Elmhurst Academy Students Celebrate National Dance Day

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst Academy summer students showed passion, excitement, and energy as they put on their dancing shoes to perform the official 2016 National Dance Day routine for their staff and faculty.

Becoming a few of thousands that dedicated themselves to the event across the U.S., the students also had the opportunity to delve further into creative dance and movement, which is one of the hundred languages that the Reggio Emilia inspired school emphasizes in its daily learning and instruction.

With its launch in 2010 by the Dizzy Feet Foundation and partnered with ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ National Dance Day is celebrated to encourage Americans to embrace dance as a positive way to maintain good health and fight obesity. Each year on the last Saturday in July, the foundation choreographs an official, easy-to-learn dance routine and challenges those around the nation to learn it, perform it, and be inspired to stay active and healthy. This year, the routine is accompanied with popular song, “Dance Like Yo Daddy” by Meghan Trainor.

Throughout Elmhurst Academy’s summer program, the students worked excitedly with their Creative Movement & Dance Enrichment teacher, Mrs. Kristine Burdi, who taught them the moves to the 2016 routine. Beyond her valuable work at Elmhurst Academy, Mrs. Burdi has developed a dynamic dance background within the past decade. She has performed regionally for Fox Valley Rep, Chicago Shakespeare, and the Metropolis Performing Arts Center. In addition, she has worked as a singer and dancer for Walt Disney World, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Six Flags Great America, and has recently opened up her own performing arts studio in Palatine, Illinois, called ‘That’s Entertainment’ Performing Arts.

On Elmhurst Academy’s National Dance Day celebration, Mrs. Burdi started off the day by getting her students up and moving—jumping, stomping, and clapping to engaging music.

Throughout the exercise, it was a goal to evolve and expand her students’ motor development. “Each class I encourage the children to become aware of their environment, space, and body relevance. They will also work together as a team to create simple routines using dance and play,” said Mrs. Burdi.

The national event brought to life Elmhurst Academy’s goal to incorporate creative movement and dance into their daily learning and instruction. As an important aspect of early childhood development and the Reggio Emilia philosophy the school is inspired by; it allows students to engage in musical and kinesthetic activities that add to their cognitive, social, and emotional learning.

It is also one of the one hundred expressive languages students are encouraged to think through at Elmhurst Academy, as according to Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, there are “a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking.”

Submitted by Elmhurst Academy.