Kid friendly dance performances?
February 3, 2016 11:35 AM Subscribe
My toddler likes dance performances and I want to find her more. Details of favourites inside...
Her top favourite is the Royal Ballet School doing Peter and the Wolf, She also likes Peter Pan by the Milwaukee Ballet. She enjoys the dance bits of the CBBs ballets (Elves and the Shoemaker especially) but gets bored with the talking bits with the annoying CBBs presenter guy and the kids interrupting the dance. She also likes dancing along to Kate Bush videos ("Wow" and "Them Heavy People" are faves.)
Any recommendations for other good kid friendly dance pieces on YouTube or DVD? She was unmoved by the Nutcracker. She thinks people dressed as animals is a good thing but it's not a deal breaker.
Her top favourite is the Royal Ballet School doing Peter and the Wolf, She also likes Peter Pan by the Milwaukee Ballet. She enjoys the dance bits of the CBBs ballets (Elves and the Shoemaker especially) but gets bored with the talking bits with the annoying CBBs presenter guy and the kids interrupting the dance. She also likes dancing along to Kate Bush videos ("Wow" and "Them Heavy People" are faves.)
Any recommendations for other good kid friendly dance pieces on YouTube or DVD? She was unmoved by the Nutcracker. She thinks people dressed as animals is a good thing but it's not a deal breaker.
Best answer: If she likes dancing animals she might enjoy some of the sequences from CATS, the musical. These are my (kid friendly) favorites, personally:
Mr. Mistoffelees
The Jellicle Ball
Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser
Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat
Old Gumbie Cat
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:11 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Mr. Mistoffelees
The Jellicle Ball
Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser
Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat
Old Gumbie Cat
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:11 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Was just going to suggest Singin' in the Rain...
posted by msbubbaclees at 12:12 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by msbubbaclees at 12:12 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Eh, I just rewatched Mr. Mistoffelees and it's way less interesting than I remembered so never mind about that one. The other dance numbers on that list are pretty high energy though.
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:22 PM on February 3, 2016
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:22 PM on February 3, 2016
Best answer: If she likes the ROH, they've got some kid-friendly ballets, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (attention-span warning: can be slow going in spots until you reach the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party; also, the quality of the Amazon streaming version is atrocious, so you'd have to get the DVD) and Tales of Beatrix Potter.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:10 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by thomas j wise at 1:10 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
Almost anything with Gene Kelly. He dances with cartoon characters (Anchors Aweigh and Invitation to the Dance), on roller skates and garbage can lids (It's Always Fair Weather), and a great one with a piece of newspaper that he tears up with his feet while dancing (Summer Stock). Plus a lot of just great dancing. YouTube has clips of a lot - if your daughter likes the clips, you can probably find the whole movies on DVD pretty easily.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 8:33 PM on February 3, 2016
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 8:33 PM on February 3, 2016
How about the dance number with the penguins in Mary Poppins.
posted by kjs4 at 9:25 PM on February 3, 2016
posted by kjs4 at 9:25 PM on February 3, 2016
Lauren and Hardy commencin' to dance has charmed generations.
Fred Astaire was an astonishingly graceful dancer, but I don't know if his movies would be too slow for a little kid. Maybe show her the dancing on the ceiling clip from Royal Wedding... that one's so trippy I can see a little kid loving it.
Michael Jackson's dancing seems to really entrance kids, but I'm not sure what videos would be appropriate. A lot of his stuff might be a little dark/scary/sexual. But you could try some of his lighter hits. When kids see him glide around a stage and do the moonwalk, they go nuts!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:42 AM on February 4, 2016
Fred Astaire was an astonishingly graceful dancer, but I don't know if his movies would be too slow for a little kid. Maybe show her the dancing on the ceiling clip from Royal Wedding... that one's so trippy I can see a little kid loving it.
Michael Jackson's dancing seems to really entrance kids, but I'm not sure what videos would be appropriate. A lot of his stuff might be a little dark/scary/sexual. But you could try some of his lighter hits. When kids see him glide around a stage and do the moonwalk, they go nuts!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:42 AM on February 4, 2016
Popular with the young people at the moment is this choreography for the song Where They From by Missy Elliott. The tutorial is available online. The children in the clip are more like 8 - 11 years old.
I would like to think children would be into Tune Yards, but my friend's toddler's had a whole routine to go with the Fox song which has the bonus of animal costumes.
posted by asok at 6:24 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I would like to think children would be into Tune Yards, but my friend's toddler's had a whole routine to go with the Fox song which has the bonus of animal costumes.
posted by asok at 6:24 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I have an almost-two-year-old who LOVES what she calls "tap dancing," which basically means any dance clip I can find on YouTube. Far and away, her favorite is this mashup set to "Uptown Funk" that mixes clips from old movie musicals. We have watched it multiple times a day for a couple months now.
Her second favorite is anything from Singin' in the Rain: "Fit as a Fiddle," "All I Do Is Dream of You," "Make 'Em Laugh," "Good Morning," and, of course, the title piece.
We're big fans of White Christmas, too, so she's seen "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" and "Abraham" and "The Minstrel Show/Mandy."
From Mary Poppins, try "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Step in Time."
For something different, search for clips of Riverdance and its ilk. Or look for Tony Award performances (I'm a huge Sutton Foster fan, so I've been showing my little one the performances from Thoroughly Modern Millie and Anything Goes.
If she likes people dressed as animals, how about this variation from Sleeping Beauty?
posted by timestep at 7:20 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Her second favorite is anything from Singin' in the Rain: "Fit as a Fiddle," "All I Do Is Dream of You," "Make 'Em Laugh," "Good Morning," and, of course, the title piece.
We're big fans of White Christmas, too, so she's seen "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" and "Abraham" and "The Minstrel Show/Mandy."
From Mary Poppins, try "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Step in Time."
For something different, search for clips of Riverdance and its ilk. Or look for Tony Award performances (I'm a huge Sutton Foster fan, so I've been showing my little one the performances from Thoroughly Modern Millie and Anything Goes.
If she likes people dressed as animals, how about this variation from Sleeping Beauty?
posted by timestep at 7:20 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: My toddler loved this A-Z of African Dance (so did I!)
posted by judith at 9:06 PM on February 9, 2016
posted by judith at 9:06 PM on February 9, 2016
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posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:10 PM on February 3, 2016