Why don't the story, Konora's pictures, and Konora's text match up?

We like to highlight a variety of movement interpretations, so Konora and story characters' movements are often deliberately a little different. We think promoting diverse thinking and a "there's no one right way" message is important. Kids can create dances using 1) illustrations, 2) story text, or 3) Konora's suggestions.

Is the language level right for preschool or kindergarten kids?

The books are designed to be enjoyed with a teacher or caregiver. The vocabulary and language level reflect this.

I've heard you give a free book to teachers. How do I get mine?

We'll send a creative movement story to your dance studio, preschool, or elementary school address. Simply email us your info and book choice (or describe how you'll use the book, and we'll send our recommendation).

Questions and Answers

Why does the series use different characters, illustrators and designs?

Each independent Dance-It-Out! story is a kids’ dance performance for the imagination stage. If you attended a series of shows, you wouldn’t expect identical people, choreography, costumes or backdrops. Featured characters include male, female, and nonbinary diverse characters across the series, allowing kids to

expand their memory collection of stories and characters
empathize with a variety of individuals
identify movement qualities and styles from diverse personalities
challenge their inner storyteller

The books are illustrated by a variety of artists to have a different feel and texture because each is a different performance. Using multiple illustrators:

provides work for variety of artists, including new, unpublished talent
gets books out quickly to children stuck at home during COVID
matches each story with its own style of illustration (Each artist was chosen for the specific story, and the illustrator’s strengths are highlighted.)

With traditional series, consistent layout/illustration is expected. The variety in the Dance-It-Out! stories is noticeable, bringing awareness to visual design factors and ascetics.

The Dance-It-Out! collection offers an international stage, with artists from all over the globe including India, Scotland, Canada, the U.S., Poland, South Korea, and The Netherlands.

Do you really donate all royalties?

For 2020/2021 every sale's full price was donated back to a non-profit.

The bulk of those donations went to

• Pacific Northwest Ballet

• Humane Society of Seattle

• PAWS

Emerald Ballet Theatre, PNB STARS, ARC Dance, Ballet Met, and Ballet Idaho also received contributions.

For 2022-2030, Dance-It-Out! book royalties are donated to charity. Each book has a designated non-profit supporting animals, environment, people, or the arts:

Animal Welfare

• The Cat with the Crooked Tail — PAWS (Wildlife Rescue and Animal Shelter)

• Sadoni Squirrel Superhero — Animal Defense Partnership

• Mira Monkey and the Magic Mirror Adventure — (Big Life in 2022)

• Joey Finds His Jump! — (PAWS in 2022)

• The Grumpy Goat — Seattle Humane

• Eka and the Elephants — The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)

Environment

• Frankie's Wish — The Price Sculpture Forest

• Sora Searches for a Song — The Nature Conservancy in 2023

• Andi's Valentine Tree — Evergreen Action in 2022 (WA Coalition supporting the environment)

People

• Petunia Perks Up — Together Center (Housing and Social Services)

• River's Dreary to Dreamy Day — Together Center

• Dayana, Dax, and the Dancing Dragon — WorldReader

• Danny, Denny, and the Dancing Dragon — WorldReader

• Belluna's Big Adventure in the Sky — Carnegie Mellon University

• Ella's Dance Debut — Ballet & Books (Mentor Program)

Ballet Companies

• Dance Stance — FLOCK (Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2022)

• Daryl and the Dancing Dolls - Ballet Met

• Princess Naomi Helps a Unicorn — Ballet Idaho

• Brielle's Birthday Ball — Pacific Northwest Ballet

• Freya, Fynn, and the Fantastic Flute — Pacific Northwest Ballet

• Danika's Dancing Day — Pacific Northwest Ballet

• Dancing Shapes — ? (PNB in 2022)

• More Dancing Shapes — ? (PNB in 2022)

• Nutcracker Dancing Shapes — ?(PNB in 2022)

• Dancing Shapes with Attitude — ? (PNB in 2022)

• A Curious Tale (PNB in 2022)

• Ballerina Dreams (PNB in 2022)

• Dancing Shapes Journal (PNB in 2022)

• Konora's Shapes (PNB in 2022)

• More Konora's Shapes (PNB in 2022)

Looking through the books, where's the dance?

Each Dance-It-Out! book has been carefully crafted by a dance teacher with over 20 years' experience and recognized by her local city council for her work with young dancers. A closer look at a book without ballet vocabulary (Brielle's Birthday Ball)...

The book begins by defining an emotion and exploring how bodies react to this. Konora has readers replicate how she responds, then asks kids how their bodies react. Creating emotion is one of the hardest things for dancers. Anyone who’s ever watched reality dance TV might remember comments about contestants needing to express themselves in more believable ways.
Kids pretend to put on PJs. This simple action involves both sideways and forward weight shift, balance, and coordination. If you try this action, you’ll notice a weight shift to lift one foot, arms reaching forward with bottom reaching back in opposition, and the body's adjustment as the foot goes into the pant. You may even notice your core engaging.
A silly teeth-brushing song provides a self-care plug, an idea with which many dancers struggle.
Brielle goes to check on a noise, by turning her head to look around, readers isolate body parts and identify how a head shift can create emotion, another advanced concept.
When kids tiptoe back, they are working on relevé, moving slowly, and the concept of a soft landing.
Readers gently place the gift, learning about movement quality.
The ball movements give kids not only spatial and body awareness, but the ever-important concept of stillness. Sometimes the hardest part is not moving.
Arm criss-crossing (putting the robe on and crossing it closed) has been shown to improve brain connections.
Falling to the ground is an important dance skill, not only in choreography but to be less likely to get hurt (most pointe students will fall at some time).
Climbing a ladder takes coordination of 4 limbs plus body while managing weight shift. Thinking about bottoms reaching out means pliés later (with bottoms staying in) should be easier.
Proper breath control is crucial for any sport, and readers access breath with awareness.

Along with the subtle dance concepts, Brielle shows that sleep is welcomed and demonstrates good manners and respect. She reminds us that dancing is joyful, and friendship is a treasure.