Reaching for the Stars! A Choral Movement DVD: Choral DVD

Albrecht and Beck have created a teaching resource that goes beyond sheet music to solve one of every director's challenges: translating printed notation into embodied performance. These 12 stagings span seasonal themes, storytelling, and world cultures, giving you choreography that feels organic to each song's character rather than imposed on top of it. Your students will learn lyrics and melody while discovering that movement and music unlock each other.

These pieces balance accessibility with genuine musicality. From the celebratory joy of holiday selections like "The Candy Cane Twist" to the inclusive warmth of "Rhythms of One World" and the imaginative whimsy of "Splish Splash," the collection captures the energy of singers discovering what their voices and bodies can create together. Movement becomes part of the story, not decoration.

This resource serves middle and high school choral directors seeking ready-made staging for contemporary secular repertoire, especially those building concert programs around seasonal themes or world music topics. It works equally well for elementary specialists looking to energize young singers with purposeful movement that holds their focus and builds confidence.

• Watch the DVD multiple times before teaching to absorb the blocking and staging choices, then introduce sections gradually so students aren't overwhelmed learning both song and movement simultaneously.
• Start with hand and arm movements in early rehearsals, adding traveling steps and spatial patterns once the vocal line is secure.
• Use the staging to reinforce musical phrasing: have students hold or return to neutral during rests and sustains, creating visual punctuation that mirrors the music's structure.
• Film a dress rehearsal of your own staging and compare it to the DVD to identify what works for your ensemble's size and performance space, then adapt freely.

Build a concert segment entirely from this DVD, letting the staging and thematic variety carry the narrative arc from opening number through finale. Alternatively, select individual pieces to anchor themed programs (winter concert, spring multicultural showcase, concert-as-celebration), or use one piece as a visual-musical centerpiece while performing others from the collection in traditional concert formation.

• Coordinating choreography with vocal entrances and phrase structure
• Maintaining intonation while executing movement across the performance space
• Interpreting text and musical character through embodied staging
• Building ensemble cohesion through synchronized movement and blocked formations
• Translating DVD demonstration into ensemble performance adapted to local space and number