Happy Black History Month to all! February is a wonderful month to celebrate and honor the history of African Americans and their influence on our overall culture! As a dance company, we are especially excited as we have the privilege of traveling throughout the Chicagoland area and performing our Black History Month show entitled “Dancing Through the Great Migration” in Chicago Public Schools!

As a child, I never experienced a dance company touring to my school. Exposure to the arts were little if any and most of our assemblies were lectures rather than interactive performances. To share such an important topic through dance with children throughout our local area is so important and so special. We’ve already had multiple students approach us after the performance asking where they can take class with us and expressing their admiration for dance and what they experienced! That is the most rewarding thing to hear.

In “Dancing Through the Great Migration” students ages preschool through high school are able to hear important topics related to black history and black artists displayed through a dance performance. We begin with a break-down of each style of dance used throughout the show. A black pioneer of each dance genre is introduced followed by a brief demonstration of the style – whether that be ballet, jazz, modern, West African, improvisation, tap, or hip-hop. This way students are introduced to a variety of styles and can depict what styles they are seeing throughout the show!

Next up, students learn about the Black National Anthem (“Lift Every Voice and Sing”) and view a dance using the three colors of the African American flag (red, green, and black). Students then hear about the Great Migration, learn about the Rainbow Coalition, and hear about the African American’s toils in Chicago.

Where the performance is interactive is when the students get to stand up and join in by learning 5 jazz steps utilized in the 1920’s – the Charleston, sugars, bee’s knees, jazz hands, and a basic slide step. We combine these movements to create a simple dance for the children to learn and participate with. It’s a hit at every school we’ve been in!!

Finally, the performance is wrapped up with a demonstration of jazz dance, an exposure to black poetry through Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” poem, and a dance to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.

The children learn a lot in a short period of time in such a fun way. Watching dance is stimulating and drives focus. It’s amazing to me how chatty the kids can be at the start of the assembly and ten minutes later they are completely mesmerized by the dancing. PLUS, so many kids at the schools we’ve been to have had tremendous questions during our Q&A section at the end! We’ve been blown away by these kids’ perceptions of dance and their curiosity!

What a privilege it’s been to share this performance and this bit of education with so many schools in our area. A special thank you and shout out to the wonderful principals and staff at each of these Chicago Public Schools that took the time out of their day to have us and expose their students to something so critical to our culture!

Happy Black History Month! Do something to educate yourself and celebrate!