My opinions of dance is mixed. When I was at school I always dreaded doing Scottish Country Dance. Mainly because remembering all the moves wasn’t easy. There were so many different dances that we had to learn and I found that really tough. However, I always seemed to remember how to do the Gay Gordons! When taking part in dance I always thought that others in the class would laugh at me if I got the dance move wrong. After a few lessons in dance, I realised that I wasn’t the only one that was making mistakes and that everyone had the same opinion of dance that I did. This made me feel less anxious when taking part in dance and I began to enjoy it more. When it came to doing creative dance, I was in my element! The teacher would play us a number of different songs and the class got to pick what one we wanted to perform to. We all got the opportunity to show the class dance moves that we felt that we could incorporate into our dance routine. I loved this as I was able to show off my creative side. When it came to performing our dance, the school used to take us to a dance festival where we got to see lots of other schools performing. As I loved drama at school I was always really confident when performing and felt that it was very closely linked to drama. The class did our dance to ‘under the sea’ from the film ‘The Little Mermaid’ (my favourite film) so I was so involved I felt that I was even a part of the film!

My experience of dance will help me in delivering the dance curriculum at school as I feel that because I felt anxious about Scottish Country Dancing, It will give me more of an insight as to how the children are feeling about it too. Teaching dance will be a challenge as some children might not have the confidence in dance and performing. If I give the children options of different songs then this might make them feel like they play more of a part in the class and give them the confidence in performing dance. Letting the children pick the music and dance moves that they want to perform might also help overcome this. Some children in the class may be less able to do some of the moves that others in the class will create, So I feel that simplifying dance moves and letting them come up with dance moves will help them overcome any fears they have about taking part in a dance lesson.