DANCE

“When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives” (Cone, 2009, pg 81).

It is crucial that children have the opportunity to dance freely to express themselves. As a child I did not participate in an extra curricular activity which involved dance. I was very self-conscious in that aspect as I compared myself to many others. As a student teacher, I think it is important that we let children feel empowered by creativity letting them know that there is no right or wrong answer through dance, that the importance is expressing YOURSELF.

During today’s dance session, we had the opportunity to be the learner however, we also had the chance to create our own moves. We were split up into groups to create a move to fit in with this week’s theme of Halloween. The move we were to create was inspired by a printed out picture of a mummy. This gave us inspiration to create the dance move.

After creating a move, the whole class came together and we put all moves together creating a mini dance routine (using different images). I really enjoyed this workshop as it showed me how I can use easy strategies in the classroom to create a dance, even if I don’t feel so confident. It also helped me to understand that it is not just me that isn’t confident with dance but so are many others. The main point I learnt from this workshop was that dance routines are created by using smaller, simpler dance moves such as jumps, rolls and balances. By using visuals, it can really help to get the creative mind flowing and a visual can act as a stimulus to create a simple dance move.

DRAMA

This weeks drama session was based around a book named “The Tunnel” by Anthony Brown. The book allowed us to explore drama and learn new conventions such as voice in the head, mime, role on the wall, vox pop and thought tracking. I found the convention voice in the head a great tool as the children will be able to step out of the drama, while still in character and discuss how they are feeling through someone else’s shoes. It allows the children to think deeper into how others are feeling and not just themselves. As the weeks go on, I feel more confident at acting in front of my peers, and I am now beginning to enjoy the activities we do. It helps that most of us are in similar boats, that we do not have much drama background and we do not all feel fully comfortable in presenting ourselves so vocally in front of one another. As the result of this it is clear to see that everyone supports and respects each other during the drama activities. Overall, I think it is very important that we allow children to experience expressive arts, as it will allow the children to think about being someone else and forgot about negative personal experience and for other to respect they situations.

References

Cone, T. (2009). Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas in Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. London: Routledge.