Dance With Us 1992
Distributed by Cinema Guild, 115 West 30th Street, Suite 800, New York, NY 10001; 212-685-6242
Producer n/a
Directed by Beth Schneider
VHS, color, 25 min.
K-6
Dance, Child Development
Date Entered: 08/10/2004
Reviewed by Nicole Cooke, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJDance With Us is an interesting attempt to introduce children to the world of dance. Billed as a fitness video for children ages 3-10, that will increase coordination, creativity and confidence, this dated video falls short of its goal. The video features a homogeneous group six children speaking, dancing and providing explanations, and although the video claims to be aimed at children as young as 3 years of age, the youngest child here is at least 6 years old and the level of coordination and attention needed to complete this video necessitates that children be at least this age. The children work well together and are clearly practiced in the abstract interpretative dance featured here. Dance With Us features narration provided by the children, which is not always clear, and begins with an almost 7 minute warm up segment. The dancers then move into an explanation of low, medium and high movement spaces, an oral and visual demonstration of dance terms such as skipping, sliding, prancing and leaping, and finally, they conclude with an interpretative dance segment. The actual dance segment is not formally choreographed and may lose children who are waiting for specific movement instructions.
Although this low budget video was filmed in 1992, it could easily pass as something produced in the mid-1970’s, with the six children dressed in marbleized, multi-colored cat suits, moving in front of a black screen. The visual and audio qualities are not exceptional, but the video does feature appropriate music by Carl Orff. The video has little commercial appeal and may not hold the attention of today’s children who are used to much more visual stimulation. The study guide that is supposed to accompany the VHS tape was not available for review, so it is hard to determine how much value Dance With Us will have in a classroom. Based on the tape alone, Dance With Us is not recommended. Fitness, abstract art and modern dance do indeed need to be introduced to young children, but this video is not the best way to introduce these topics in the classroom.