Film Friday! – Around the World – Teaching Ostinato

From the very first time I saw this video, I knew it would be perfect to show to students.  “Around the World” is a famous song by the band Daft Punk and this is the music video that was created to accompany the song.  The famous director/artist Michel Gondry (who has created some other famous videos featured in my “Film Fridays” series) is the bran behind this stunning video and as usual, his work is fantastic.

I love using this video in the classroom because I think it’s a great way to show a movement ostinato and explain the idea of an ostinato.  I define an ostinato for kids as a short repeating (usually rhythmic) pattern.  For the kids, this video helps them see the concept of an ostinato because they can quickly find the repeating pattern in the moves of the costumed dancers.  In fact, this video helps them see multiple ostinati going at once and see a variety of different kinds of short, repeating patterns.  They understand the concept quickly, and have a lot of fun in the process.

We often use ostinato patterns as rhythmic elements in song arrangements but this video is GREAT for showing kids that you can have short, repeating, movement patterns too.  An easy extension from this lesson would be a movement game where students had to create a short movement pattern for others to copy.  If I were to do something like this, I would probably give some examples first, to make sure that kids really understood the concept.  Then I would break them into small groups to work on this.  You could even play the music from “Around the World” as background music and use an instrument as the verbal signal that kids should switch to a new leader.  Lots of possibilities!

[su_spacer]The song is contemporary/pop music and sounds fresh to students but is also nice for me because I don’t have to worry about bad lyrics or having to edit content.  There’s only one lyric that’s repeated over and over “Around the World.”  Kids love the different costumes and there’s nothing too risque except for maybe the swimmers, though they’re wearing very sensible one piece swimsuits.  Since there are so many different costumes (to help you see the different players in the video) I often pair this with lessons around Halloween, though you could teach it any time during the year.