Tag Archives: Dance

25/10/16- Dance

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In our last session of dance we put all of our practices into one final performance which we recorded.

Click here to view the video of our performance

We then got into pairs and whilst we watched the video back, we evaluated each others performance. fullsizerender-jpg

I think it is important for children to evaluate their performance and self reflect as it helps them to improve and see what they could do better. However, it is important to make sure that when they are doing peer evaluation that it is constructive criticism. This is why we took the 2 stars and 1 wish approach, so that the person being evaluated can feel good that the achieved 2 things whilst thinking about 1 thing they could work on.

At the very end of the session we were asked to write down one word to describe how we would now feel about teaching dance, just like we did in the fist session. In the first session I wrote anxious, however, at the end of todays session my word was excited. I feel much more confident now that after completing the dance session and look forward for being able to share my new found enthusiasm for dance with a class in the future. Because we were given the freedom to create our own moves but still given the support from the lecturer with giving us stimuli for inspiration and helping us put all the moves together, this gave us a great balance of creative freedom and teacher guidance and definitely developed my own confidence in dance. Cone states that when pupils and teachers work together in this way “what can result is a hybrid dance that integrates teacher and student perspectives.” (Cone, 2011)

 

This has part of the module has given me many ideas that I would never have previously thought of, that I will now take with me into my teaching career.

 

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 1 January 17]

11/10/16 Dance

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In todays dance session we were to come up with a game that children could use as a warm up before dancing, and it had to have a theme. We chose to use cowboys and indians as our theme and created a game of tag as our warm up. The cowboys were the designated ‘Tiggers’ and if they caught you you had to stretch up into the shape of a wigwam. Tig is always a game that children love to play and running around the hall and creating different shapes with their bodies will warm up and stretch most of their muscles. This activity shows us how easy it was to come up with a themed warm up and this could easily be adapted to link to a topic they class are learning about in another curricular area.

 

Our lecturer then gave us the names of 6 new dance terms that we had never heard of before, and we had to come up with our own interpretation of what we thought they meant. Incorporated these into the routine.

The six terms were:

  • JACK HAMMER
  • SPONGEBOB
  • PRESSURE TURNS
  • HORTY GOERGE
  • WING
  • GRAND JETE

“Creative dance experiences are designed to be guided by the teacher who provides a sequence of exploratory tasks that promote problem solving and creative thinking.” (Cone, 2011)

By not telling us what they were, this task made use our problem solving skills as all we had to work with was our own creativity and the words as a stimulus. We then had to find a way of incorporating the new moves into our routine for the previous week. This was an interesting way of encouraging us to be independent learners and having to think for ourselves. It also meant that each group had very different final outcomes as all of our ideas were unique.

“Students are encouraged to discover multiple ways of moving, make movement selections for a dance, and create their own choreographic structure.” (Cone, 2011)

 

 

 

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 1 January 17]

4/10/16 Dance

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Our second dance input was all about learning how we could take the 10 basic skills we learned from the previous week and turn these into a routine.

As a class we decided on  a specific move for each skill, we then numbered each move from 1 to 10. Then we split up into smaller groups and wrote down one persons phone number form the group and performed the moves with the corresponding number. This meant that all groups had the same moves, but each group had a different combination.

We then got given maths questions to work out the answers to, and each answer corresponded to the number of a move, which created a different route for us. I found this to be a very interesting way of integrating maths into a dance lesson. This turned mental maths into an enjoyable, energetic task which  would engage children in the sums.

We then discussed how we could use a theme to inspire a routine. Our theme to work with was halloween and everyone got given a picture of something halloween related to create a move for. Our picture was of a web. Once everyone had come up with their move, we put all of the pictures on the wall in the order of the routine. I found having the pictures in front of me was  great memory aid and would be a good way of getting children to remember the routine. Our lecturer then helped us piece all of our moves together into one routine. Thus, allowing us to do the creative work but still supporting us in a way to bring it all together.

“Educators must be able to offer support without undue interference. The vision for the dance belongs to the children” (Cone, 2011). This is something teachers need to remember as they can often take away from the children’s creative process by interfering too much, it is important to get the correct balance of support and independent learning.

I thought using pictures as a stimulus to help children create their own moves was a great idea, as it allows them to be completely creative but still gives them a starting point to work from. We also looked at how music can inspire children, for example with our halloween theme, our music in the session was Thriller and the Ghostbusters theme.

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 1 January 17]

27/9/16 Dance

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“Through dance, children bring their inner self to the surface where they can express their dreams, fears, needs, and joys” (Cone, 2011 p.1)

 

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]