fabulous dance.
From the seat to the pleat
They will bounce to the beat,
With no legs inside them
And no feet beneath.
They'll whirl, and twirl, and jiggle and prance,
So just start the music
And give them a chance-
Let's have a big hand for the wonderful, marvelous,
Super sensational, utterly fabulous
Talented Dancing Pants!

Hope you can come up with a dance for these dancing pants with the little ones in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey

2 comments:

  1. Oh, how fabulous. I love Shel Silverstein, too! And I also love Where the Sidewalk Ends. Do you know how the dance turned out?

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  2. HI Kerry,
    It has been hard to get a hold of my friend - but I will definatley let you know when I find out!!

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