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Dancing

As part of my quest to make Shakespeare the coolest thing since sliced bread... I taught my students how to do the Pavane. When Romeo first sees Juliet, they're at her family's annual fest. Everyone is dancing except for Romeo, until he sees Juliet. Then he rushes out to get near her. Usually, this scene is portrayed as Romeo and Juliet dancing, ultimately moving to dance with each other. However, this concept is a little hard to understand while reading the play, especially by today's students. They also have a hard time grasping the concept of dancing without a lot of touching or grinding. Dancing the Pavane, makes the concept a little more real to them.

Plus it's not sitting and reading, which always a favorite of every student.

Comments

HappyChyck said…
That's awesome! I taught my students a dance once spring also. How I ever got my boys to participate, I don't know! As much as they complained, it was an activity that many have said they remembered. Yea!

Allowing the boys to block out what the sword fight might have looked like (with plastic swords) was much better received!

Have fun with R & J. I became so tired of it after several years (geez those two teens are so immature), but after reading your short entry, I just realized I miss teaching it!
4:36 PM
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