Aly Raisman's floor routine was choreographed to the the Russian Sailors Dance by Reinhold Gliere. I love using this piece of music to move to and explore musical contrasts with when I'm teaching music. The songs theme keeps coming back and is easy to identify, but the style changes. In preschool music classes (and even upper elementary) we have fun identifying the musical contrasts, and discussing and acting out ways to move based on what the music sounds like.
Moving to music with your children will help them develop a good sense of rhythm. Model how to put the beat in your feet. Mirror your child's movement ideas as well.
Did you know that by 7-9 months old infants can detect differences between duple and triple rhythms? They develop a sense of rhythm from adults speaking to them, and moving with them when they are experiencing music. This is "accelerated by experience!" The more you dance, move, sing, play instruments, and speak to your baby the quicker they develop their sense of rhythm.
From Infants Perception of Rhythmic Patterns
by TONYA R. BERGESON AND SANDRA E. TREHUB
https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/infant-child-centre/sites/files/infant-child-centre/public/shared/sandra-trehub/001.pdf
"Infants’ sense of rhythm may be linked to their body movements. Indeed, stereotypical rhythms of head, arm, chest, and leg movements have been observed in infancy (Pouthas, 1996; Thelen, 1981), and early bipedal kicking and sucking have binary elements (e.g., suction and relaxation). Moreover, infants gradually integrate endogenous and exogenous rhythms (Pouthas, 1996). When presented with a “moving room,” for example, infants adjust their rate of swaying to match the frequency of room movements (Bertenthal, Rose, & Bai, 1997). It is notable that caregivers typically move while singing to their infants, which is consistent with the notion of intrinsic connections between rhythm and movement (Cross, 2001; Merker, 2000). Much of the motion that caregivers provide for infants can be considered binary, as in rocking (e.g., back and forth) or bouncing (e.g., up and down). Recent evidence indicates that 7-month-old infants’ interpretation of an ambiguous drum rhythm is affected by the pattern of bouncing (on every second or third beat) that they experienced while listening (Phillips-Silver & Trainor, 2005). Such connections between rhythmic sound and motion go well beyond caregiver-infant interactions, with music being inseparable from movement in many cultures (Fraisse, 1982; Merker, 2000). Infants are also sensitive to the rhythmic properties of speech. For example, French newborns differentiate English utterances, which are stress-timed, from Japanese utterances, which are timed at the subsyllabic level, or mora (Nazzi, Bertoncini, & Mehler, 1998)."
"the formation of melodic and temporal expectations may follow a similar developmental timetable, which is accelerated by experience, enculturation, and formal music training."
"Your baby is wired to notice and follow your voice, when she hears you singing with others, she works to attend to YOUR voice in the mix. As she sorts through all that sound information to find your voice, she is developing listening skills as well as receiving rich musical input." Music Together
