Starring Miriam...
Uncle Walter Goes Dancing with Bears
In this adaptation, Miriam adapts the story- song, “Uncle Walter Goes Dancing with Bears”. The melody and chorus are from the original song. The very entertaining and lengthy talking bits, including a dancing “dip”, are all from the original mind of Miriam.
SYNOPSIS:
This is a story from the speaker’s point of view when she was a little girl. She has an uncle, her father’s brother, who has been rumored to dance with bears at night. It is stated that this is an improper thing for adults to be doing, and as such, the father the little girl invites Uncle Walter to come and visit with them for several days in hopes of breaking him from this awful habit. However, during the night, the little girl notices that Uncle Walter is not there, he has in fact gone dancing with bears.
Back at the house, the father continues to try unsuccessfully to ‘tame’ Walter by coaxing him with ice-cream, etc. But the bears all break in to whisk Uncle Walter away. On this particular evening, the Bears host the great “Bear Ball” to which all the species of bear are invited- Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear, Brown Bear, etc. Uncle Walter plays a trick on them and writes in the list, “Gummie Bears”, so that when attendance is called they are a “No Show”, and Uncle Walter chuckles.
The story is narrated by the niece of Uncle Walter and the chorus is one that intrinsically beckons the listener to "sing along... wa, wa, waltzing with bears...".
While ideal for younger children because of the repetitive chorus, I believe adults would also enjoy this song. So, in the next to the last week of the semester, I had Miriam. and W. visit my ESL class and Miriam performed this song for ESL adults. It went over very well. We were able to list the events of the story
Since I also play guitar, I thought this would be an interesting piece to add to my future file. I have purposely NOT viewed all the renditions yet of this story-song on You-tube because I want to have the chance to develop my own style, including possibly changing some of the music.
