Sharing the arts with children

The dancers of the Pacific Northwest Ballet have remarkable concentration. Their leaps and pirouettes are executed with effortless grace—even with the noses of ten small, wiggly children pressed up against the glass of their practice room. Our group of two to six year-olds is taking a fall tour of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School.

“Wow, they’re beautiful!” my daughter says. “See that guy jump?” says my son, seeing for the first time that ballet isn’t just about girls in pink.

Next we enter a practice room of our own where the children take a dance class to live piano accompaniment. The children hop and twirl, stopping and starting with the music. For the finale, they sit in a circle and pass around real costumes from the ballet’s performances, handling the worn point shoes of the ballerinas and looking out from behind the eyes of the actual mask of the Nutcracker.

All around the Puget Sound, families are fortunate to have remarkable access to the arts, from local library programs to some of our region’s most prestigious museums and concert halls. Most programs for children are surprisingly affordable, and many are completely free. For our small group, touring the ballet school cost about the same as taking the kids to a movie, but the opportunity it offered the children was priceless.

The Seattle Symphony, located at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, offers free tours twice weekly as well as periodic free organ recitals. Their hands-on museum, Soundbridge, invites kids to feel and try out instruments for themselves, and offers story times and classes, as well as a children’s symphony series all their own. There is something wonderful about a roomful of toddlers laughing, singing, and enjoying music amid the Chihuly glass and plush seating of the very grown-up recital hall. It speaks highly of the value we in the Northwest place on our littlest citizens that they are welcome here.

All young children love to sing, dance, and move, and they don’t need expensive materials or instruction to make music their own. Encourage your children to put their own words to music with a few simple rhythm instruments and a tune they already know. You can do this yourself, by singing your children’s names to the William Tell Overture or a bit of your favorite tune. Or check out the CD, The Classical Child at the Ballet from Music for Little People and have ballet dancing in your living room. Giving your children the power to express their own words and feelings through song and dance is the start of a life- long love of music. It teaches that music is accessible, that music is familiar; music is something they can do.

Sharing the arts with children can be as simple as reading a good book of poetry together. Libraries are a fantastic resource for poetry and music from around the world. A quick search online can result in a stack of treasures awaiting you at he library hold desk, allowing you to relax during library time with the kids and take advantage of the wonderful programs they have to offer.

Storytelling is one of the arts children most enjoy and the libraries attract a wide range of artists throughout the year. One storyteller from India told tales from his own childhood, as well as stories centuries old, and finished by teaching the children how to wrap a turban. A West African group shared stories and music. The children joined in chanting and percussion as rattles and shakers were handed around.

For all children, the best way to experience the arts is by doing it themselves. The arts should enrich our lives, and bring us joy. For children, this means at least 90 percent doing for every 10 percent watching or listening quietly.

Don’t be afraid to try out arts activities in the community that welcome families. The key to sharing the arts with a young child is in taking them to places where they will be happy, and where the proprietors don’t mind seeing small children. Keeping the activities low cost or free ensures that you’ll be willing to leave and try again later if something isn’t working for your child.

On the way out of the Pacific Ballet School the children stop again to watch the dancers practice. This time, however, they had just had the experience of dancing themselves.

They see the dancing stop as the director gave some instruction, then start up again, with leaps and jumps. “Look! “ my daughter squeals to her brother, reaching for his arm, “We can do that too!”