In our first dance input, one if the first things we did was write down one word to describe how we would feel about teaching dance. I chose the word ‘anxious’ because although I attended dance lessons when I was younger and very much enjoyed dancing, the thought of having to choreograph a routine and teach it to young children seemed extremely daunting to me.

Then we went on to learn about different warm ups we could do with children. One way was to play games such as ‘follow the leader’, where we all went around the room following each other and had to copy whatever dance move the person at the front was doing. At first I think everyone in the class felt a bit awkward to dance with everyone watching them but I felt that doing these dancing games as a warm up made us all more relaxed and less self conscious about dancing in front of each other.

We then learned about the 10 principles of dance, which are:

• jump
• kick
• twist
• hop
• slide
• turn
• roll
• reach
• balance
• gesture

After learning these 10  basic moves that are needed to create a dance, I realised that putting a routine together is not as scary or as difficult as it first might seem if you break it down.

“When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives.” (Cone, 2011) This quote from Cone shows that dance can encourage children to express themselves in a new way and if their ideas are supported by the teacher, they can gain confidence.

We then went on to learn about the importance of warming up all parts of our body. To do this, we drew around our bodies and labelled the different muscles, organs and bones in our body, testing our biology knowledge. This made me more aware of how important it is to warm up thoroughly and be safe when dancing. I think this would be a fun and engaging task for children and it is an interesting way of integrating science and dance into one lesson.

 

References

Cone, T. (2011) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances, Journal of Dance Education, [Online] Vol. 9:3, pp. 81-89 Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/846498/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf [Accessed 3 October 2016]