Playground Proms! Dalcroze in schools!

This summer Dalcroze was introduced to around 70 schools in different areas of the United Kingdom. The method was used to introduce music which was performed the following week in a concert by the quartet Graffiti Classics. The group have made it their mission to take classical music to children who don’t usually have that opportunity. Graffiti Classics performs with great humour and understanding of young people and dazzled their audience with their playing this year. They often play outdoors – in the playground – hence the title Playground Proms!

This year, for the first time, two Dalcroze specialists each visited 10 primary schools per week for a total of 7 weeks. We were the ‘warm-up act’ for the Graffiti Classics. Monica Wilkinson and myself had great fun encouraging children to express themselves and to learn about the music they were going to hear performed live. In fact, they didn’t need encouraging! Children LOVE to move and they also love to be given the opportunity to create their own ideas. We introduced several typical Dalcroze exercises into our sessions but all the time needed to be responsive to the children, the time we had and to the space we were given. They showed all the elements of music through the body: pulse, phrasing, metre, structure, dynamics and articulation to name just a few. We got them to work in pairs as well as thinking of ideas by themselves. It was sometimes noisy, often chaotic but always joyous! At each session I asked the children which piece they’d enjoyed most of all. The answers were always a mix of ALL the pieces we’d been hearing although jogging and kicking in time to the Can Can was often a favourite!

From my point of view it was fascinating to visit such a range of schools, from the one-form entry village school to the larger city centre schools. Interestingly, the children always responded best when their teachers joined in (the teachers were always invited & encouraged to join in!).

I hope Playground Proms is given the funding to continue their project in 2025. Watch this space!