During the first three weeks of December, each of the Year 4 classes performed their Viking Dances to parents.  The children worked collaboratively to create moves depicting ideas such as strength, fear and working hard in a team.  Different sections of each dance represented Vikings working on the land, preparing tools and weapons, rowing in unison on a Viking longship and raiding a monastery on Holy Island.  The children enjoyed exploring their own ideas and combining them with choreography from their teachers.  There was a lovely, positive response from our parents as we transported them back in history.  The music was very evocative of the time and the story we were trying to put across (raid on Lindisfarne in 793 AD). Many of the children expressed their excitement at performing as well as a tremendous feeling of individual and group success once the dances were over.  Wellington, Paulet and Nelson also enjoyed performing the dances to each other in rehearsals where we made suggestions to each other about what looked really effective and what might need adapting or changing for the better.  All in all, it was a thoroughly worthwhile cross-curricular project, mixing history with dance, enjoyed by children, parents and teachers alike.  Thank you to all the parents who were able to come and support.