VALERIE WILLIAMS
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Contact Me!     Valerie Williams in Draidl

Valerie Williams grew up dancing in a multi-ethnic community: polka and waltz with the Germans, line dances with the Greeks, Highland Fling with the Scots across the street upstairs, etc. Since those early experiences she has studied dance in many forms, including ballroom dance. Valerie has taught social dancing in many guises to students of all ages, from primary grades to advanced adult students. She has compiled those experiences into a section of the Curriculum Guide that presents a social dance unit and lesson plans for each day of the unit.

Valerie is available for residencies, master classes and teacher in-service in all levels of social dance, Argentine Tango, and curriculum development. Williams loves to dance and imparts that joy in her teaching. She stresses good technique, and learning the basic components of dance steps so that even beginning students can begin to make individual choices. She believes that dancing involves moving with your partner, with the music; dance steps are only a vehicle for dancing.

Education Products
To Order:   Write, Call or Email

Curriculum Guide and/or Renaissance Dance
129 East 7th
Ames, IA 50010
515 232-7374
fax 233-9290
v@vjw.biz

RENAISSANCE DANCE FOR KIDS (and Grown-ups)

A DVD of dances, instruction, history, and resources including sheet music and recorded music. Everything you need to begin learning simple dances of the Renaissance and Middle Ages.
Includes: Branles, the Frog Galliard, Lauro
Music played by Music Antiqua



A GUIDE TO DANCE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION
(50 lessons you can teach on Monday morning)

In serving on a state Department of Education curriculum development committee, Valerie became impatient with the amount of time required for decision making and with the assumptions made by the state Department of Education. Figuring that what teachers actually needed were specific lesson plans, Valerie collected a number of field-tested lessons and wrote them as specifically as possible. Valerie is available for residencies and teacher in-service to demonstrate and teach use of this Guide and/or to help develop a dance curriculum.

This accompanying Guide contains lesson plans for units in creative movement, movement and curriculum, social dance, and folk dance. It also contains a rationale for creative movement, discussions of how to teach creative movement, reference pages, helpful lists of words (action, shape, describing, etc.), resources for music, film, video and more!

Waltzing in New Hampton     Valerie Williams with dancers in Bartlesville     Waltzing in New Hampton

Valerie working with elementary school students