Today was the first input of dance. I was not looking forward to this input and I know that many of my peers had similar feeling of apprehension. My only other experience with dance was when I was very young, and it was quite negative. After the input I decided to draw a picture to illustrate how I had felt during the input and then after.
For dance we started with some warm up games – even those I found daunting. In particular the Chinese whispers type game we played was one I was nervous about. We were in two rows and the person at the end was shown a set of dance moves that then had to be passed from person to person until it reached the front and we could see how accurate we had been. I was worried for a few reasons.
- Letting my peers down by not following the dance correctly.
- Looking stupid while doing the dance.
- Having someone watching me do these moves.
Despite this anxiety I actually enjoyed the game as it was fun and fairly easy. This relaxed me and made the rest of the workshop easier. We then were split up into groups to create human body maps. We drew around a member of our group and then labelled different bones and muscles in the body. This was an excellent activity that I can see myself using with children as it was fun, interactive and interesting. By giving children the opportunity to take the facts they have learned and turn them into a form of artistic expression it helps to synthesise the information and help them remember it (Collard, 2016).
We were then shown the 10 key dance moves that can be easily taught to children. By using these 10 in any order, a dance can be created. Below are a couple of videos and pictures from our dance.
Jump:
In case video does not work I have created a YouTube channel. Link below to this video:
Hop:
Balance:
Gesture:
In art we were looking at the work of Bob and Roberta Smith – an artist who uses print as a medium with bold slogans. I found the printing process fascinating and enjoyed the opportunity to try something new. My group came up with the slogan ‘believe her’ for our print. This is to do with the recent sexual abuse claims by many young actresses and the fact that often, they are shunned and not believed. We wrote the slogan in English, French and Spanish – each of us writing one and printing it. I enjoyed this medium as it was easier than I had initially thought and turned out very well.
The slogan:
Covered in paint- ready to print:
Final print:
Empowerment and freedom are the aspects that I took away from today’s sessions. Cone, (2009) states that dancing allows children to feel empowered and gives them the opportunity to express their fears and desires without judgement. Through my own experiences of dance, I would agree with this as the whole experience made me feel more confident and more able to express myself. It is important that the dance teacher allow the children to create their own dances and give them the freedom to do what they choose. As teachers we must be able to offer the pupils support without being prescriptive in order to have it fit in with our plans and ideas (Cone, 2009). As a teacher I may be asked to evaluate or assess the children’s ability and success to be creative or think creatively. This may be a challenge at first but I think that by allowing the children to come up with their own dramas, artwork and dances without too much input from me, this would show me how creative they are.
References
Collard, P. Education Scotland. (2016). Creativity and Learning: What is the Connection? [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/documents/creativity/cre36-creativity-thought-piece-paul-collard-june-2016.pdf [Accessed: 2 October 2018].
Cone, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. [Online]. Vol.9(3), pp.81-89. Available: http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/45655/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf [Accessed: 2 October 2018].
