27/9/16
From a young age, I attended dance classes at a strict dance school but being a dancer and teaching dance are very opposite. For teaching dance, abilities must be taken into consideration so it was helpful to go back to basics and see different ways in which dance can be made fun.
For our first session of dance, we began by doing ice-breaker games which is important as it allows people to feel comfortable with each other and create a nice atmosphere. This is especially essential when people are doing an activity which they may feel nervous about doing. We were then shown the ten key skills which are required for a successful dance session. These are kick, jump, hop, gesture, turn, balance, reach, twist, slide and roll. Then we worked in groups to go round a circuit where each station was one of these moves and we had to create our own interpretation of them. It was interesting to see what everyone’s ideas were and allows creativity and freedom which is important in the curriculum for excellence. ‘I have the opportunity and freedom to choose and explore ways that I can move rhythmically, expressively and playfully’ (EXA 0-08a, Curriculum for Excellence)
Another activity carried out in the dance session was to draw around someone in the groups body and label all the different types of muscles, bones and organs within the body. Having worked in our groups we were able to complete this task as a team. Children would find this activity to be engaging and interesting and crosses over with biology as they are learning the anatomy of the body. A class discussion was then conducted, topics discussed included the importance of each muscles in the body, importance of warming up before exercise, importance of dong exercise. When teaching dance is it important to do warm up, stretches and cool downs when doing lessons with exercise so that pupils do not injure themselves.
References
Expressive arts – curriculum areas – learning and teaching. (2016) [Online]. Education Scotland. Available: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/curriculumareas/expressivearts/ [Accessed 5 Jan 2017)
