Printed from the MusicK8.com Idea Bank

Moving to Blitzen's Boogie (Riser Choreography)

Submitted by Jerri Shuman, NBCT, Kansas

Idea posted 2003-12-01

"Blitzen's Boogie" is from Music K-8, Vol. 12, No. 2; also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit.

I did some very simple riser choreography on this song. I divided the students into three groups: A, B, and C (left, middle, and right). During the intro they all just hung out, subtlely "boogie-ing." On the word "Dasher," the A section leans forward with their hands on their knees. On the next chord, "Prancer," the B, or middle section does the same, and of course on the word "Comet," the last section does the same. Everyone holds the pose.

For "Do you, do you know," we all shake a finger at the audience and move our hands as we shake across from right to left. On "Blitzen," we fake snap side to side on beats 2 and 4. We have to fake snap because many 3rd-5th graders keep snapping on beats 1 and 3 instead of 2 and 4. Every time we sing "boogie woogie reindeer," we shake our shoulders and keep the side to side snapping action going. I allow for LOTS of individual expression. Some are so cute and some are inhibited, but they love this song.

We took the call and response movement idea out of Music K-8 magazine (Vol. 12, No. 2). The chorus moves when they sing and freezes when they don't. My male and female Blitzens do the opposite. On the coda section at the end, we all snap into full standing positions on the big chord right after the repeated line. We bring spirit fingers (wiggly jazz hands) up with straight arms for four beats to the right, then four beats to the left on the word "day." Snap back down again and strike a pose on the last "Yeah" with jazz hands by faces. Front row low, middle row standing, and back row hands up higher.