Illuminated Roots | 3: Dance It | Anela Deisler Photography
It was December 2 and we were already doing our second day in our Illuminating Roots project and everything felt a little crazy but I was pretty proud of us. Then all of a sudden it was 10 days later and I found myself finally editing these photos and here we are. Point is, I’m filled with grace for the tired, stressed version of me that doesn’t keep up with things.
So, there were a sweet 10 minutes that the kids sat on the couch with me and we looked up polka music and polka dancing on youtube. My mom’s parents are both 100% Polish so this was a fun place to start. We learned that there was an upbeat tempo. We saw that people like to dance in the street sometimes (as did my mom in her days in North Dakota, apparently even once with her new fella, a Hawaiian guy that I call dad). Mak loved watching a calm song on a concertina played by a man sitting outside in the sun… “Don’t turn it off mama!”
Mo happily danced with me. We moved the coffeetable, Mak’s cars, and her dogs out of the way. We watched a random video from Wurstfest. Left and skip, right and skip. She got frustrated when we tried the arms over us trick but it made me happy and it was fun to get tangled with her.
Day 3: Choose one place/culture that’s special to your family. Google “____ music” and “_____ dancing” then watch some videos that look engaging and appropriate. Talk about what you see and hear. Do you like it? What does it make you think of? Ask a kid or two to try to dance with you.
Prep for Day 4: Google or look on pinterest for “ easy _____ craft” and look for something that you think looks fun.
