Hi, friends! Welcome to Storytime with The Met. My name is Emily and I'm so
glad that you've joined me today. While the museum is closed, we're holding storytime
online, every Thursday at noon. Today, we're going to read a story, take a
look at some works of art, and do a craft together. Are you ready? Okay! Let's find a
cozy spot. Take a seat and let's get started. We're going to begin with our
storytime song just like we do when we're together at the museum. It goes the
tune of 'This Old Man.' You can sing and clap along with me. Are you ready? 1, 2, 3.
Welcome friends, get ready, get set for Storytime with The Met, where we love to
read, and sing, and look at works of art and picture books. We'll use our eyes
to look and see. We'll use our ears to hear stories. Now let's take a seat and
give a 'shhh,' let's begin with our first book. Nice job! Today we are going to read
'Giraffes Can't Dance' by Giles Andreae and illustrations by Guy
Parker-Rees. I'm going to read the words and let's look at the pictures together.
Giraffes Can't Dance. Gerald was a tall giraffe whose neck was long and slim. But
his knees were awfully crooked and his legs were rather thin.
He was very good at standing still and munching shoots off trees. But when he
tried to run around, he buckled at the knees. Now every year in Africa they
hold the Jungle Dance, where every single animal turns up to skip and prance.
And this year when the day arrived poor Gerald felt so sad, because when it came
to dancing he was really very bad. The warthogs started waltzing and the rhinos
rock'n' rolled. The lions danced a tango that was elegant and bold. The chimps all
did a cha-cha with a very Latin feel, and eight baboons then teamed up for a
splendid Scottish reel. Gerald swallowed bravely
as he walked toward the floor. But the lions saw him coming, and they soon began to
roar. "Hey, look at clumsy Gerald," the animals all sneered. "Giraffes can't
dance, you silly fool! Oh, Gerald, you're so weird."
Gerald simply froze up. He was rooted to the spot. They're right,
he thought, I'm useless. Oh, I feel like such a clot. So he crept off from the
dance floor, and he started walking home. He never felt so sad before--so sad and
so alone.
Then he found a little clearing, and he looked up at the sky. "The moon can be
so beautiful," he whispered with a sigh. "Excuse me!" coughed a cricket who'd seen
Gerald earlier on. "But sometimes when you're different
you just need a different song. Listen to the swaying grass and listen to the
trees. To me the sweetest music is those branches in the breeze. So imagine that
the lovely moon is playing just for you-- everything makes music if you really
want it to." With that, the cricket smiled and picked up his violin. Then Gerald
felt his body do the most amazing thing. His hooves had started shuffling, making
circles on the ground. His neck was gently swaying, and his tail was swishing
round. What is Gerald doing? He threw his legs out sideways and he swung them
everywhere. Then he did a backward somersault and leapt up in the air.
Look at how graceful he looks. Gerald felt so wonderful his mouth was open wide. "I am
dancing! Yes, I'm dancing! I am dancing!" Gerald cried. How do you think he feels
now? Then, one by one, each animal who'd been there at the dance arrived while Gerald
boogied on and watched him, quite entranced. They shouted, "It's a miracle! We
must be in a dream. Gerald's the best dancer that we've ever,
ever seen! How did you learn to dance like that?
Please, Gerald, tell us how." But Gerald simply twirled around and finished with a
bow. Then he raised his head and looked up at the moon and stars above. "We all
can dance," he said, "when we find music that we love." That's the end. What a nice story.
Thank you for reading along with me, friends. Now one thing I love to do when
I think about dancing and music is play freeze dance. Have you played freeze dance with
your family before? Maybe it's something you guys can do together. Find a favorite
song, put someone in charge of turning it on and off. When the music's on, dance
your heart out, and when it's off, what do you do? You freeze exactly how you're
posed! You can play that at home. Now, all this talk about dance and movement also
makes me think of a beautiful work of art in the museum by Edgar Degas. It
called 'The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer.' Take a look. What do you see in this sculpture?
I see a little girl posing. Can you pose like her?
How are her feet? Where are her hands? They're behind her. How is her head? Can you lift
your head and your chin like hers? Very nice!
How would you pose or move if you were a dancer?
Let's see. Nice moves, friends! Good job. Well, here's one last thing we can do
together before we say goodbye. I've got some materials here that I'm going to
show you, and you can use different ones at home, too. Whatever you have around. So
just like the sculpture by Edgar Degas, I made a sculpture of a little dancer. I'll
show you her and then we can talk about some of the supplies. So here is my sculpture of
a little dancer. I used some pipe cleaners, I have pipe
cleaners at home so I used them. But if you have clay or dough you can use that
too to make a three-dimensional sculpture. I decided to use a cupcake
liner for her skirt. It was the right size for me but you could also use tissue
paper to decorate your dancer or fabric to make costume for them. Now let's see.
I took a pipe cleaner and it was nice and bendy. I felt like it could move like
my dancer could move. To make her head, just to give you an example, I
made a loop and then twisted it. I like how you can twist pipe cleaners.
That's how I have her head and her arms, and then I attached her body with other
pieces of pipe cleaner. You can make her arms move or her legs move and make them
dance around. Well, I hope that you had fun joining us today for Storytime, and
we hope to see you again next Thursday for another round. Hope to see you soon!
Bye, friends!