Category: Dance

Dance

This week’s session was a continuation from last week and new aspects were added to our dance. Since we are in the month of October we were given a Halloween theme, each group were given a picture related to the holiday such as a skeleton, cauldron etc, and had to come up with a dance move to represent that. After showing the moves to the other groups they were all put together to form a sequence which was then followed by the groups performing their individual routines one by one. I really enjoyed the feeling of moving participating as a whole class, it eliminates the isolated feeling of being watched as an individual. Even performing the group performances there was not a heavy sense of pressure and anxiety as we had practiced them so much the apprehensions had decreased due to the repetition and knowing the routine confidently. Adding a topic into the dance provides prompts for the children to demonstrate what knowledge they have gained and how much they have understood to be able to communicate the knowledge to movement (Cone, 2011). Furthermore, Eisner (2002) acknowledges that there are circumstances where understanding cannot be expressed solely through words – the elements of movement and creativity aid demonstrating the cognitive capacity of children especially if they have limited linguistic skills (e.g. children with communicative difficulties) and give a better indication of the individual’s knowledge.

Art

Today’s art session was especially informative and inspiring. Developing on the discussion points highlighted in the first session we agreed that every single child’s work should be regarded as and celebrated as an original. Although insightful to study and be aware of famous artists’ styles and techniques it is important not to reproduce these, but rather take inspiration from to compliment and express their own ideas.

The practical aspect of this workshop was using and creating a piece of work using the unorthodox paint ‘brushes’ made from a variety of materials (string, wool, sponges, etc) attached to a stick.

I absolutely loved using these brushes to paint as you were able to get strokes that I would not be able to produce from the typical paint brush. Using a different kind of apparatus opens up the mind to what else can be used to put the paint on paper, breaking down the familiar expectations of painting allows the child to explore further. Sourcing materials for a paintbrush can also become a lesson in itself be it going out on to the school grounds searching or looking within the classroom.

On a side note, I liked the idea or drawing a border on the pieces of paper as it essentially reduces the paper size so that newspaper does not have to be put on the table reducing waste and reducing the chances of getting paint on the table. Simple, but effective. Although washing the paint off the table is not a particularly difficult task I am aware that some teachers are apprehensive to take out paints because of the massive clean up operation after every session.

Our lecturer described a scene to us which we listened to and then painted on our pieces of paper. I thought this was a brilliant way to get an individual’s creative side working as there was nothing to reproduce, nothing to copy, nothing to compare your own work to, the only image to recreate was the one in your mind’s eye that formed when listening to the description. The difference of interpretation was demonstrated in the class as the lecturer had mentioned a ‘buoy’ in the scene, but since we did not see the word written down where some people had painted a sea buoy others had painted a boy on the boat. This gives insight into how different minds work and how again there is not right or wrong way to expressive oneself in the arts. Csikszentmihayi (n,d) states that creativity is encouraged by curiosity and interest, introducing and encouraging learners to using unorthodox materials will open them up to using anything and everything that takes their interest.

This input from a teacher’s point of view is effective as well, in all aspects (providing a range of resources, a brief description of a scene) the teacher is not giving the learners restrictive instructions. The learners are provided with a platform and foundations and are effectively handed the reigns from there. They are very much in control of their direction and can fully explore their creativity and satisfy curiosities.

 

Art

As a teacher it is of the utmost importance to have a tolerance for ambiguity – there is no right way or wrong way to draw and create. This session allowed me to realise and focus on breaking down the perception that you do not need to be an artist to be able to draw. Writing and mark making can be seen as drawing, as soon as a material hits a piece of paper or other resource it can be argued that a piece of art has been created. The following clip of The Dot is a wonderful video in illustrating this in a way both adults and children can understand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mGeR4AQdM

I really appreciated this realisation as when I was younger I loved drawing random squiggles and adapting it into a drawing. I would have considered this as mindless doodling as opposed to art however thinking about it in a different light has shown me to appreciate that this doodling is a form of art and should be acknowledged. The workshop perfectly solidified this as manipulating the ink prints showed how something may not look like much initially but when looked at again closely and at a different angle it can take form as an animal or an object.

Dance

The idea of teaching and performing dance did not excite me in the slightest, I am not very able in the execution of dance never mind teaching it. Dancing was never something I have enjoyed doing more than just swinging a hairbrush around my room thinking I was the Spice Girl missing from the group and as I got older the idea of dancing turned into half-hearted swaying of the body with a drink in hand. Nothing really more, nothing really less – it’d be far too embarrassing. The in-between stages only consisting of the yearly winter social dancing lessons which consisted of running away from the boys who you didn’t want to hold hands with.

However, this session was great for providing teaching methods and ways to eliminate the class fear of touching one another. The games during the workshop today were really effective for getting kids more comfortable with each other. Playing games such as People-to-People and number games involving sitting back to back, being lifted up etc made me forget the awareness of the others’ bodies as I was only focusing on completing the task of elbow to elbow, knee to elbow etc. Games like these eradicate the discomfort of bodily contact by replacing it with fun. We also discussed that dance lessons realistically do not require a lot of work from the teacher’s point of view, I really liked how easy it was developing on the 10 basic moves to getting the kids to put moves to numbers so then they can easily take the reigns in making up their own dance moves. Randomly generating the order of the numbers allows each group to have a different routine and for the children to come up with ways of how they will connect the moves.