Hello & Happy Tuesday!!
If you keep up with me on Instagram and/or Facebook – you may already be aware that I renamed this month MOVEmber!
Typically I take November to focus on Gratitude and togetherness – and I’m still doing that in my classes – but one thing I am most grateful for is the ability to MOVE MY BODY!
I’m grateful that I can walk without pain or discomfort and that I can bend and jump and dance and have that kind of freedom. And I am grateful specifically to be able to DANCE!
We joke that I danced right out of the womb (was out in 30 minutes!) and have never stopped. I danced throughout my childhood in classes and in my free time, I went to college for Dance, and I spend a good portion of my Miss Nina classes and performances dancing!
Dance has been and done so many incredible things for me in my Life.
It’s been my favorite pastime, my best medicine, and my meditation.
It makes me feel better than any drink or drug ever tried to.
It’s been my profession, my healer, connected me with others, and my connection to the Divine. Dance was my first language, my creative outlet, and my main avenue of self expression.
I am crazy passionate about using dance, movement and music to deliver early learning, cognitive and physical development for young children and friends with special needs.
So – let’s do it! If Dance (or movement! Or exercise of any kind!) only does ONE of the things for you that it does for me – it’s still an amazing thing to do! Let’s Dance & Move together every day in this month of MOVEmber!
I’m getting the party started today with my song Up & Down (from my Storytime performance at The Met on 10/26/19). I”d posted a snippet of it on Instagram last week, and just put up the full video on YouTube. (The video started a little bit into the song, but you and always download the full song on iTunes or Amazon if you don’t already have it! 🙂 ) You know I love hip-hop and rap! And I love to get a whole crowd – kids and adults – moving together. AND I love that while having so much fun, our little ones have an experiential experience (through moment and music) of the concepts of Up & Down, while also developing their gross motor skills! (Did you know that being able to lift one’s arms over their head eventually helps them to be able to hold a pen/pencil and write?!) This is what I’m ALL ABOUT!!
For the toddlers, the rhythmic repetition of the words Up & Down and High & Low while doing the corresponding movements helps with their speech development.
And grown ups – trust me, it’s fun for you too! Need a little cardio boost? This will do it for ya!
And then, of course, I cannot fully abandon Thanksgiving songs! So for you this week I also have a new 20 minute video of back-to-back Thanksgiving songs for you! In this video are the following 7 songs:
- Mr. Turkey & Mr. Duck
- Albuquerque The Turkey
- A Turkey Is A Silly Bird
- Grateful
- This Land Is Your Land with Marsha Goodman-Wood & Yosi
- The More We Get Together
- Grateful – Official Music Video
All the usual weekly intros & “outros” have been edited out so we get right to learning and doing the songs! There’s plenty of Move Along fun in these videos too, of course.:)
ENJOY!! And let me know – how will you MOVE for MOVEmber today??!!
Have a wonderful week & I’ll see you in your inbox next Tuesday!
XOXO
Miss Nina
