Our dance by Jacinta Daniher and Taylor Hampton. Illus. by Janelle Burger

Playful in both text and illustrations, Our dance encourages all readers to get up and move. In rhyming lines the text reveals a number of Australian animals, and it is their movements which are enunciated through dance. At the corroboree, the participants use ochre to daub their bodies. With a Yiddaki playing, the children shake a leg and feel the beat as the instrument’s sound leads the way. First they imagine they are snakes slithering across the ground, stretching their arms and slithering side to side. Then they emulate the kangaroo, jumping and bouncing across the land. A goanna moves across the ground, children get down low, creeping and crawling. Then an emu rushes past, running fast as he can, the readers using their hands like a tail feather as they run across the ground. Up high is an eagle soaring across the sky, opening their arms as wide as they can, the children flaring and soaring across the sky.

So by the end of this book, the children have practised all sorts of movements which emulate the animals heard about in Dreaming stories.  The have crouched down low, run fast, slithered along the ground, used their hands as a tail feather, jumped, crawled and spread their arms to fly like and eagle. 

Being involved in this book we can all celebrate the culture, stories and music of the First Nations people. 

Burger’s illustrators in earthy colours follow the text, written boldly across the bottom fo each page, allowing the illustrations to reflect what is going on. A snake motif crawls through most pages, and the animals shown on the pages, followed by the movements being made by the children to copy that animal. In this way they could make up a story to tell a tale of a group of animals, or find a Dreaming story to dance to, using the moves they have learnt. 

Our dance is for all kids, encouraging them to be part of the stories they hear. 

Taylor Hampton is a proud Ngiyampaa/Wiradjuri man and Jacinta Daniher is an early childhood educator. Both have a passion for educating young people about Aboriginal culture. And more can be found out about the illustrator, Jacinta here. 

Themes: Aboriginal culture, Dance, Movement, Corroboree.

Fran Knight