The 10 Basic Skills Required to Enable a Successful Dance Session
This was the first workshop in dance today and it was led by Zara. The main aspect of this workshop was to identify the top 10 key skills that everyone needs to be able to carry out/ teach an effective dance class. These skills are;
- Jump
- Hop
- Slide
- Gesture
- Twist
- Balance
- Turn
- Kick
- Reach
- Roll
After Zara had explained to the class what each skill was, we were then split into groups (around 5-6 people) where we had to create our own move to each specific skill. This activity is a great way of engaging children and getting them to express their own creativity. It engages the children as it enables them to interact and produce their own version of the skill which means them feel involved in the process of their learning.
Throughout the session, Zara had us participate in several games which all incorporated the key dance elements. For example, we played a game titled ‘Bean rig’, and the aim of the game was to act out the type of bean shouted. Therefore, if it was a chilli bean then you would have to rub our arms and legs as though we were cold and so on… This is a great game for children as it improves their memory capability by having to remember the different actions and also it is fun and engaging.
As some of the students within the workshop were more apprehensive than others, Zara ensured that we all went through some ice breakers activities to put all the students at ease and get to know everyone. This can be done by sitting in a circle and each individual comes into the middle of the circle and performs a simple dance move while saying their name. This is a particularly good activity when you have a new class and do not quite know everyones names yet. This is a feat way of getting to know all of the children and begin to create a bond between the children to create a pleasant classroom vibe.
This first insight into the dance aspect of ‘Integrated Arts in Education’ has provided me with many activities to support children and develop their dance ability as well as many other skills and qualities that dance enables.
Below is a short clip of a young dancer aged 13. This clip illustrates that teaching a child the basic dance skills from an early age enables them to be successful in dance when they are older.
