Mexican Hat Dance

Source: http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00zMUtApraahcm/Mexican-Hat-Sombrero-Hat-Straw-Hat.jpg

Content

A little bit of history on the Mexican hat dance that you can discuss with your students: The Dance is extremely popular world wide, and according to Ganguly. P (2000) “at one point was even considered the national folk dance of Mexico”. The dance has symbolic meaning behind it and is important to most Mexicans. This dance opens up discussions about culture, social aspects, and significance of the steps, you may also want to discuss the importance of the costumes and create your own.

Reference:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/mexican-hat-dance.html

The Dance Components

·      Traditionally a partner dance (you may want your students to dance around a prop i.e. a Mexican hat they have made themselves

·      Levels

·      Clapping (fast and slow)

·      Swapping legs whilst jumping up and down (may be difficult for some younger students, can be altered with stepping forward instead of jumping for the little ones)

·      Skipping

·      Galloping

·      Circle around a partner or prop

·      Galloping around in a circle linking arms with partner

·      Faster and slower movements as the dance can speed up and slow down accordingly

Skill Components

·      Recognition of partner

·      Spatial awareness

·      Legs crossing (complex motor planning)

·      Galloping and skipping

·      Change of directions

·      Following instructions

How We Teach

One method to teach different components of the dance is to introduce and deconstruct the moves during a warm up activity.

Deconstruct: Warm up

·      Jumping

·      Jumping whilst crossing legs

·      Galloping around the room

·      Linking arms and galloping/skipping

·      Kneeling, then springing up

Strategies

Being organized is the key to success when teaching a dance; make sure you have your resources ready, and the time and space you need to teach. Also be flexible, outcomes do not always turn out the way you have planned them, having a flexible program helps if things take longer or quicker to teach than expected.

·      Clear space to dance

·      Resources needed (music, CD player)

·      Props and costumes made

·      Outline to students behavioural expectations during lesson

·      Clear explanation of the activity (learning a new dance)

Curriculum Perspectives

ELA: 7.EC.3, 4, 13- Dance

ELA: 12.EC. 2, 4, 7, 8, 9- Physical

Cross Curriculum Ideas and Perspectives

Students could create their own Mexican Hats, this activity promotes other forms of artistic work and is culturally inclusive. To follow on from this activity teachers could also discuss the movement of jumping with their students and jumping beans- they then could create their own musical Mexican shakers with beans as the filler.

Every Chance to Learn:

ELA for Mexican hats: 7.EC.2, 10, 13

ELA for creating instruments: 7.EC.5

Resources

·      Hat templates

·      Youtube clip- Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq5c09ExG3o

·      Instructions

·  

References:

 Ganguly.P (2010), Mexican Hat Dance,

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/mexican-hat-dance.html

ACT Department of Education and Training (2007) Every Chance To Learn: Curriculum framework for ACT schools Preschool to year 10, Department of Education and Training, Canberra.