During a Monday rehearsal, third graders practice their choreography with ‘dinosaur arms.’
Cathy Cook | El Defensor Chieftain photos

The students in Shannon Mounyo’s third grade class reached their arms into the air in unison, then ran in place in the center of a Magdalena gymnasium.

“Crispy fingers,” dance teacher Lauren O’Brien reminded them. Crispy fingers are energized outstretched fingers, which look better in the choreography the third graders are learning for Thursday’s dance performance at the Magdalena school.

The performance will include over 100 Magdalena elementary students, from kindergarden through fifth grade. The third graders have reached a special age though, where they will learn more of the choreography than the earlier grade levels.

The National Dance Institute (NDI) New Mexico has brought dance instruction to Magdalena for 26 years.

“We’ve been in this community for many years, and on Thursday, I’ll have parents and family members come back and be like, ‘I remember when I did this,’” said O’Brien, who is also this year’s Residency Assistant Artistic Director.

Third grade teacher Shannon Mounyo has been the Magdalena school’s NDI in-school coordinator for more years than she can count.

Mounyo smiles and takes photos of her class’s first rehearsal day. The rehearsals began Monday, and the performance is Thursday, April 6—only three days of preparation for a dance performance in front of high school students, parents and community members.

“Unzip your brains,” O’Brien tells the students, miming unzipping her own brain. The students enthusiastically follow suit. “Say, ‘I will practice all my chapters.’”

Magdalena third graders practice dance choreography for their NDI performance.

Faithfully, they repeat after her, “I will practice all my chapters.”

Breaking the choreography into thematic ‘chapters’ is part of how NDI teaches the dance to students so quickly. Call-and-response games and mirroring games get the kids in the mode to learn dance moves.

This year, the theme is Forests of New Mexico, and chapter one is a representation of the Zia symbol, with motions that represent the cardinal directions. The theme gives O’Brien a chance to talk with students about conservation, and the nearby Cibola National Forest.

That’s not the only lesson NDI offers students.

“I really think it helps with their coordination skills and just helps with listening and following directions,” said Mounyo. Students learn how to work as a team and about the importance of physical activity, she said.

There are four core lessons that NDI tries to teach students: work hard, do your best, never give up, and be healthy, said O’Brien.

“Dancing is just a different skill,” she said. “It’s a different art form. It’s about being vulnerable and expressing yourself as well.”

The students also compete in a coloring contest to design a flyer that will be sent home to advertise Thursday’s performance—another opportunity to flex their creative muscles.

The NDI program used to come to Magdalena for a two-week residency every spring, but staffing complications created by the pandemic have shortened the program to one week long. NDI will hopefully return to a two-week residency at the school in future years, said Mounyo.

In the fall, NDI holds a three-week dance residency in the Socorro schools, capped by a performance at Macey Center. NDI also runs dance programs in other parts of the state, including year-round programs in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

The Magdalena performance will be Thursday, April 6, at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. The performance is open to families, friends and community members.

Cathy Cook | El Defensor Chieftain Editor