Move to the music: Dance Foundation offers kids ‘magical’ mix of dance, live music

In addition to being a lot of fun, dance classes can help young children develop physically and socially, said Diane Litsey, executive director of The Dance Foundation, a nonprofit based in Homewood.

Dance helps kids “build a host of skills with their friends in a creative approach — taking turns, working as a group, skipping, balance, galloping, self and general space, recognizing patterns,” Litsey said.

All of these skills “are building blocks for success in school and life,” she said.

TDF, through its Community Partnership Program, provides its Movement to Music dance curriculum on a weekly basis to more than 1,000 students ages 1 to 4 at numerous Birmingham-area facilities, including social service agencies and childcare centers.

The curriculum involves movement, live music, stories and props to inspire creativity and curiosity in kids.

Two of the longest-tenured TDF teaching artists are Carolyn Rabbani and Steve McKinney, who’ve taught dance to children using live music on and off for more than 30 years, according to school officials.

Currently, Rabbani and McKinney are working together on Monday mornings through May at the Greek Cathedral Child Development Center on 19th Street South near UAB.

Rabbani said the experience is as much fun for the teachers as it is for the kids, and allows teachers to help kids explore music.

“I love the spontaneity of working with young children, exploring movement and music with them,” she said. “I’m not teaching them so much as facilitating their exploration. The learning is a natural result of that exploration.”

“When I play, I feel like I’m dancing — I’m just doing it at the piano,” McKinney said.

Rabbani and McKinney “are an amazing artistic team who create imaginative movement experiences for children across our city,” said Rachael Inman, TDF artistic director.

A Birmingham native, McKinney began playing piano at age 9 and enrolled in music theory classes at Samford University before he even began high school, according to a TDF news release.

He learned about TDF — then called the Children’s Dance Foundation — in 1978, only three years after the organization was founded, when he saw a want ad for musicians.

TDF founder Jennie Robertson hired McKinney due to the numerous types of music he could play. He also began composing music for TDF right away and has written more than a dozen songs that are used in “Movement to Music.”

A Mobile native, Rabbani moved to Birmingham in the eighth grade to study dance at Alabama School of Fine Arts. She later earned a degree in pedagogy and performance at Birmingham-Southern College. After graduating from BSC in the early 1990s, Rabbani began working at TDF.

She left Birmingham a decade later to travel but returned to TDF in 2016 and reunited with McKinney, who had been one of her favorite teaching teammates.

Rabbani and McKinney said they work together so well it’s not clear who’s leading.

“I don’t know if I’m responding to what he’s playing or if he is playing for what I’m saying,” Rabbani said. “That’s where the magic happens.”

“We’re totally simpatico,” McKinney said. “We just breathe together.”

Live music adds a lot to the teaching of dance to young children, Rabbani said.

“Steve comes up with the most appropriate music and effects for the real nitty gritty of what we’re doing,” she said.

McKinney’s music follows the flow of the dances and stories.

“I improvise much of the imaginary scenes just as the teacher and students do,” he said.

The Monday class is currently the only one Rabbani and McKinney teach together.

However, McKinney plays for more than two dozen classes Monday through Friday in the Community Partnership and Studio programs. Rabbani teaches Fridays in the Studio Program.

TDF has about 28 teaching artists, said Shellie Chambers, TDF program director and marketing director.

Class locations include The Bell Center, Harris Early Learning Center, the YWCA and Levite Jewish Community Center.

“Using their whole self — body, mind and spirit — the children improve fine and gross motor skills, focus and attention and activate their imaginations,” Chambers said.

Movement to Music is also “a great way to reinforce the learning that happens in preschool, like counting, colors, seasons and animals, in a fun, creative, physical approach,” she said.

In addition to Movement to Music, TDF provides the program “Dancing with Words” for elementary age students to build language arts proficiency in kids in kindergarten through second grade.

Along with typical preschool children, TDF has a history of teaching students in the Birmingham community who are underserved or marginalized, school officials said.

It’s rewarding to help underserved kids, McKinney said. “When we walk into a classroom, these kids clamor to wrap their arms around us, tell us about their day, their week, what’s new,” he said. “In my book, that’s love, and it’s hard to come by. It’s pure, in the moment.”

The experience that Rabbani and McKinney provides is unique, the pair said.

“We, the teacher and musician, enter the classroom in a spirit of fun and adventure,” McKinney said.

For more, call 205-870-0073 or go to thedancefoundation.org.