Chapter 25 Rhythmic gymnastics

The summer vacation is over, and the second semester has begun.During the summer vacation, we had a lot of activities together. Xiaodoudou got closer to the classmates in the class, and even became familiar with the older brothers and sisters. She liked Ba Xueyuan even more. Ba Xueyuan is not only different from ordinary elementary schools in the way of admonishment, but also has a lot of music time.There are various ways to learn music. In Ba Xueyuan, there is time for learning "rhythmic exercises" every day.The founder of prosody is Dacroze, which is a special rhythm education proposed by him.This study was published in 1905, and immediately attracted widespread attention throughout Europe and the United States, and prosody training institutes and research institutes were established in various countries.So, why did Ba Xueyuan adopt Mr. Dacroze's theory? There is a reason for this.

The principal, Mr. Sosaku Kobayashi, went to Europe before he opened Ba Xueyuan, and wanted to investigate how children's education is carried out in foreign countries.Mr. Kobayashi visited many primary schools and listened to many educators' talks.In Paris, Mr. Kobayashi met Mr. Dacroze, an excellent composer and educator.Mr. Dacroze has been thinking about a question for a long time: "How can we educate children not to listen to music with their ears, but to 'listen and understand with their hearts'? When children listen to music, what they feel should not be a lifeless education, but a dynamic Listening, lively music... how can it awaken the children's senses?"

As a result, after long-term thinking, Mr. Dacroze finally discovered something called "rhythmic gymnastics", which was inspired by children's free jumping movements and created.When Mr. Kobayashi was in Paris, he stayed in Mr. Dacroze's school for more than a year and studied rhythm.If we mention some historical topics, there are still many Japanese who have been influenced by Dacroze, led by Mr. Kosaku Yamada, the founder of modern dance Ishii Mo, and the second-generation successor of Kabuki Ichikawa Satoshi Danci, the pioneer of the new theater movement Kaoru Koyamauchi, the dancer Ito Michiro, etc.These people all believed that rhythm is the basis of all art, and they all learned from M. Dacroze.However, Mr. Kobayashi was the first person to try to apply prosody to primary education.

"What is Rhythm?" Whenever someone asks this question, Mr. Kobayashi answers like this: "Rhythm is a game that makes the body's organizational structure more delicate. It is a game that teaches us how to activate the mind. It is a game that allows the mind and body to understand rhythm. Doing rhythmic exercises will make people's character full of rhythm and a sense of rhythm. Character is good, strong, and capable of gently obeying the laws of nature." ...and many more.In short, Xiaodoudou and his class started from the step of making the body understand the rhythm.On the small podium in the auditorium, Mr. Principal played the piano, and the primary school students walked around from various positions in keeping with the rhythm of the piano sound.You can walk in any way, but if you walk against the flow of people, you will collide with people, which will be uncomfortable.Therefore, everyone should walk in the same direction as much as possible, that is, form a circle, but not line up, but move freely and smoothly.At the same time, the children listened to the rhythm of the music, and when they reached the "two beats", they waved their hands up and down in a large way like a conductor, playing a "two beats" rhythm.When walking, don't stomp your feet, but don't tiptoe like you do ballet.My husband's words are as follows: "As if you are dragging your big toe, and your body swings easily and freely, it is good to have such a feeling." In the final analysis, the most important thing is to be natural.So, just move around in a way that feels natural to the children.When the rhythm changes to three beats, the hands should also be swung widely to form a three beat rhythm. At the same time, the movements of the feet should also match the beat, sometimes getting faster and sometimes slowing down.Both hands are like a conductor, constantly changing up and down, and a total of six beats can be achieved.For example, if the rhythm is four beats, the hand position is:

"Put it down—turn it around—lift it up from the side." If it is five beats, it becomes: "Put it down—turn around—stretch to the front—stretch to the side—lift up." If the rhythm is in six beats, it is: "Put it down—turn around—stretch to the front—turn around again in front of the chest—stretch to the side and lift up." In this way, as the rhythm changes, the movements become more and more difficult.What's more difficult is that Mr. Principal would say aloud from time to time when he was playing the piano: "When the sound of my piano changes, don't change immediately!"

For example, at the beginning, everyone walked with the rhythm of two beats, and then the sound of the piano suddenly changed to three beats. However, everyone wanted to listen to the music of three beats while doing the movements of two beats.This is too difficult! Mr. Principal believes that through such exercises, children can develop the habit of concentrating and develop a strong will. After a while, the gentleman called out: "It can be changed!" The primary school students thought "ah, that's great..." and immediately changed to a three-beat movement.At this time, you should not be at a loss, and you must immediately convert the commands of the brain into the movements of the body, that is, the muscles.But just when everyone wanted to close the rhythm of three beats, the piano sound suddenly changed to five beats again! At the beginning of this practice, the children were really in a hurry, shouting "Teacher, wait a minute, Wait a minute."But after getting used to it gradually, I feel very comfortable, and I can gradually come up with various tricks of movements, and it becomes more and more handy.Generally speaking, everyone does their own thing in the flow of people, but if they are happy, they can also do it side by side with others, or hold hands with each other, wink each other's eyes and so on during the second shot.However, talking is not allowed.

Mothers occasionally see this scene from the outside when they come to parent-teacher conferences.Each of the children had their own unique expressions, stretched their hands and feet, jumped up and down very intoxicated, and every movement was just in time with the music.It was a delightful sight. In this way, rhythm enables the body and mind to understand the rhythm, helping the mind and body to achieve harmony, thereby awakening the human imagination and promoting human creativity.I remember that when Xiaodoudou came to Ba Xueyuan on the first day, she asked her mother at the gate of the school:

"What is 'ba'?" The "Ba" in Ba Xueyuan refers to the emblem composed of two Ba-shaped patterns, one black and one white, which expresses the wish of the principal, that children can develop harmoniously in both body and mind. Rhythm lessons have a lot more to offer.Mr. Principal has been thinking about how to prevent the children's inherent qualities from being damaged by the adults around them, so that these rare qualities can be carried forward.Mr. Principal often sighs: "Modern education that relies too much on words and languages ​​may gradually weaken children's ability to feel nature, listen to the voice of gods, and touch inspiration?

"'The green frog fell into the ancient pond, and the sound of the water was heard silently'... Matsuo Basho must not be the only one who saw the frog jumping into the pond. Watt and Newton must not be the only ones who saw the boiling water lifting the lid of the iron pot and the apple falling to the ground . "The scariest thing in the world is to have eyes but not be able to see beauty, to have ears but not to appreciate music, to have a heart but not be able to comprehend what is true. Not to be moved, not to be full of passion..." Mr. Principal sighed in this way, introducing prosody into teaching, and believed that it would definitely achieve good results.And for Xiaodou, being able to be like Isadora.Duncan walked up and down lightly in his bare feet, bouncing up and down, and he was very happy to be able to look like this in class.