Wait, It's August? Before the First Bell.

It’s August. I feel like I just finished the spring semester.

The back-to-school ads are everywhere, reminding me that another school year is just around the corner. Part of me is excited to start planning new lessons and imagining a fresh group of students. Another part of me just wants everything to slow down. I want a little more time to read, take classes, hang with my pups, and enjoy the slower rhythm that summer brings.

Then the calendar flips to August, and my teacher brain starts filling with lesson ideas, choreography, and everything I want to accomplish before students walk through the door.
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One thing that gives me peace of mind is knowing I already have a starting point. Every June and July, I begin building a playlist. It starts with song recommendations from the new Dance Company members and grows as I spend the summer listening to music and collecting ideas.

With a playlist and my warm-up framework in place, I can begin plugging in the skills, concepts, and lessons I want to teach. 

In my book, Choreographing the Curriculum, I share the warm-up framework that has become the foundation of my teaching. Along with the warm-ups, you'll find lessons, choreography prompts, and classroom strategies that help build technique, creativity, and community from the very first day of school.

These tools eventually become part of the dance-making process. They aren't separate from the curriculum—they become the curriculum. The warm-ups, creative prompts, improvisation, and classroom experiences all become movement vocabulary for choreography.

That philosophy guides both my choreography and my students' choreography. As we create dances throughout the year, we're not starting from scratch. We're building from the movement, ideas, questions, and experiences we've already explored together. The choreography grows naturally from the curriculum.
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It's a reminder to do what you know, use what you have, and make what you need.

So yes...it's August.

​In my next post, I'll share what that beginning actually looks like: the lessons, activities, and routines I use during the first week of school to build community and set the tone for the year.

You can get a copy of my Choreographing the Curriculum here.
www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQWYMJY9?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Photo: Patrick Albert