11/10/16

For these dance lessons, each group will take the warm up games for the whole class, based on a theme of our choosing. This is effective for us as it expands our knowledge of different games which are suitable for primary school aged children and gives us an opportunity to present and explain which is what we will be doing as teachers.

By the end of a dance module we will produce a dance. The group sequences that we completed lat wee will be a part of this dance and in today’s session we built upon this sequence. In the same groups we were provided with a picture associated with Halloween (shown below) our group received the cauldron and so came up with a dance move which represented this picture. We then put together a sequence as a class which incorporated all of these Halloween moves to the music of ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. This would be the beginning of our dance as a class.

We were also give a sheet with different technical dance terms and in groups we were to come up with a move for each of the terms. Due to my dancing experience i knew them all bar one however it was interesting to see how other people interpreted them. this sequence was then added on to our group math sequence from last week.

Cone (2009) states that “one of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas.” it is important that we as teacher take a step back and allow children to create their own ideas and not just stand in front of them and tech them step by step, we need to support them to use their imagination and come up with their own ideas.

 

References

Cone, P. (2009) Journal of Dance Education. Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Vol. 9(3), pp.81-89.