Fire Girl

September 13th, 2012

Let me set the stage for you:

   When Cadence arrived at the Children’s Centre from school she found four new capes laid out on the kitchen table. One cape was extremely luxurious with gems hanging from it’s bottom, one had red mesh covering which in Cadence’s option was also beautiful, the last two were made of black light smooth shiny material. Cadence immediately gravitated to the first two capes trying them both on and dancing around in them noticing how both of them swirled out to the side when she practiced the new jump her cousin had recently taught her. Unfortunately both capes were quite heavy and scratched her neck and so she chose not to keep them on for very long. I suggested she give the other capes a try. I had been playing with the two black capes myself wearing them both around my neck and around my legs and commented on how smooth and comfortable they were. Cadence tried one around her neck and after deciding it was not itchy in the least she put the second one around her waist. What followed then was this amazing song about Fire Girl.

Fire Girl, Fire Girl
Sets everything on fire
Fire Girl, Fire Girl
Shoosh, shoosh
Breaks down flowers, rips them apart
Now everything is ruined by
Fire Girl, Fire Girl
Never fear with Fire Girl, Fire Girl
If I see a rainbow fish
No longer my favourite fish
All the books are burnt
The shelves are burnt
The chairs are burnt
The table is burnt
Nice girl she has no wonder [of] Fire Girl
No one likes Fire Girl
Her clothes are all burnt from Fire Girl
Fire Girl made her one just like Fire Girl’s one
She has powers
She never invited Fire Girl to her party
Because Fire Girl would ruin everything
Fire Girl waves her wand and destroys everything with her power
She never lets anything by
Fire Girl Fire Girl
Shoosh, shoosh, shoosh
Fire Girl saw how sad the girl was and she never used her wand again.
Every day she saw a beautiful girl in the forest
She used her wand again
She destroys everything
Kill the plants

   During these very precious moments, Cadence is deeply engrossed in what she is doing. It appears that she is unaware of myself or the two other children in the room. She is however, very aware of her environment and uses it for inspiration and as props in her song. For example when she refers to the rainbow fish, she does so standing in front of the book shelf where sits a copy of the book Rainbow fish. Following closely behind that line is the burning of the book shelf itself and the other furniture in her line of sight. Thus supporting the theory of our environment being the third teacher.
   What is not captured in the script is the intonation that Cadence uses to bring the words to life. Whenever she sings Fire Girl there is such power in her voice, she does not scream the name but forcefully accents the first consonant of each word giving the name much importance and presence. Similarly she sings about the sad girl in the forest in such soft sweet empathetic tones that as the audience I felt her compassion for the girl to whom Fire Girl ruins everything.
   Being passionately involved in the theatre arts myself, I have an understanding of how this experience felt for Cadence. Submerged in her own thoughts, she is acting on her instincts reaching the very depths of her being. 

   During this experience Cadence was confident in and had control of her body, expressing a sense of personal well being as she moved around the carpet area shooshing the wand as she played the part of Fire Girl, expressing a wide range of emotions while singing the story, all of which demonstrates as sense of well being and belonging in the Centre. She explored the corner of the room with her body and her senses in a creative way. During her play we also observe Cadence trying out words and practicing story telling developing and building upon the language skills she has already learnt and practiced.

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