It’s turning into a Diane Wolkstein festival! This week’s Page Presents class featured another of her stories from Haiti, Bouki Dances the Kokioko, illustrated by Jesse Sweetwater.
The King of Haiti loves dancing, and nothing would make him happier than to have dancers performing for him every night.
But, alas, he cannot afford such spectacle. One evening he is sitting in his garden and a little song comes to him:
Kokioko, oh samba
Ah la la, ah la la la la.
Kokioko, oh samba
Ah la la, ah la la la la.
Soon he finds himself dancing along with his new tune—he has invented a new dance! And this leads him to hatch a plan. He will sponsor a dance contest, with a handsome reward for the person who can guess the king’s new dance! Soon there is a never-ending line of dancers eager to dance for him, and the king is royally entertained every night. Weeks and months go by, and, while some dancers guess some of his dance moves, no one has put all the moves together perfectly. One night, his gardener, Malice, is on his way home when he realizes that he has left his sunhat in the garden. He goes back to get it, and hears someone singing the king’s dance tune. Coming closer, he sees that it is the king himself, rehearsing his dance so he doesn’t forget it. 
Malice sees the whole thing. The next day, Malice goes in search of his friend, Bouki. He tells Bouki that he wants to teach him the king’s dance so Bouki can win the prize. Bouki practices the dance, and soon he is ready to dance for the king. The king can’t believe it when Bouki dance perfectly, and he makes him try again. But Bouki dances perfectly again, and heads home triumphantly with the prize money. On the way home, he meets Malice, who congratulates him and offers to teach him the easiest dance in the world. Bouki, who still feels like dancing, agrees, and Malice teaches him a simple dance to this tune:
If you have no sense,
Put your bag on the ground
And dance!
Bouki, who is still euphoric from his victory, gets caught up in the dance and doesn’t see Mrs. Malice sneaking up and running off with his bag of prize money. Finally, Bouki breathlessly flings himself down on the ground to rest and sees that his bag is missing. “Oh no! Someone has take my bag!” he cries. Malice says, “What were you thinking? Didn’t you pay attention to that song you were dancing to?”
If you have no sense,
Put your bag on the ground
And dance!
Poor Bouki!
Matt taught the kids two dance rhythms for the king’s song: a Haitian rhythm and a Brazilian samba rhythm. He handed out the shakers, and everyone kept the beat with the shakers while I sang the song and Matt played the two rhythms on a wood block. Then I taught everyone how to dance the king’s dance. When I reached the point in the story when the dancers come to compete for the prize money, several of the kids came up and danced to the song. They did a great job of portraying the top dancers of the competition who kept the king entertained night after night.
Afterwards, we made fabulously funky crowns like the one the king wore in the book.
Miles and Ravi, who have preschool and arrive just in time for the craft, again wanted me to tell them the story. And after I told them the story, Miles wanted me to read it to him. I got called away for a moment, and when I returned, I found him studying the book on his own.
